El pessebre is Pau Casals’s most beloved and emblematic work, and a powerful plea for peace. Based on a poem by Joan Alavedra, the oratorio retells the Nativity story through the figures of the Christmas crib and transforms it into a universal message of fraternity. In the 150th anniversary year of Casals’s birth, and in a season with peace as its guiding theme, this essential work from his legacy could not be absent from the Palau de la Música Catalana.

Casals clothes this Christmas story in music of great evocative power, rooted in tradition and resonating with carols and popular melodies. El pessebre is presented in the orchestral version by Antoni Ros Marbà, smaller in scale than the original, with a large cast of soloists, the Cor Madrigal and the Franz Schubert Filharmonia, conducted by Edmon Colomer, a leading interpreter of Catalan musical heritage. One of Casals’s great works, performed at Christmas, a particularly fitting time to reconnect with its message.