Rémanence takes the stage for the first time

Shortly before 7:30 p.m., Madrid’s Teatro Monumental was already full. On stage, the RTVE Symphony Orchestra was waiting for the conductor, Thomas Herzog, to enter. A special evening was about to begin: for the first time, Rémanence, the work that earned Luis Tabuenca the 43rd Reina Sofía Prize for Musical Composition, was to be performed before an audience.

For nearly fifteen minutes, the orchestra explored a score that Tabuenca had worked on over the course of three years. A work built around the idea of an imprint: what remains in the memory once the music has stopped playing, and what lingers in the body of the person performing it.

An Evening with Queen Sofía

Following the performance and the audience’s enthusiastic applause, the president of the Fundació Ferrer de Música, Sergi Ferrer-Salat, took the stage to say a few words. In his speech, he defended the power of music in the turbulent world we live in, a world shaped by an immoral concentration of wealth and by a systemic crisis that is felt in every area of society, today especially in the housing crisis. It is precisely in this world, Ferrer-Salat stressed, that music is more necessary and indispensable than ever, because it contributes to social cohesion and gives us hope that a better world is possible. He closed his speech by reaffirming the Foundation’s commitment: “We are going to remain unconditionally devoted, passionately, to this miraculous work.”

Next, Her Majesty Queen Sofía, faithful once again to this occasion, presented the diploma to Luis Tabuenca, who received it amid smiles and applause and posed alongside Her Majesty the Queen, the orchestra and the conductor.

The imprint of what remains

In Rémanence, Tabuenca begins with a small “sonic ruin” that evolves throughout the piece. His inspiration comes from the palimpsest, a manuscript that preserves traces of texts that have been erased: an image the composer translates into music to explore what is left behind, what changes and what reappears.

Across a single movement, the work explores the timbral possibilities of the orchestra’s different sections, building a constantly evolving soundscape, layer by layer.

The piece that reached the stage of the Teatro Monumental is the result of a creative process that was initially intended to be much more ambitious. The project began with the idea of incorporating a choir and narrator, but was gradually distilled into the work heard that evening: a single movement lasting around fifteen minutes.

The jury of the 43rd Reina Sofía Prize for Musical Composition selected the work from nearly 80 submissions, highlighting the clarity of its musical discourse and its expressive richness.

And Rémanence does not end with its premiere. The work will become part of the JONDE’s repertoire and will travel to venues across Spain throughout 2027.

For Tabuenca, this journey will also hold special significance. Before becoming an award-winning composer, he was a percussionist with the JONDE. Now he returns to the orchestra in a different capacity: his music will be performed by a new generation of musicians.

The life of Rémanence has only just begun.

A Prize That Continues to Grow

Currently worth €100,000, the Reina Sofía Prize for Musical Composition is the most generously endowed musical composition prize of its kind in Europe. But its future ambitions reach even further.

The next edition will introduce three prizes, with a total prize fund of €175,000. The call for submissions will remain open until 15 January 2027, with the aim of continuing to support musical creation and bringing greater visibility to a wider range of composers.