The standout concert of Barcelona’s upcoming Thursday–Sunday run, October 1–4, is a concentrated local proposition on Thursday evening: Albert Guinovart at the piano with Cor de Cambra Femení Scherzo, conducted by Esteve Nabona, in the Petit Palau. The programme gives a single composer an unusually focused frame. Its three works move from the sacred scale of Missa brevis Rex Genitor to Balades amargues, setting poems by Josep Palau i Fabre, and Suite La mar, drawn from Joan Maragall. That makes the concert an opportunity to hear Guinovart’s choral writing as a connected body of work, with text, voices and piano sharing the foreground.[1]

A portrait in voices, piano and Catalan text

Guinovart’s public profile can appear broad enough to blur at the edges: his catalogue reaches across opera, ballet, orchestral and chamber music, piano pieces, theatre music, film and television. Here, the all-Guinovart bill gives that range a deliberate narrowing. The evening is shaped around the female chamber choir and Nabona’s direction, while Guinovart’s own piano part places the composer inside the performance. For listeners familiar with his stage scores or solo-piano work, the appeal lies in hearing a different part of the same musical language carried by an ensemble voice.[2][3]

The programme’s internal route supplies the real reason to make the trip. A missa brevis places liturgical form beside two works rooted in Catalan literary voices: Palau i Fabre’s poems in Balades amargues and Maragall’s in Suite La mar. That sequence turns the concert into a small survey of how Guinovart approaches choral colour, poetic phrasing and larger formal design. It also keeps the focus on music written for this setting, instead of treating the choir as an ornamental addition to a general recital.[1][2]

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Why the Petit Palau suits the scale

Palau de la Musica Catalana presents the event in the Petit Palau as part of La Casa dels Cants, placing it within a choral-focused strand of the venue’s programme. The setting matters because this is a chamber-scale encounter: a named choir, a conductor, the composer-pianist and three works sharing a close, continuous arc. Barcelona’s week also offers opera, guitar spectacle, pop and late-night club programming; this concert makes its case through concentration and repertoire specificity. It is the week’s strongest choice for anyone seeking contemporary Catalan concert music heard from the inside of its vocal tradition.[1][3]

Thursday, October 1: the details

Guinovart, Cor Femení Scherzo & Esteve Nabona takes place on Thursday, October 1, at 7:30 p.m. in the Petit Palau at Palau de la Musica Catalana. The official listing names Albert Guinovart on piano, Cor de Cambra Femení Scherzo and Esteve Nabona as conductor; it lists tickets at €25. Arrive with time to settle before the opening work, and recheck the official Palau de la Música Catalana page for ticket availability, access information and any schedule changes.[1]

Sources

  1. Guinovart, Cor Femení Scherzo & Esteve Nabona — Palau de la Música Catalana
  2. Biography — Albert Guinovart
  3. Albert Guinovart — Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya