Day 3 Barcelona May 30

There were only two things on our agenda today: a guided tour through the Picasso Museum and a concert tonight in Palau de la Musica Orfeo Catala.

Our friends, Sandy Herrington and Debbie Harvey from Vancouver, whom we met on the South Pacific cruise last year, met us at the Picasso Museum tour. They are going to be on the Azamara cruise with us next week. They cruise to Amsterdam; we’re getting off in Bordeaux, France.

Anywho, the guided tour was very interesting; the guide was knowledgeable and fun. The museum is organized into linear timelines so it begins with Picasso’s earlier works in Malaga, Corunna and Barcelona (1890-97), the training period (1897-1901), the Blue Period (1901-04) and what the guide called the Pink Period (when he began doing cubist work). The museum has a total of 4,251 of Picasso’s works.

                                                   Our guide through the Picasso Museum

Just as interesting is the museum building itself. It is housed in five adjoining medieval palaces on Montcada Street in the La Ribera neighborhood in the Old City of Barcelona. The Palau Aguilar was the first building occupied by the museum and dates from the 13^th century, but underwent significant alterations between the 15^th and 18^th centuries. The building belonged to nobles of the Court of Aragon as well as bourgeois families. 

                                                Original building for the Picasso Museum

The museum opened in march 1963 and was the first museum dedicated to his work and the only one created during his lifetime. The government of Catalonia declared it a museum of national interest.

                             From left: Sandy Hetherington, Cindy, Beth, Debbie Harvey

During a restoration made in 1960, the remains of a 13^th-century painting were discovered while removing plaster from one of the rooms. The work is exhibited in the National Art Museum of Catalonia in Parc de Mountjuic, which we’re visiting tomorrow. It’s a large fresco representing the conquest of Majorca in 1229, and the work is made up of cauldrons and roses, which suggest the palace belonged to the lineage Caldes and Desvalls. It depicts the central courtyard of the building during the 15^th century, with an open staircase and a pointed Gothic arc.

The Palau de la Musica was declared a National Monument in 1971, followed by global recognition in 1997 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Located in Ciutat Vella, it is an architectural example of Catalan Modernisme designed by architect Lluis Domenech I Montaner.  It was built between 1905 and 1908 to serve as the headquarters of the Orfeo Catala choral society. 

                                                    Entrance to Palau de la Musica

Tonight’s concert featured the premiere of the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra by Carles Marigo. Marigo is pretty interesting, as he all about reimaging classical music. I actually thought he should be in a band of some kind – maybe rock’n’roll, maybe jazz – and indeed, he has a trio called Breaking Bach (piano, double bass and percussion), and he does solo performances, but also has more “projects.” Marigo trained as a classical pianist at the Escola Superior de Musica de Catalunya with Vladislav Bronevetzky, and at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory with Irina Plotnikova. He received advice as an improviser from Xavier Dotras, Albert Bover, 

He extended the concert by probably 30 minutes with four encores. 

                             Performance space in Palau de la Musica (the choir

                       is seated directly above the orchestra around the pipe organ)

Scalloped structures inside Palau de la Musica

The remainder of the program was The Planets, Gustav Holst’s masterpiece that evokes the personality of the stars in our solar System. It was performed by the Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès, conducted by Xavier Puig. We had never heard the seven-movement piece, although the planet Jupiter sounded familiar. 

                                                     Our selfie in Paula de la Musica

The evening concluded with a performance of Homeland by Ralph R. Stroope by the Cor de Noies de l'Orfeó Català, a girls’ choir founded in 2000. It is a treble choir dedicated primarily to exploring repertoires created specifically for female/treble voices and consists of around 40-42 young women ranging in age from 16 to 25. Their voices were, well, sort of angelic in the performance space. 

NOTE: I have included a photo of “Carmelo,” by modern artist Jaume Plensa. It’s a 4.5-meter tall cast-iron sculpture of a young girl’s head. Plensa used a 3D scan of a local Barcelona teenager, digitally compressed the image along one axis and cast it so it creates an optical illusion of depth when viewed from specific angles. It was installed in 2016 as a temporary display for an exhibition at the Palau (it cost €700,000). The artist gifted the sculpture to the city after public reaction was so positive.

                                                        "Carmelo" by Jaume Plensa

   Humor? Seen in a store that sells chocolates.

                                        

                                     La Placa Reial where we're staying - late at night. :)