As director of the Musik Akademie Basel, Stephan Schmidt has his hands full. Only occasionally does the trained guitarist perform in concert. The concert with the Sinfonieorchester Basel is one of these rare events, in which Schmidt interprets a classic of the guitar repertoire: Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez. In what is by far his best-known work, Rodrigo draws on Iberian melodies - a fandango dance, a lament from Andalusian Holy Week and a courtly dance with jaunty rhythm changes. Various arrangements contributed to the work's popularity, including one by Miles Davis. The international press describes the sound of the glass harmonica, a rarely heard instrument consisting of interlocking glass bells, as "uncanny" and "not of this world". In Anders Hillborg's Sound Atlas, the idiophone has a special role: it forms the wafting foundation of the calm, spherical work. The concert is rounded off with the dazzling palette of sound colours of Claude Debussy's key work La Mer.