A Growing Labyrinth

Sunday, August 29th, 2010

Let’s accept the metaphor ‘your absence is a labyrinth growing into my soul’ as a valid one; let’s, with indulgence, partake in the spirit of the Italian nobleman who wrote it –amongst other palpitating verses- to his distant beloved during the summer of 1826; let’s take it, in short, as a possible consequence of what [...]

A Composer’s Notebook (5) – Writing under last summer’s heat: ‘Echo and Narcissus’ for string orchestra

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

I received an e-mail from conductor Eduardo Portal at the beginning of last July outlining the possibility of a commission of a piece for the Burgos Summer Festival (Spain), which would eventually be premiered during the Festival by the Antares Ensemble under his baton. I found out in the course of the ensuing correspondence with [...]

A Composer’s Notebook (4) - Kaija Saariaho’s ‘L’Amour de Loin’ at the ENO

Sunday, October 4th, 2009

I went into the English National Opera without knowing what to expect of L’Amour de Loin. I didn’t know that much of Saariaho’s music, but had heard some positive comments on the lead-up to the performance. The subject, that of impossible love and based on Occitan courtesan love poetry of the Middle Ages –a literary [...]

A Composer’s Notebook (3) – Sir Harrison Birtwhistle at the Southbank: ‘Semper Dowland, Semper Dolens’ and ‘The Corridor’

Saturday, October 3rd, 2009

It is always very strange to write long time afterwards about performances one experienced, even more if one –that is, me- seemed to rather carelessly not take down notes about it. Nevertheless, I reckon the distance and the forgetting provide an extra filter for the judging of the pieces, as indeed one only carries [...]

A Composer’s Notebook (1) - Alban Berg’s Lulu or the Unavoidable Actuality of Great Art

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

I was fortunate enough to get tickets for the last Royal Opera House production of Lulu. I went on Saturday evening, the 13th of June. London was in that strange in between when the combination of late sunsets, heat, sun, and sudden showers makes one think of the summer that is round the corner, but [...]

Quadern Mediterrani (1) - El Futbol com a Metàfora

Friday, May 29th, 2009

Després de varies entregues contínues de Cartas desde Londres, aquesta nit he decidit prendrem un respir del rifi-rafe polític que tant li agrada a la dreta, i que tant ens agota a tota la resta del país. Vull només gaudir del fet esportiu del any i possiblement de la història blaugrana, reflexionant amb vosaltres sobre [...]