English Program – Solo Piano
SOLO PIANO PROGRAM
Sonata n 8 in C Minor “Pathétique”
L.van Beethoven
I Grave, Allegro di Molto e con brio
II Adagio Cantabile
III Rondo Allegro
«Music for a Journey»
Luis de Arquer
Prelude
Detrás de la Colina – Behind the hill
Mañana – Morning
Boceto Español – Spanish Sketch
El Príncipa Feliz – The Happy Prince
Improvisation on Three notes chosen by the public.
Sonata No. 8 in C Minor «Pathétique» by L. Van Beethoven
The performance of this work lasts approximately 20 minutes. It is a transcendental piece in piano literature for its values of musical abstraction, as well as for its philosophical connotations and structural intuitions of the future. The internal structure of the sonata is arguably the most advanced of Beethoven’s early works. It is considered one of the German genius’s greatest works as well as one of the most performed in public, both during the composer’s lifetime and today.
The Pathétique Sonata was a significant and instant success for Beethoven in its day. Due to its popularity, it was published 17 times during the composer’s lifetime in its original keyboard version as well as in various arrangements for small instrumental groups. The score sold well and helped to forge his reputation as a composer, not just as an extraordinary pianist. This work exposed to the world the traits that Beethoven would continue to develop in the years to come. Two of its melodic motifs are among the most famous of all Beethoven’s output: the idea that opens the first movement, Grave, and the main theme of the second movement.
Music for a Journey by Luis de Arquer
Is a piano Suite that was written to accompany us in our and imaginary journeys. “If we wish to listen to music whilst we are on the move, we will discover that this is now possible”… This sountrack is for very special moments…our moments. In many ways, each “piece” contains something essential for wich it was written and, as I do every Saturday evening in Solo Piano concerts, I would like to give you some explanations for each one of them:
The Suite begins with a Prelude written in a tonality full of positivity “A Major” that leads us to Behind the Hill, music that tells the story of an unfullfilled love full of unforgettable memories…wich inevitably will be forgotten…thanks to the freshness of “Morning” wich brings new hope and peace. Spanish Sketch moves away in time and dreches us with the South of Spain, watter and orange blossom from a night train travelling through groves of olives trees…whilst The Happy Prince, (music based on the tale by Oscar Wilde), and his beloved swallow converse timidly until it becomes a messanger of the happiness that the Prince himself, as a statue, cannot bring those who need it most…
Someting about Luis de Arquer
Pianist, composer, and improviser from Cerdanyola del Vallés, Barcelona.
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, Nikita Magaloff.
In his concerts, he often combines classical music with his own Neoclassical works, 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 missing from 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 USA. 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 district of Barcelona, an artistic space full of beauty dedicated to piano music, where he has given 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.
Something about The Smallest Theatre in the World
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.
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