Catalan music palace

The Palace of Catalan Music (Palau de la Música Catalana in Catalan) is a music auditorium located on calle Sant Pere més Alt in the neighborhood of the Ribera of Barcelona, Spain. It was designed by the Barcelona architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner, one of the greatest representatives of Catalan modernism. The construction was carried out between 1905 and 1908, with very advanced solutions in the structure with the application of large glass walls and the integration of other arts such as sculpture, mosaics, stained glass and wrought iron. The building, headquarters of the "Orfeón Catalán", founded in 1891 by Lluís Millet and Amadeo Vives, was supported by Catalan industrialists and financiers, enlightened people and music lovers, an establishment that sixty years earlier had already financed the Gran Canaria opera and ballet theater Lyceum Theatre.

In 1997 UNESCO included the building in its list of World Heritage Sites.

The Palau de la Música Catalana is owned by the Associació Orfeó Català, whose objective, in accordance with its tradition, is the promotion of Catalan culture, especially in the musical aspect and with preferential attention to choral music. The Association develops its objectives through the Fundació Orfeó Català-Palau de la Música Catalana, which concentrates the management of all the activities of the choirs of the Orfeó and the Palau de la Música Catalana.

History

Sculpture of Lluís Millet founder of the Catalan Orphan by sculptor Josep Salvadó Jassans.

It begins with a project commission from the Orfeón Catalán to the architect Luis Domenech to build a building to house its headquarters. This project and its corresponding budget are approved by the assembly on 31 May 1904. Before the end of the year, the cloister of the San Francisco convent was purchased, with an area of 1,350.75 square meters and a final price of 240,322.60 pesetas, with the intention of allocating this space for the construction of the building. In the following year, specifically on April 23, 1905, the act of laying the first stone of the works is carried out, and for its financing, 6,000 one hundred pesetas bonds are issued.

Four years later, on February 9, 1908, its inauguration is celebrated. The auditorium was used for orchestral and instrumental music concerts, as well as choral performances and singer recitals. But the Palace has also accommodated cultural and political events, plays and of course the most varied musical performances. At present it continues to fulfill all these functions, both in the field of cultured music and in that of popular music.

The room has excellent acoustics. Many of the best performers and conductors in the world of the last century (from Richard Strauss to Daniel Barenboim, including Ígor Stravinski and Arthur Rubinstein, Pau Casals and Frederic Mompou) have paraded through this auditorium, a true sanctuary of Catalan music and time concert hall of reference in the international art scene.

In 1960, the so-called Events at the Palau de la Música (Els fets del Palau in Catalan) took place, coinciding with a visit by Francisco Franco to Catalonia. Authorization had been obtained to perform the Cant de la Senyera at the Palace, on the occasion of the celebration of the centenary of the poet Joan Maragall, author of the lyrics poem. The government ban at the last moment by the authorities made the audience stand up to sing the hymn and leaflets were launched against the dictator. For this fact there were arrests, including that of the future president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Jordi Pujol, who was subjected to a court martial. Until 1967 the Cant de la Senyera could not be legally interpreted again .

The Palau de la Música Catalana was declared a National Monument in 1971. For this reason, extensive restoration works were carried out under the direction of the architects Joan Bassegoda and Jordi Vilardaga.

But it is from the eighties of the 20th century when the Catalan Orfeón decides to carry out a great reform of the building and also legal, thus, in 1983, the Consortium of the Palau de la Música Catalana was constituted , keeping the Orfeón property but intervening the Barcelona City Council, the Generalitat of Catalonia and the Ministry of Culture. As for the building works, the project is entrusted to Óscar Tusquets. These works lasted seven years, carrying out the entire Tusquets project, which was recognized with the 1989 FAD Award for Architecture, Reforms and Renovations. Lluís Domènech Girbau, architect and grandson of the first architect of the Palace, Domènech Montaner, wrote about these works praising them:

The rehabilitation of the room and the accesses, the construction of a new building annexed to the services (...) have resulted in a coherent and creative work, perfectly up to date in terms of security and specifications of comfort and acoustics, within the innovative radical and loving spirit of detail that Domènech i Montaner would have wished.

