Double date at the Palau de la Música, to start intensively the season with the presence of Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and extremely appealing programs, including high-voltage symphonies on both concerts.

September 18th is the day dedicated to two “fourths”: Schubert's "Tragic", called thus for its eventually shady accents -but, above all, due to the feeling of destiny that pervades it- and, in the second part, the last symphony composed Johannes Brahms, an imposing orchestral construction, with passages so vibrant as the final movement, that integrates a baroque compositional style -the passacaglia- in the romantic spirit. The next day, September 19th, you can hear Schubert's Third Symphony, undoubtedly lighter and more celebratory, from its initial bars, as well as one of Gustav Mahler's most popular symphonies, with which it is perfectly paired: the Fourth Symphony is a kind of journey through nature, induced from the very beginning by the sound of the postillion, which ends with the angelic voice of the soprano, on this occasion Golda Schultz. The amount of registers and humours that accumulates -either rhythmic or ecstatic passages- turn this symphony into a characteristic work of the Mahlerian genius being at the same time very enjoyable for the public. Undoubtedly, the visit of Dudamel supposes, again, a fantastic opportunity to appreciate high quality interpretations.

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The musical season of the Symphonic Orchestra of Barcelona and National of Catalonia (OBC) opens at the Auditori with one of the symphonies that left a more decisive footprint in the history of Western culture

-with Beethoven's permission- as is the Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony in C minor, which was eventually used as the soundtrack to Lucchino Visconti's Death in Venice. The world that builds is a confluence of sonorities and traditions, articulated in five exciting movements; from the initial declamation of the trumpet, which will give way to a march, to the exultant end that the numerous musicians on stage shall exploit at their best, not forgetting obviously the ecstatic Adagietto, a passage that makes the horizon falter in a framework of supreme beauty. The OBC’s head conductor, Kazushi Ono, is a specialist in this type of symphonic pieces, works of practically unsurpassed magnitude, that put into play resources and varied registers of the orchestral ensemble, from a variety of percussion elements to metal fanfares, not forgetting the texture and precision required of the sections of strings or the reminiscent interventions of the wood instruments. In the first part, as an introduction, the audience will also enjoy a symphonic composition by Robert Schumann -the Concert piece for 4 horns and orchestra, op. 86- that does not show the name of symphony because of the role of the mentioned instruments and the freedom of the movements that compose it, being characterized by an acoustic fullness of the brass section that will be rediscovered in Mahler’s composition.

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Last month to enjoy the exhibition "Picasso’s Kitchen", an exhibition in which synaesthesia is artistically posited -in the collaboration of the senses sight / taste- to arouse in the spectator aesthetic experiences of high calibre.

As it is known, one of the most characteristic themes of Picasso's work is food. Beyond the tradition of still life paintings, in which exotic foods or products of a closest origin are represented, in Picasso's work, its preparation for consumption has a relevant role, which incorporates and transcends the decorative character, or the expression of an abundance traditionally used as memento mori (for example, in Caravaggio’s basket fruit, with the presence of insects that are feed of the food). The experimentation inherent in Picassos’s pictorial technique shows in a new light the products or kitchen instruments, extremely familiar, which allows to become aware of the delicious and delicate artifice that is inherent in the culinary art. Not in vain -the organizers note, on the website that- "the show is enriched by the exceptional collaboration of Ferran Adrià, who will establish a dialogue between the creative process of Picasso and the contemporary culinary creation".

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Robotics, the art of programming artificial devices to perform human tasks, is not a future reality, chimerical, or a type of condemnation that leads necessarily to some of the dystopian visions conceived in the past, from Metropolis to Westworld, obviously going through Blade Runner.

As the exhibition at Cosmocaixa teaches, it is indeed a present reality, inserted in our lives in ways that are sometimes unconscious and that are certainly projected into the future, opening up a host of possibilities. Not only to make life easier, or comfortable, but to perform tasks in a more efficient and predictable way. After all, machines are determined to act in the absence of external emotions and constraints (leaving aside the surprisingly case of Hal 2000, the on-board computer of the 2001. A Space Odissey, whose homicidal tendencies seem to rest on a bug, an error in the system that causes the pathological feeling of incomprehension and lack of appreciation of its qualities). In any case, the perfection to which one aspires with the creation of robots -for jobs as diverse as cleaning or surgery- does not imply, however, the complete absence of moral dilemmas, as it has been suggested in the design of self-directed cars, in the event of a collision. The visitor of the exhibition will be faced to a series of fundamental questions about the relationship between humans and robots, about a possible collaboration, confluence and even confusion between both, as many works of art have illustrated in the last centuries.

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