Spanish cellist Gabriel Ureña performs first concert in Kazakhstan

Nur-Sultan, Nov 18 (EFE).- Spanish cellist Gabriel Ureña performed in Kazakhstan for the first time on Thursday with a concert marking the 30th anniversary of the independence of Central Asia’s largest country.

“I am very happy to be able to be here, getting to know this wonderful country,” said the musician in an interview with Efe.

Within the recital program, directed by Kazakhstan’s Yernar Nurtazin, the “Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor Op. 33” by the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns stood out. It is one of the most famous of the cello repertoire that Ureña performs often.

“It has been accompanying me for many years. I played it for the first time when I was 16 years old as a soloist. I have played it in Italy, in France, in Spain a lot, and it is like my gift to the Kazakh people for this event,” he said.

Ureña was accompanied by the State Academic Philharmonic Orchestra of Nur-Sultan.

The evening performance included “Festive Overture” by Kazakh composer Gaziza Zhubanova and “The Swan” (Le Cygne) by Saint-Saëns.

After the first act, the hosts of the concert presented the artist with a Kazakh chapan, a kind of kaftan in light blue tones with embroidery on the sleeves and a national headdress of the same colors.

The concert in Nur-Sultan, which had the support of the Spanish Embassy, Ureña, 32, further expands the scope of his recitals, which have already been enjoyed by viewers in Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Norway.

“Taste is in variety. And Spain is a country with a wide cultural wealth in general and musical in particular,” the Spanish ambassador to the former Soviet Republic, Jorge Urbiola López de Montenegro, told Efe.

“One of the representative signs of our country is flamenco. A genre that I personally adore, but there is much beyond flamenco and one of the examples is the cellist Gabriel Ureña, one of the great soloists in Spain,” he added.