In 1990 the Fundación Orfeó Català-Palau de la Música Catalana was formed for the acts of the centenary of the Orfeón and also to obtain private resources with activities organized in the Palace.

Restorations

Between 1982 and 1989, the first part of the restoration and expansion of the palace was carried out, under the responsibility of the architects Óscar Tusquets and Carles Díaz. The second part of this restoration, also under the direction of Óscar Tusquets and Josep Palain, began in 2000. In this phase, a six-story building was attached to the Palace whose chamfer is resolved by a tower whose base is sculpted in the shape of a big palm tree

The new building and plaza were located on the land previously occupied by the church.

Architecture

Old original box office of Domènech i Montaner made in the interior of a column with the typical trencadís.

Domènech's architecture is of great quality and originality, highlighting the iron structure that allows the open plan closed by glass and on the other hand the integration into the architecture of applied arts. Two decisions demonstrate the typology and innovation technology of the project: the first, the solution of the courtyard on the dividing wall of the site with the church so that the concert hall would remain with the same distribution symmetry and light input. The second was the resolution to locate the auditorium on the first floor with access from the ground floor through the different sections of the stairs with such an effective treatment that it compensates for the ascent: with this the use of the ground floor for offices of the Choir.

On the outside, sculptural elements are mixed, alluding to the world of music, with architectural and decorative elements of a modernist and baroque style. Inside, the architect masterfully combined the various construction materials with ceramics (the "trencadís" so typical of Catalan modernism) and glass. The room and the stage form a harmonious whole, in which one integrates into the other. The stage is dominated in its upper rear part by the pipes of the organ, which in turn become a decorative element and icon of the Palace itself. The entrance to the stage is framed by spectacular sculptural illustrations, two allegories of classical music and popular music: on the right, a bust of Ludwig van Beethoven on Doric columns that support cumulus clouds from which the cavalcade of the Walkyries (clear reference to the adoration for Richard Wagner that the Catalan public has always felt); on the left, some boys at the foot of a willow tree in whose branches appears the bust of José Anselmo Clavé, an allusion to the text of the song "Les flors de maig" from this author.

Between 1982 and 1989, a major restoration and expansion was carried out under the direction of the architects Óscar Tusquets and Carles Díaz, beginning the second part in the year 2000, providing the Palace with a six-story semi-detached building where the dressing rooms, the archive, the library and a meeting room. Opening onto a square thanks to the demolition of the church of San Francisco de Paula, which had suffered a fire during the Spanish civil war and had been reconstructed without architectural value. In the second phase, interior renovations and a new extension with a listening and rehearsal room as well as a restaurant were carried out.

Primitive main facade

Details of the old facade, decorated with the sculptural group The popular Catalan songArtist Miguel Blay.

It is located on Sant Pere més Alt street, the only access until 1989, on the corner of Amadeu Vives street, which is solved with the inclusion of the sculptural group La cançó popular catalana (The Catalan popular song), by way of a prow, by the artist Miguel Blay, in which a Saint George is represented, below a female figure in the center like a large figurehead, surrounded by a group of characters that represent the sailor, the peasants, the old man, the children, the upper class of society, a symbol that the Palacio de la Música Catalana was for all the people. According to an inscription at the foot of the sculpture, it was paid for by the Marquis of Castellbell (Joaquim de Càrcer i de Amat), and its inauguration took place on September 8, 1909.

The complexity of the angular façade facing two narrow streets makes it difficult to fully view the complex.

