Review by Justo Romero, published in Levante-EMV

‘The Styx’ by Òscar Colomina i Bosch, world premiere
Works by Rodrigo, Miyoshi, Schoenberg
Orquesta de València
Baldur Brönnimann, cond.
46 Festival ENSEMS, Palau de la Música de València, 19:30hrs, 20/09/2024

Concert review by Justo Romero (excerpt):

“The Orquesta de València, with only a few exceptions (those double basses in Schönberg!), emerged with great distinction from this programme, which was laden with merit and difficulties of all kinds. This was not only due to the harshness of Schönberg’s Variations—a work difficult to listen to, and even more challenging to perform—but also because of the challenge of premiering a previously unknown work with the symphonic and expressive substance that Óscar Colomina (1977) pours into his unpublished The Styx. In a precise eleven minutes, the Valencian composer reaffirms his status as a leading figure in Spanish music. A piece which, as Álvaro Guibert writes in his programme notes, explores and situates itself in ‘the beyond,’ the mythological River Styx, ‘the boundary between here and there,’ the critical point between life and death, the moment in which, according to mythology, one’s eternal future is decided—be it hell or paradise.

Colomina carefully nurtures and expands upon his characteristic fine sonic textures in a writing laden with meaning and suggestion, which invites and immerses the listener in that timeless, spaceless zone—no man’s land. It is an exploration which, beyond its dramatic or descriptive significance, moves one through its pure musicality. ‘Strange and incorporeal landscapes’, indeed, as Guibert describes, but above all, a musical writing suggestive of sonorities, developments, and harmonies that are fascinating in their own right, where melody maintains its sense and expression, and reaches into the depths of one’s sensitivity. Naturally, as Colomina himself stated in a discussion prior to the concert, The Styx is marked by his own personal vicissitudes. Colomina speaks quietly, with composure and precision. Everything is felt and anticipated—no stridencies, only mesmerising persuasion. Such is the precise yet fluid writing of this new masterwork of Spanish music, whose unique and unmistakable style reveals the universe of a composer who has always sought to go beyond.’


Original full text in Spanish: HERE.