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Joaquín Rodrigo's A la busca del más allá Featured in Symphonic Celebrations of Astronomical Events in Spain

May. 29, 2026

Ecliptic Harmony, a concert series promoted by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), presents a fusion of symphonic music and large-format astronomical images to coincide with the upcoming solar eclipses visible from Spain in 2026, 2027, and 2028. In collaboration with various orchestras, Ecliptic Harmony can be enjoyed in A Coruña, Vilagarcía de Arousa, Burgos, Soria, Castellón, and Oviedo. The premiere, performed by the Spanish National Orchestra and Choir, will take place in Madrid on June 5 at the National Auditorium.

Pura Fernández, Deputy Vice President for Scientific Culture and Citizen Science at the CSIC, notes:

“In Spain, we will have the privilege of witnessing a series of exceptional astronomical events until 2028: two total solar eclipses and one partial one. At the CSIC, we wanted to take advantage of this unique opportunity to hold different events to bring astronomy closer to the public. Ecliptic Harmony , with its combination of art and science, undoubtedly offers an attractive and different proposal for this commemoration,” highlights Pura Fernández , Deputy Vice President for Scientific Culture and Citizen Science at the CSIC.

The program includes works by composers John Estacio, Gustav Holst, Maurice Ravel, Ginastera Panambi, alongside Joaquín Rodrigo's A la busca del más allá. These works will be accompanied by visual productions from KV 265, a US-based non-profit organization dedicated to communicating science through art. Their installations, which are synchronized with the live orchestral performances, have already been presented at more than 260 concerts. Read more about the Ecliptic Harmony project here.

In 1976, during the American Bicentennial celebrations, and following a visit to NASA, Joaquín Rodrigo received a commission from the Houston Symphony Orchestra that resulted in A la busca del más allá. 

Rodrigo described the work as a symphonic poem, albeit “with a clearly abstract character,” since the piece lacks the kind of “specific programme or principal theme customary in works of this genre.” Rather than present a literal narrative, the music invites the listener to contemplate the idea of the “beyond” as an open, evocative space. 


A la busca del más allá/Joaquín Rodrigo/London Symphony Orchestra/Enrique Batiz, conductor

CSIC notes that the 2026 eclipse, the most geographically extensive on record, will cover a large part of northern Spain. José Francisco Salgado, executive director of KV 265 and a visual artist, and Juan Ramón Pardo Carrión, a researcher at the CSIC's Institute of Fundamental Physics and one of the project's driving forces, recorded footage in Galicia, Asturias, and Castile and León during the summer of 2025, which will be incorporated into Ecliptic Harmony. In this way, the projections will not only bring the science of eclipses closer to the public but also highlight the cultural heritage of some provinces in what is known as "Empty Spain."

To learn more about Joaquín Rodrigo, visit joaquin-rodrigo.com and schott-music.com. 

Joaquín Rodrigo
A la busca del más allá (1976)
for orchestra
pic.2.2.eh.2.2-4.3.3.1-timp-2perc-hp-cel-str
15'

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