Other elements of this façade are the arches with large red brick and ceramic columns. On the first floor there is a balcony that runs along the façade with fourteen columns in groups of two, covered with mosaic, all with different designs. On the second floor, the busts of the musicians on columns, made by Eusebio Arnau, from left to right are Palestrina, Bach and Beethoven, past the sculptural group on the corner is the bust of Wagner on Amadeu Vives street. In two of these columns at street level the original ticket offices were found within them. In the upper part of this façade, a large mosaic pediment by Lluís Bru symbolizes the senyera (flag) of the Orfeón by Antoni Maria Gallissà and in the center a queen presiding over a party with a spinning wheel, alluding to La Balanguera, a poem by Joan Alcover i Maspons with music by the composer Amadeu Vives, one of the pieces that the Orfeón performed the most and that since 1996 is the official anthem of Mallorca.

Current main façade

Facade at angle where the representation in red brick of a gigantic tree is appreciated.

In this façade is the usual entrance since 1989, through a new esplanade that is accessed from a street that since 2006 has been called Palacio de la Música.

The façade made by Domènech i Montaner is surprising due to its construction, which was carried out as if it were visible, despite the fact that it was completely blind due to the position of the entire front of the church of San Francisco de Paula. In order to allow light to enter through the windows of this façade, the architect built a patio about three meters wide that served as the border with the church and, despite the fact that it was not visible, he made it with great wealth of materials and design., the work of exposed red brick, wrought iron railings, cornices and sculpted capitals and with stained glass windows of the same colors as in the rest of the building. According to data provided by Pere Artís, the initial budget for the works on the Palace was 450,000 pesetas, which was doubled, with some friction between the client and the architect due to his stubbornness in finishing this façade the same as the one that was in sight and therefore the cost of the work.

Main facade covered with the glass screen of Óscar Tusquets.

On the left side of the façade is the services building, designed by the architects Óscar Tusquets, Lluís Clotet and Carles Díaz in the last twenties of the century XX, with a tower with a sculpted base as if it were a large palm tree, is also where the artists enter. On the right side is the sculpture dedicated to Lluís Millet, by the sculptor Josep Salvadó Jassans, made in 1991, and the entrance to the Palace restaurant, called Mirador and made as a glass box. At this end of the façade, the angle with the street of Sant Pere més Alt, is also resolved as a prow as in the old façade, representing in red brick and in low relief, a gigantic Tree of Life made by the Barcelona sculptor Naxo Farreras.

The entire recovered central façade has been covered by a new one, making a glass screen with the name of the building Palau de la Música Catalana engraved on the crystals.

Interior

Lobby

Lobby of the old entrance to the Palace of Music.

Through the old entrance on Sant Pere més Alt street, the first thing you see is a large double staircase to the first floor illuminated by large lampposts, the railing is richly carved in stone and with glass balusters, the wainscots are made of glazed ceramic and with reliefs of flowers just like the ornamentation of the ceilings. Already in this entry you can remember the writer Robert Hughes, referring to the Palace:

Nothing that can seem from the point of view of conceptual boldness, formal brilliance, symbolism and decorative effect will ever be built in Barcelona.

Lluís Millet Room

Ventanal de la sala Lluís Millet.

Located on the first floor, in front of the concert hall, it is what is called a waiting or rest room with an imposing modernist lamp, the doors are made of glass and from this room you can go to the terrace where we are the columns decorated with mosaics that face Sant Pere més Alt street, all the columns are different in color and decoration, this room is also intended for holding social events or press conferences.

Concert hall

Silver roof skylight. Protected brand ©Fundació OC-PMC

When entering the room from the first floor, it has the effect of a dark entrance, immediately finding itself, with a great theatrical effect, with the explosion of light and color that the great room has, the stained glass windows on both sides run from floor to ceiling with the first and second floor of seats as if they were trays, columns decorated with colored mosaics like the ceiling with red and white glazed ceramic roses, at the intersection of the upper arches you can see mosaics in a semicircle representing peacock tails in all their splendor and color, and in the center of the ceiling serving for natural and electric light, the large skylight or lamp made by Antoni Rigalt i Blanch, like a large sun in the shape of an inverted sphere, with golden crystals in the center and surrounded by others with softer blue and white tones representing female busts. This characteristic and genuine symbol of the Palau represents the Fundació Orfeó Català-Palau de la Música Catalana's own brand, and is protected, along with other elements inside the Palau, by brands owned by the Foundation.

