Barcelona: November music

This November sees soloists dominating the classical music billing at the city’s concert halls. Guitarists, cellists, flautists and harpists are just some of the star attractions on the programme.

The Palau de la Música is to play host to performances from the guitarists Manuel González, Manuel Barrueco and Àlex Garrobé on 23 November.

The cellist Beatriz Blanco, the winner of the 2010 Primer Palau, will be performing works by Cassadó and Elgar in a concert on 24 November, accompanied by the JONC Philharmonic.

The OBC will be performing Mozart’s Concert for Flute, Harp and Orchestra, accompanied by Frauke Oesmann and Magdalena Barrera, from 18 to 20 November, it will be showcasing Tchaikovsky’s most romantic side.

And the Fura dels Baus are bringing the Liceu a production of György Ligeti’s Le Gran Macabre, an outstanding opera in the contemporary lyrical repertory. Halfway between comedy and tragedy, this work born of the theatre of the absurd has a highly unique staging.

Hotel Granvia review: I would recommend this hotel

We stayed at the Hotel Granvia for 4 nights and were very happy with everything about the hotel. It appears to be a smaller hotel than the others that have been commented on. It is located near Plaza Catalunya and the metro at Paseo de Gracia, making it ideal for getting anywhere easily. The room was comfortable and clean. The best thing about the hotel was the friendliness of the staff, particularly Carlos. Because of construction next door, there was loud hammering all day, through no fault of the hotel. When we asked for a change of room, they were very accommodating, moving us to a room on the other side of the hotel where it was much quieter. There was no street noise in our room, even though the Gran Via was in front. We walked to Las Ramblas, the Palau de Musica de Catalana, and Gaudi’s Casa Mila. The metro was very easy to use and fast. The breakfast was very good, with just about everything you could ask for. We had the romatic package for 2 nights, including a bottle of wine and a nice dinner. The dinner was in Hotel 1898 on Las Ramblas, and it was delightful. I would recommend this hotel.

Doris, November 2011.

MCB, International Music Competition Maria Canals Barcelona

This year’s Maria Canals International Music Competition takes place at the Palau de la Música Catalana, from 18 March to 1 April, and at several iconic sites, streets and squares in the city.

During this period, some hundred pianists from 27 different countries will be taking part in the competition and offering concerts throughout the city as part of the Maria Canals OFF-Competition.

One of this year’s notable novelties is the piano to be played by the finalists for the 57th Competition. It is a new CFX model, a 2.75 metre-long grand piano, which Yamaha has been working on for the last 19 years and which audiences will be able to hear for the first time in Spain during the Maria Canals Competition.

This year marks the first Maria Canals Competition not to be attended by its creator, Maria Canals i Cendrós, who died last July at the ripe old age of 96. This year’s competition is therefore aiming to pay a special tribute to its creator through an exhibition entitled A life in Music and a tribute event at the Palau de la Música.

This programme will kick off at Plaza Reial, where on Friday 18 March, OFF Maria Canals has organised a twelve-hour marathon in collaboration with the La Reial ens mou association.

De Cajón! Flamenco Festival in Barcelona

The “De Cajón!” festival hits Barcelona again, with a line-up to warm you to the rhythm of clapping palms. Offering a line-up that features not just household names from the Flamenco scene but also promising new talents, the Barcelona Flamenco Festival gets ready for its sixth year having consolidated its status as a regular feature with a distinctive personality.

Niña Pastori will officially open the festival with a special Christmas concert at the Palau de la Música, where you can treat yourself to a repertory of Flamenco Christmas carols specially adapted for the occasion and where the Cadiz-born cantaora or Flamenco singer will be accompanied by eight musicians and a dancer.

The Palau will also reverberate to Rosario Flores’s rumba power, Kiko Veneno’s Flamenco rock and, as a grand finale, the might of Estrella Morente.

The Auditori will be the setting for a truly special evening featuring Duquende, Parrita, Montse Cortés and various Chambao musicians to pay homage to José Ortega Heredia, aka Manzanita. Under the title of Con piel de manzana, the world of Flamenco will be paying tribute to one of most innovative figures in its history.

This year’s De cajón! is going in for local talent, with a line-up full of promising new talents from the Barcelona scene. Such is the case with Marujita, who will be presenting her second album, produced by Ricky Falkner, and the guitarist Juan Ramón Caro and the dancer Ana Morales, who will be performing at Luz de Gas.

17.000 people at Palau de la Música

Throughout August, Palau de la Música Catalana pulled in over 17,000 people for the two summer  music cycles. This summer was the first time Palau de la Música was open with a musical programme, and it seems the folk of Barcelona liked the idea.

Palau de la Música Catalana (Catalan Music Palace) is one of the select monuments deemed an official UNESCO World Heritage Site and still widely accessible to the citizens of the world. Today, the masterpiece by modernist architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner stands out among the world’s most prestigious concert halls. Both our Hotel Jazz and Hotel 1898 are on short walking distance, offering you luxury accommodation and suites in Barcelone.

New Music Season in Barcelona

The city’s new music season gets under way in September with a varied and attractive programme.

You could start by sampling the programme at the Palau de la Música, which has a “Mozart in jazz” concert on 1 September, with Llibert Fortuny on sax and Manel Camp on piano. Also awaiting you will be the Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès (18 September) and the guitarists Xavier Coll (8 and 17 September) and Pedro Javier González (24 September).

