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Committed to the music

Josep Pons - Director

“I experience music as truth, in each concert I experience an intimate emotion.”

With this deep commitment, Josep Pons has directed the Gran Teatre del Liceu since 2012, where he has made a career marked by passion and excellence. Over these years, he has promoted a refreshing take on the great repertoire of the 19th and 20th centuries, consolidating an artistic vision that thrills and transforms.

BIOGRAPHY

Upcoming concerts

Immerse yourself in Josep Pons’ discography: a musical journey that transcends, inspiring emotions and revealing the greatness of his musical vision.

See the whole agenda

Dates

Concert

ORCHESTRA

Location

Tickets

March 17, 20, 23, 26, 29 – April 1, 2026

GIACOMO PUCCINI: Manon Lescaut 

Àlex Ollé, stage direction

Orquestra Simfònica del Gran Teatre del Liceu
Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona
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March 22, 2026

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Dansa hongaresa núm. 1 en sol menor, WoO 1

Antonin Dvórak (1841-1904)
Dansa eslava núm. 2 en mi menor (“Dumka”), op. 72

Piotr Ílitx Txaikovski (1840-1893)
“Dansa dels mirlitons” (El trencanous)
“Vals de les flors” (El trencanous)

Aleksandr Borodín (1833-1887)
“Danses polovtsianes” (El  príncep Ígor)

Manuel de Falla (1876-1946)
“Danza ritual del fuego” (El amor brujo)

Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983)
“Danza final (Malambo)” (Estancia)

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Boléro

Orquestra Simfònica del Gran Teatre del Liceu
Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona
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March 31, 2026

GUSTAV MAHLER: Symphony No.9

Orquestra Simfònica del Gran Teatre del Liceu
Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona
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May 7, 2026

FERRUCCIO BUSONI: Berceuse élégiaque

JOHANNES BRAHMS: Symphony No.4

Deutsche Radio Philharmonie
SWR-Studio Kaiserslautern
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May 8, 2026

FERRUCCIO BUSONI: Berceuse élégiaque

ALBAN BERG: Violin concerto – Arabella Steinbach

JOHANNES BRAHMS: Symphony No.4

Deutsche Radio Philharmonie
Congresshalle, Saarbrücken
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Discography

Immerse yourself in Josep Pons’ discography: a musical journey that transcends, inspiring emotions and revealing the greatness of his musical vision.

See the whole discography

La música de Picasso

¡Nuevo Tango! – Astor Piazzolla

Goyescas de Granados

Concerto en sol, Le Tombeau de Couperin & Alborada del gracioso

Multimedia

Immerse yourself in Josep Pons’ discography: a musical journey that transcends, inspiring emotions and revealing the greatness of his musical vision.

See all

Reviews

“Here, Josep Pons makes a kind of symphonic summary of the score, tackling the key moments of this human tragedy. He deftly mixes the purely orchestral passages and those in which the vocal interventions are to a great extent supported by a very active orchestra… Josep Pons’ musical direction enthusiastically emphasizes the epic work in a display of orchestral dynamics, from the most delicate pianissimos to the tragic fortissimos.”

Classic Toulouse

January 2016

“During the whole concert, Josep Pons is as usual very efficient, the gesture is precise and the orchestra responds perfectly.”

Classique info

“Pons began the programme with a vital and warmhearted account of Stravinsky’s Scherzo à la Russe, and created an immaculately textured underlay for Frank Peter Zimmermann’s lyrically rhapsodic approach to the Brahms Violin Concerto…”

The Guardian

Georges Hall

August 2013

“Pons is not used to working with the SCO, and Falla is not a composer with whom they have worked very often; but exciting results can come from such circumstances, and so it proved tonight with an exciting, throbbing performance of both works that pulsed with Latin life and gleamed with Mediterranean sunlight.”

Seen and Heard International

Simon Thompson

December 2014

“In this superbly well executed performance, the BBCSO of smaller size showed what a first-class orchestra is. A great merit in this sense belongs to Josep Pons.”

Classical Source

Parsifal at the Teatre del Liceu “A transparent, meticulous and clarifying vision of the inexhaustible background of the score.”

Beckmesser

June 2023

“[…] The idiomatic baton of the Spanish maestro Josep Pons conjured an air of authenticity. His opening gambit, the brooding Interlude and sizzling Dance from Manuel de Falla’s unfairly neglected opera La Vida Breve, displayed an instinct for subtle grace and building dramatic tension.”

The Guardian

Clive Paget

July 2023

“Josep Pons duly brought out the drama of the initial pages of de Falla’s La Vida Breve, before heading into a rendition of the main section such as (rightly) predicated suavity over rhetoric, while not lacking for impetus as this music reached its effervescent close”

Arcana

Richard Whitehouse

July 2023

AGENDA