The capacity of the concert hall is 2049 people distributed in:

• Platea, 688
• host, 321
• Second floor, 910
• Organ galleries, 82
• Reserved, 48

Scenario

Scenario of the concert hall.

At the mouth of the stage, eleven meters wide, is the sculptural group by Diego Massana and continued by the young Pablo Gargallo, who represents on the right side the bust of Beethoven below the cavalcade of the Valkyries with a clear symbology of Wagner's Central European classical music (in his honor in 1901 the Wagnerian Association of Barcelona was founded) and the representation of Catalan popular music on the left side, with the bust by José Anselmo Clavé under a large tree at the foot of which is a group of singers. The magnitude of this sculptural work means that in its upper part they come close almost to the point of touching.

In the back semicircle of the stage, there are eighteen modernist muses in mosaic and in relief from the waist up that seem to be dancing coming out of the walls, the upper sculptural part made by Eusebio Arnau and the trencadís of the skirts by Mario Maragliano and Lluís Bru, all carry different musical instruments, on which the organ is installed.

Organ

The organ was purchased from the German company Walcker, in Ludwigsburg, and it was held in 1908. The first concert with it performed, by Dresden Cathedral organist Alfred Sittard, meant hearing a concert by Dresden for the first time. organ in Barcelona in an area other than a church. In 2003 it was restored by Gerhard Grenzing thanks to the contributions made by private companies and many individuals who had the possibility of sponsoring a tube.

Little Palau

The Petit Palau designed by Óscar Tusquets seen from its stage.

Designed by the architect Óscar Tusquets in the new building next to the entrance on Sant Pere més Alt street, it is eleven meters deep and was inaugurated in 2004. It has a theater capacity for 538 people and a perfect acoustics, excellent for chamber music, in addition, all kinds of social and cultural events are held in its space, for which it is equipped with great technological advances.

In 2007 it was one of the five projects awarded with the European Uli Awards For Excellence prize in recognition of design and architectural value.

Library

The collection was started by the Orfeón in 1891, it consists of various legacies with manuscripts from the 6th century, and a large number of volumes, most of them with musical themes; There are scores and the complete repertoire of the pieces sung by the choir since its foundation.

Art history

Many of the best soloists and singers of the XX century have performed at the Palau de la Música Catalana, including: Pau Casals, Jacques Thibaud, Alfred Cortot, Eugène Ysaÿe, Albert Schweitzer, Enrique Granados, Blanche Selva, Wilhelm Backhaus, Emil Sauer, Wanda Landowska, Clara Haskil, Fritz Kreisler, Arthur Rubinstein, Claudio Arrau, Yehudi Menuhin, Mstislav Rostropovich, Alicia de Larrocha, Victoria de los Ángeles, Montserrat Caballé, José Carreras, Maria Uriz, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Barbara Hendricks, Alfred Brendel, Wilhelm Kempff, Sviatoslav Richter, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Maurizio Pollini, Maria João Pires, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Jessye Norman, Daniel Barenboim, etc.

Great orchestras and conductors have visited the auditorium since its first year in operation: the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra with Richard Strauss, Herbert von Karajan, Claudio Abbado and Mariss Jansons; Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, with Carl Schuricht, Karl Böhm, Zubin Mehta and Leonard Bernstein; Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with Eugen Jochum, Antal Doráti and Mariss Jansons; Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Zubin Mehta; Staatskapelle Berlin and Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Daniel Barenboim, New York Philharmonic with Kurt Masur, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra with Sergiu Celibidache, Cleveland Orchestra with Lorin Maazel, Philharmonia Orchestra with Carlo Maria Giulini, Concentus Musicus Wien with Nikolaus Harnoncourt; Václav Neumann, Jordi Savall, Philippe Herreweghe, and choirs such as: Cappella Musicale Pontificia Sistina, Orfeón Donostiarra, Choir of Montserrat, Vienna Boys Choir, etc.