If you visit the Liceu between 4 and 7 September, you can enjoy an opera in four acts, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, with music by Christoph Willibald Gluck and a libretto by François Guillard. It opened in Paris in 1779. This is the second version of Iphigenie auf Tauris, which marked the end of the composer’s Paris period and is one of his truly brilliant operas.

On 27 and 30 September you will find Marc Piollet and Calixto Bieito directing the comic opera Carmen, with music by Georges Bizet, a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy and based on the novel by Proper Mérimée. It opened in Paris in 1875 and in Barcelona in 1881, coming to the Liceu in 1888.

As regards symphonies, the OBC will be at the Auditori (24-26 September), conducted by Pablo González and playing compositions by Ramon Humet, Debussy and Shostakhovich.

The Mas i Mas Festival in August

For eight years the Mas i Mas Festival has been adding rhythm to the warmest days of the year. This edition’s festival, which kicks off on 29 July with a performance by the Malian diva Rokia Traoré, has programmed over 160 concerts to suit all tastes with world music, flamenco, classical and electronica.

Among all that will be going on, one concert stands out, the Plaça Reial tribute to the city’s most iconic jazz club, the Jamboree, which is 50 this year. Musicians like Chet Baker, Ella Fitzgerald and Ornette Coleman have been here, so jazz will be the star of this free concert on Monday 30 August, starting at 6 pm.

The Big Acoustic Band, the best national jazz outfit, and WTF All Stars, the musicians that liven up the WTF Jam Sessions every Monday at the club, will have the job of bringing the Jamboree out into the light in Plaça Reial.

Appearing at the Mas i Mas Festival besides Rokia Traoré will be Flavio Rodríguez, Lucrecia and Sole Giménez, accompanied by the saxophonist Perico Sambeat. This last recital will close the festival on 1 September at the Palau de la Música.

The inclusion of the Palau de la Música as a festival stage is one of the new features of the eighth Mas i Mas Festival. There the chamber music room will hold three latin and jazz concerts a day.

In all the festival will have seven stages around the city. La Pedrera once again provides the stage for classical music, with three concerts a day, while flamenco will be based at the Tarantos, with six sessions a day, and electronica at the Moog. The Auditori will open the festival and there will also be concerts at Luz de Gas and the Jamboree.

All those people who say nothing happens in Barcelona in August have got it all wrong!

“Barcelona is the best city in the world” by Woody Allen

Playing to a full house last Sunday March 28, film director Woody Allen and his regular band showed their jazz repertory, some of which is closely associated with his films. During the concert he declared his love for the Catalan capital, saying: “Barcelona is the best city in the world“.

This was the film director’s second performance at the iconic Modernista concert hall, Palau de la Música. He was appearing on the Millennium Festival programme, in which he held a distinguished place a few years ago as a clarinettist in the New Orleans Jazz Band.

With a calling card of modest remarks, like “I’m nothing more than an amateur clarinettist“, “if I weren’t famous, nobody would come to my concerts“, “people come more to see me than to hear me“, Allen made another appearance before his Barcelona public, fans both of his films and performances.

The Modernista Palau had a put up a notice two days before the concert informing the public that all tickets had sold out for concert featuring the film director, a jazz musician, as he himself admits, with a passion for New Orleans music.

Allen learnt to play the sax soprano when he was thirteen or fourteen, but he later chose the clarinet as he’d always loved New Orleans jazz, especially Sidney Bechet.

While acknowledging that he listens to other kinds of music in his free time, including opera, classical music and modern jazz, and that he also loves songs from Broadway musicals, he reaffirmed his preference for New Orleans music. Source: www.bcn.es

Web de Woody Allen & His New Orleans Jazz Band

“Play me, I’m Yours” at Barcelona

From March 2010, more than 20 street pianos will be distributed across the streets of Barcelona for the International Music Competition Maria Canals. Located in public parks, streets and squares, the pianos are for any member of the public to play, to personalise and to enjoy.

Touring internationally since 2008, “Play Me, I’m Yours” is an artwork by artist Luke Jerram.

The Maria Canals Music International Contest was the first music contest in Spain and is one of the most prestigous all over the world. The Contest will be on from March 13th to March 26th in El Palau de la Música and will organize more than 50 concerts all around Barecelona within the framework of the Off Contest 2010.

Don’t shoot the pianist

The Maria Canals International Music Competition of Barcelona was founded in 1954 by the pianist Maria Canals and her husband, the writer Rossend Llates. This Competition has achieved international prestige since it was accepted by the World Federation of International Music Competitions in 1958.

It is held at the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, being endorsed by the World Federation of Music Competitions for the organization of the branches of piano, violin, singing, cello, chamber music, guitar, percussion and flute. Since 1954, the Competition has held over 110 branches, with over 7.000 participants from 100 countries and 180 jury members from all over the world.

The 56th Barcelona Maria Canals International Music Competition will bring together 91 pianists from 26 countries between 13 and 26 March. At the same time, the Off-Competition will be taking piano music to the public.

Maria Canals Competition wants to take advantage of the presence of so many prestigious pianists in the city to take piano music out to the public. More than fifty pianos will be spread around the city so everyone who wants to can play the piano in some very unusual places.

Green spaces, squares and streets will provide the setting for concerts aimed at everyone, children and adults, professionals and amateurs, with grand pianos installed so the participants in the competition can take their art to every corner of the city. Rambla del Raval, Plaça de Sarrià, Can Brians prison and the Line 2 metro station lobby in Plaça de la Universitat are some of the improvised “concert halls” for these young artists.

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