Barcelona’s concert week of Thursday 29 October through Sunday 1 November contains a compact orchestral thread with unusually sharp imagery. At Palau de la Musica Catalana, Thursday’s El cant dels ocells begins with birds as musical subject, while Saturday’s Psicosi en concert places Bernard Herrmann’s score beside Alfred Hitchcock’s film. Together, the pair treats the concert hall as a place for listening closely to colour, gesture, atmosphere and suspense.[1][2][3]

The connection has a local weight. El cant dels ocells marks the 150th anniversary of Pau Casals’s birth; Psicosi en concert arrives as the Palau’s Halloween presentation with the Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès. The programming creates a small route through orchestral writing that is descriptive in two distinct ways: one through a sequence of musical bird worlds, the other through a score whose timing is bound to the image on screen.[1][2][3]

Thursday’s avian programme opens outward

El cant dels ocells is at 19:00 on Thursday 29 October in the Sala de Concerts of Palau de la Musica Catalana. The Orquestra Julià Carbonell de les Terres de Lleida joins violinist Joan Espina and conductor Xavier Pagès-Corella for a programme whose titles themselves map a flight path: Ramon Humet’s Escenes d’ocells, Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Canticus articus, Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending, Respighi’s Gli uccelli and Pagès-Corella’s Cants al cel.[1]

That sequence gives the evening a useful internal shape. Humet, Rautavaara and Respighi each offer a different orchestral frame for birdlife, while The Lark Ascending concentrates the line of flight through a featured violin. The title El cant dels ocells also places the programme inside a Casals anniversary context, giving the concert a Catalan point of entry without limiting its repertoire to one tradition or period.[1]

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Saturday brings the orchestra into the cinema

At 18:30 on Saturday 31 October, the same hall shifts from natural imagery to cinema. Julian Bigg conducts the Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès for Psicosi en concert, with Hitchcock’s Psycho screened in full as the orchestra plays Bernard Herrmann’s score live. The Palau lists the event within its Simfònics al Palau series, and the orchestra identifies Barcelona as one stop in a short run that also reaches Sabadell and Terrassa.[2][3]

The live-score format makes this a focused way to hear orchestral detail that can pass quickly in a conventional film viewing: attacks, silences, repeated figures and shifts in register carry the dramatic pacing in real time. It also makes a strong second chapter after Thursday’s concert. Birds and landscape invite the ear to follow line and texture; Herrmann’s writing redirects that attention toward rhythm, tension and the relationship between music and image.[1][2][3]

A practical two-show route

For the full thread, start with El cant dels ocells at 19:00 on Thursday 29 October, then return for Psicosi en concert at 18:30 on Saturday 31 October, both at Palau de la Musica Catalana. Thursday suits listeners drawn to symphonic repertoire and a violin-led concert; Saturday suits anyone interested in film music performed in sync with the screen. Check the official Palau de la Musica Catalana and Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès pages again before travelling, since times, access details and ticket availability can change.[1][2][3]

These concerts happened on 29–31 October 2026

The next dates at these venues: Palau de la Musica Catalana

Sources

  1. El cant dels ocells — Palau de la Música Catalana
  2. Psicosi en concert — Palau de la Música Catalana
  3. Inici | Orquestra Simfònica del Vallés — Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès