Josep Pons received the Critics’ Award for Best Musical Direction of the 2016/17 season for his interpretation of Richard Strauss’s Elektra at the Gran Teatre del Liceu.
Presented annually by the Association of Music and Cultural Critics of Catalonia, the Critics’ Awards honour the most outstanding productions, artists and artistic achievements of the Catalan opera season. The award recognised Josep Pons’s musical direction of one of the most demanding scores in the operatic repertoire, celebrated for both its extraordinary orchestral complexity and dramatic intensity.
The Liceu production of Elektra was the acclaimed staging by Patrice Chéreau, originally created for the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and later presented at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The cast featured Iréne Theorin, Waltraud Meier, Adrianne Pieczonka, Mikhail Petrenko and Tom Randle, bringing together some of the leading Strauss interpreters of their generation.
The award recognised Josep Pons’s artistic work with the Gran Teatre del Liceu Symphony Orchestra, reinforcing the long-term artistic project he had been developing since 2012 and his commitment to the great German operatic repertoire and internationally acclaimed productions.