Only Chopin Program
ONLY CHOPIN PROGRAM
Thursdays at 8:30 p.m.
3 Preludes
E minor
B minor
D flat major – Water Drop
4 Waltzes
OP 64 No. 1
Op 64 No. 2
Op 69 No. 1
E minor Op. Post.
Andante Spianato and
Grande Polonaise Brilliant Op. 22
Scherzo Op. 31 No. 2 in B minor
About the Program
Solo Chopin is pianist and composer Luis de Arquer’s tribute to Frédéric Chopin. A piano recital that immerses us in some of his most beautiful works, which, even after more than 200 years, remain as close to our emotions as they were then thanks to their great beauty, romanticism, and sensitivity. The Teatre més Petit del Món is one of those small venues where Chopin himself preferred to perform before a small, select audience, where that unique communion experienced through every sound was possible…
About Luis de Arquer
Pianist, composer, and improviser from Cerdanyola del Vallés, Barcelona, he trained at the prestigious Granados-Marshall Academy with Carlota Garriga and Alicia de Larrocha, and at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris with Aquiles Delle-Vigne.
Other teachers include Lolita Martínez, Carme Talleda, Xavier Montsalvatge, Narcís Bonet, Alfredo Esperanza, Roberto Bravo, Joaquín Achúcarro, and Nikita Magaloff.
In his concerts, he often combines classical music with his own works in a Neoclassical style, crafted with beautiful melodies and rhythms that are close to progressive pop fused with cinematic beats. His incredible improvisations, whether free or inspired by three notes offered by the audience, are never lacking in his concerts. He has been practicing since the age of 5.
Some of his notable works include the Piano Suite «Music for a Journey,» the comic opera «A Day with Vincent» for chamber orchestra and four vocal soloists, the soundtrack for the film «Symphony of Illegals,» and the «Suite A.M.» dedicated to Miguel Hernández for piano and cello, inspired by the poems of the Spanish poet.
Luis de Arquer has given concerts in Europe, South America, Central America, and the United States. For 18 years, he was the ideologist of one of the first music schools focused exclusively on adults, «La Casa dels Músics,» and the driving force behind several music festivals, such as the BAC Cultural Musical Festival and the BCN Piano Fest. Since 1999 he has directed “El Teatre més Petit del Món” in the Gràcia neighborhood of Barcelona, an artistic space full of beauty dedicated to piano music, where he has offered nearly 1,500 concerts over the last 15 years with his Solo Piano, Solo Chopin, No Solo Piano and Improviso Recitals and he is exclusively dedicated to composition and performance.
About El Teatre més Petit del Món
El Teatre més Petit del Món is located inside a house from 1890 called ¨La Casa dels Músics¨, one of the first music schools focused on teaching music exclusively to adults, created by Luis de Arquer in 1998. The Theatre was initially created as a space for students’ auditions, but a year later, and as a result of an unexpected meeting with one of the world’s most important critics and musicologists in relation to opera, in 1999 Roger Alier, ¨The Smallest Opera House in the World¨ was inaugurated, where around fifty small-format opera performances were offered (taking into account that the grand piano was not on stage ;-).
The mural painting that can be seen behind the piano is from Salzburg Castle Ffor W.A.Mozart’s «Bastien & Bastiana» Opera, and the window that some of you can see to the right of the stage belongs to the opera «A Day With Vincente» by Luis de Arquer, which premiered at this Theatre in 2000 and is a reproduction of the painting of the Arles room by V. Van Gogh.
The state of the house is not the original one, since when Luis moved in it had a modern appearance, so it has been transformed little by little by himself over the years. The paintings are the work of the painter Cayetano de Arquer Buigas, Luis’s father and an artist known for his famous nape of the neck and a continuator of 19th century Catalan painting.
In addition to his father, Luis belongs to a tremendously creative and well-known family in Barcelona, since several of its most emblematic monuments, such as the Fountains of Montjuic and the Columbus Monument, were created by his great-uncle and great-grandfather.