From 1920 to 1936 the Palace was the headquarters of the Pau Casals Orchestra where it was conducted by Pau Casals, Richard Strauss, Vincent d'Indy, Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schönberg, Anton Webern, Arthur Honegger, Manuel de Falla, Eugène Ysaÿe, etc. During the years from 1947 to 1999, the Palace's resident orchestra was the Barcelona Symphony and National Orchestra of Catalonia.

Important composers and musicians have performed or conducted their own works: Enrique Granados, Richard Strauss, Maurice Ravel, Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Stravinsky, Manuel de Falla, Arnold Schönberg, Sergei Rachmaninov, Anton Webern, Roberto Gerhard, George Enescu, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, Arthur Honegger, Federico Mompou, Krzysztof Penderecki, Witold Lutoslawski, Pierre Boulez, etc.

Other artists, actors, dancers, jazz musicians, singers and groups of popular music, rock, and other styles have also performed at the Palace: Raphael, Vittorio Gassman, Maurice Béjart, Ángel Corella, Charles Aznavour, Duke Ellington, Tete Montoliu, Oscar Peterson, Woody Allen, Keith Jarret, Ella Fitzgerald, Michel Camilo, Tamara Rojo, Paco de Lucía, María Dolores Pradera, Bebo Valdés, Luis Eduardo Aute, Georges Moustaki, Miguel Poveda, Marina Rossell, Ana Belén, David Bisbal, Jorge Drexler, David Bustamante, Cassandra Wilson, Lila Downs, Vicente Amigo, Norah Jones, Sinéad O'Connor, Ute Lemper, Ornella Vanoni, among many others.

The Palace became the emblematic stage for the singer-songwriters of the Nova Cançó: singing in the Palace was a way of consecration for a singer. Raimon, Joan Manuel Serrat, Maria del Mar Bonet, Lluís Llach, Ovidi Montllor and Francesc Pi de la Serra have given recitals there.

For years, plays were also represented with a certain frequency, especially experimental theater or by authors who could not be performed in other venues: companies such as the Teatre Experimental Català, the Compañía Adrià Gual or the Agrupación Dramática de Barcelona (1955 -19963) made the Palace the venue for their premieres, including shows such as the premiere of the Primera història d'Esther by Salvador Espriu, that of El Ben Cofat i l'altre by Josep Carner, the Pygmalion by Joan Oliver, the works of Joan Brossa, among others.

Some world premieres

Columns of the second floor decorated with mosaics of Lluís Bru.

