I feel like I’m getting a little behind, not having posted for more than a week, though some of you may be relieved. Lately I’m busy planning two trips, one in May to the Andalusia region of Spain and another in June to Virginia. Both of these trips could be affected if airlines run out of jet fuel, the first because we are traveling with friends flying from the US and the second because we are flying to the US ourselves, but I can’t really plan for that so I’m ignoring it.
It may not be obvious, but I’m not blogging about everything we do anymore. It’s not feasible really, there’s just too much going on. Last weekend for instance we had concert tickets Friday night and public events on both Saturday and Sunday, a Medieval Faire and Barcelona International Jazz Day respectively. We skipped the Faire.
April 24th we heard the Barcelona Symphony at the fabulous venue l’Auditori performing Turangalîla-Symphonie, one of those amazing Koussevitzky commissions, in this case for Olivier Messiaen. It’s a piece I have listened to recordings of for years, but have never heard live, so this was the fulfillment of a dream; it’s an untraditional-sounding 10-movement symphony requiring over 100 musicians, 11 of them percussionists, that features the ondes Martenot, so it is not in regular rotation. Shockingly to me, the hall was about one-third empty. The conductor was the music director for the Liceu, Jonathan Nott, an elegant and precise artist with a lot of energy. I had spent the previous few days preparing by listening to it, and yet it I was galvanized by the way it sounded, as well as the virtuosity on display. Far from being discouraged by the low attendance, the orchestra delivered brilliantly, and the audience–mostly aficionados?–applauded for ten minutes. Any chance to hear this, much less to play it, is a rare moment, an indelible memory, a mental gem to treasure forever.
Was that a rant? Or too jargony? I am a bit of a symphony geek.
Barcelona, a huge jazz town, has one of the longest jazz festivals in the world: this year it runs from March 1 to November 28. The event we saw a week ago was held on the Passeig de Gracia, which was closed between Gran Via and Plaça Catalunya so a stage with a few hundred seats and a spillover video area could be constructed, together with adjunct technical equipment and security areas for the artists.
We saw the second band, which was very pleasant, talented, and enjoyable, and the last two which were absolutely fabulous. Momi Miagi, who can play actually any genre of music on the kora, is my new favorite artist on Spotify. He lives in Spain somewhere so I’m hoping I can see him in another venue soon. Two folks in his band I also want to call out. Percussionist Aleix Tobias had a cameo with the first band we saw and we wondered, Why introduce a special friend to play the tambourine? but then we found out, and with Miagi he played a wide variety of instruments with just as much flair. Then there was violinist Carlos Montfort, trained in the Liceu Conservatory as well as Boston’s Berklee School, who has a second career as a composer for films, video games, and theater.
The last band had seven regular members and six guests, and it was a more Americanized style of jazz, very upbeat. My new shoe was scarring my foot all day and we were standing at the end, but I could not keep from dancing along. The crowd clearly knew a lot of the players and we didn’t, but no one could miss Ricard Gili, a trumpet player in his late 70s with a singing voice that reminded us of Louis Armstrong. He has been promoting and performing jazz in Catalonia for 50 years, and he was on the same bus as us going home.
Everyone rides the bus here.
I saw or heard or imagined that there would be a video released of this event, but I can’t find it. If I do, I will update this post with a link. I’m not sure what my next post will be, but I will make an effort to get back to the ex-pat theme. These sort of concerts could, and do, happen in any number of cities all over the world, so you can probably have the same experiences at a venue near you!