Before we realized that July 19th would be the World Cup Final, much less that Spain would be one of the teams playing, my husband and I got tickets to hear Diana Krall, a jazz pianist and singer we have long admired, at a summer performing arts festival, Les Nits Occident, held at Palau de Pedralbes.

The Royal Palace of Pedralbes began as the manor house and garden of a wealthy BCN resident who ceded his property to the royal family in 1918 in gratitude for them for bestowing on him the title of count. A lot of work was needed to turn it into a royal palace, but this was completed in 1924. It was occasionally used by the royal family when visiting BCN between 1926 and 1930. When Spain became a republic for the second time in 1931, it became the property of the city government which mostly used it as a museum, though Franco stayed there often when he was in BCN, hosting Eva Peron there in 1947 and Richard Nixon in 1963. It was again a museum in the 1990s, but now I think it has recently been given by the city to the government of Catalunya.

The venue is 3 kilometers from our house, and I stumbled on it while walking soon after we moved here. The almost 20 acres of grounds include fountains and statues as well as formal gardens and trees. The festival doesn’t take place indoors; a 2000-seat temporary gallery is set up facing the palace facade, and the stage is on the portico. There is professional lighting and sound, although the night we went we were disappointed by the acoustics. Before the performance there is a popup village of food and beverage purveyors with quite nice tables and sofas set up for customers. The daytime and evening pictures below are from different visits.

I think I need to clean my camera lens.

We have been listening to Diana Krall for a long time, especially my husband, and while she is unquestionably a very skilled jazz theorist, most of the pieces we had heard her perform were American songbook or jazz standards, with an emphasis on romantic music and recognizable tunes. She and her backup trio have recently released a new album, which they featured at the concert, and it is quite different. For me, there were a couple of familiar tunes, both with quite unusual interpretations, and many obscure or unknown pieces, also presumably altered in style. She is very skilled and not only bent almost every note, she moved, dropped, and altered words. This was intellectual music, more challenging than relaxing, which is I appreciate, though was not expecting.

I’m sure after decades of playing one gets the itch to branch out, and all these musicians have the chops to do so successfully. My husband, a jazz musician and connoisseur, enjoyed hearing the new Diana as much as the old one.

At an outside venue we could occasionally hear shouts from nearby bars where The Game was on, and every 15 minutes or so–between songs, of course–I checked the score, or lack thereof, so when we left I knew it was into an overtime period. We took a tram, always our preferred method of travel if we happen to be going someplace that has one. Trams are modern, comfortable, and quiet, with excellent climate control, and almost never crowded. We stepped out of this serene state onto a street that was exploding with noise: firecrackers, horns, shouts. It was like stepping into a newsreel after VJ day. What else could we do besides stop on the sidewalk and kiss?