• 1911 - Enrique Granados. Goyescas Suite for piano, first part; Isaac Albéniz. Tiles, for piano (finished by Granados) (11 March). [1]
• 1924 - Joaquín Turina. Three arias for soprano and piano (19 December). [2]
• 1925 - Manuel de Falla. Psyché (9 February). [3]
• 1926 - Manuel de Falla. Concert for keynotes and five instruments Jaume Pahissa. Intertonal Suite (24 October)[4]; Joaquín Turina. Two songs.
• 1928 - Eduard Toldrah. The maig Giravolt, opera with libretto by Josep Carner; Joaquín Turina. Ritmos: cinematographic fantasy for orchestra and Evocations for piano (29 October).
• 1929 - Roberto Gerhard. Concertino for strings, Fifth wind (22 December).
• 1932 - Manuel Blancafort. The rapture of the Sabines (16 October).
• 1936 - Alban Berg. violin concert "to the memory of an angel" (19 April)
• 1940 - Joaquín Rodrigo. Aranjuez Concert (9 November).
• 1945 - Xavier Montsalvatge. Five Black Songs (19 June).
• 1946 - Joaquín Rodrigo. Quatre cançons en llengua catalana and Mossén Cinto Triptych (22 November).
• 1948 - Xavier Montsalvatge. Mediterranean symphony (18 November)
• 1951 - Manuel Blancafort. Concert ibèric for piano (3 March). [5]
• 1952 - Federico Mompou. Song of the soul (10 May). [6]
• 1960 - Xavier Montsalvatge. Spiritual culture (9 April).
• 1961 - Federico Mompou. Variations on a Chopin theme (13 October).[7]
• 1963 - Xavier Montsalvatge. Morphological disintegration of the Bach Chacona (18 October).
• 1966 - Joaquim Homs. String Quartet No. 6 (4 October).
• 1974 - Josep Soler Sardà. Edipo and Yocasta. Opera-oratory (30 October).
• 1977 - Joaquín Rodrigo. Sonata to the brief, for violet and piano (11 May) [8]

Visits

There is the possibility of visiting its interior through guided tours, acquiring a ticket for this purpose at the box office. The visit includes the different spaces, due to their availability: the Rehearsal Room of the Catalan Orfeón, where an audiovisual is shown, the Lluís Millet Hall and the Concert Hall.

Corruption case

On July 23, 2009, a nine-hour police search was carried out at the Palacio de la Música by order of a Barcelona judge investigating the alleged diversion of more than 2 million euros from the funds of the Orfeón Catalán. Managers for more than 30 years, Fèlix Millet and Jordi Montull and several of their collaborators turned out to be the authors of the greatest looting ever known of a European cultural entity. In fact, they created the foundation to act freely without those in charge of the Orfeón or the Palace being able to intervene, giving rise to the paradox that, while the foundation obtained large sums of money, these did not reach the primary recipients, which were the choirs of the Orfeón and the same Palace. On the contrary, the Orfeón suffered from a lack of resources and could not make some of the scheduled tours. The Palace offered quality programming, but at higher prices than in other auditoriums, since the money obtained through other channels was not enough. Later it was discovered that it was, but it did not reach its destination, but rather the pocket of the "managers".

Six months after the police search and the jurist and cultural manager Joan Llinares took over the management of the institution, the audits carried out under his coordination proved an embezzlement of more than 34 million euros of which in that A little more than 6 had been recovered on the same date. The judicial negligence has also contributed to the fact that the perpetrators of the embezzlement have evaded prison and, probably, they also evade a good part of civil liability since for months they have had the freedom to transfer their resources to hidden accounts or change ownership of their properties. Millet has been an omnipresent figure in the public and economic life of Catalonia for the last thirty years, which gives him considerable power reinforced by the sensitive information he is supposed to possess, especially regarding party financing. politicians carried out with funds from the Palacio de la Música itself.

In August 2010 it was revealed that Ferrovial allegedly paid 4% commissions to the CDC party, at that time it was the majority in the Government of the Generalitat. Specifically, for the concept of the Palace, he received 5.9 million euros.

The verdict of the sentence issued by section 10 of the Barcelona High Court, published on January 15, 2018, sentenced Jordi Montull Bagur to seven and a half years in prison; his daughter Gemma Montull to 4 and a half years in prison; and former President Félix Millet to nine years and eight months in prison. His wife, Marta Vallès Guarro, and her daughter, Laia Millet Vallès, have been declared profit-seeking participants, for which Marta Vallès has to return 6.41 million euros to the Palau and her daughter Laia, 112,782 euros. Daniel Osàcar (former CDC treasurer) and the Democratic Convergence of Catalonia were also sentenced for the confiscation of 6.6 million euros. Félix Millet was fined 4.1 million euros for money laundering and for fraud against the Treasury, and between him and Jordi Montull they must return more than 23.2 million euros to the Palacio de la Música Catalana.