In the 19th century, composers and pianists Clara Schumann and Franz Liszt They revolutionized the concert format. The bourgeois salon, the churches and the court had outgrown them and they took advantage of the fact that music was reaching more and more theaters and public auditoriums to offer a new way of enjoying it. They promised strong emotions by doing solo recitals, with works by authors from different eras, playing from memory and showing off their technical mastery with every measure. Today, in the midst of the television series fever, that model is no longer so attractive, and hence more and more initiatives are emerging that seek to update the relationship between classical music and its audience.
Among the last, the one that last weekend brought together one hundred and fifty Bach fans willing to pedal from hermitage to hermitage to listen to concerts with his music. The effort, of course, was compensated with a tasting of local products upon arrival at each church, because the German musician nourishes the spirits, but given that you are going from here to there by bicycle, it is also appreciated to have a full stomach.
The event was in La Vall d’en Bas, a Catalan municipality located in the impressive volcanic area of La Garrotxa, duly renamed for the occasion as La Vall d’en Bach. The promoter of the initiative is the Bachcelona Festivalwhich for a decade has venerated the figure of the German composer not only remembering his best scores, but also, and in a special way, looking for new formats that update his eighth notes.
“We are used to doing crazy things, but two weeks before the activity I had doubts whether this time we had gotten out of hand,” admits Daniel Tarrida, alma mater of Bachcelona and, by extension, of this Bach that we tasted at the stroke of the pedal. . As if that were not enough, the rain threatened the activity. At ten in the morning, in fact, the one hundred and fifty fans were at the Can Trona cultural center, with our raincoats on.
First stop: Sant Romà de Joanetes, the only one of the concerts that requires climbing a small hill. On the way it rains, but we console ourselves by greeting the cows, seeing the fog banks on the stormy peaks and hating a little the owner of that large mansion with the hedges trimmed to the millimeter, which looks like they have been pruned with a strimmer, how envious. Upon arrival, organic cheeses from the family farm Molí del Perer, and a selection of fragments from ‘The Art of Fugue’ by a string quartet made up of students from the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC).
The director of the center, Núria Sempere, is among the cyclists, and she can list all the virtues of initiatives like these: “It is on the table that classical tradition music needs to be rethought in terms of its relationship with the public,” Therefore, it is essential to “innovate in formats without giving up artistic quality.” Projects like this make students more receptive to those innovations: “It puts musicians in an excellent position to rethink their relationship with the audience.” Furthermore, they can risk doing experiments that they would not dare to do in the context of an evaluation.
We left the concert with a comforted spirit, the rain subsiding and the road going downhill. More cows, more sheep, more farmhouses. We are going to Sant Esteve d’en Bas (or d’en Bach), where a sweet coca awaits us from the Bataller bakery, founded in 1953 and today run by the third generation of master bakers. Also, Bach’s sixth orchestral suite.
The last stage of this tour is the old convent of Puigpardines, a spectacular natural and heritage site. At this point the sun has already risen and we drive along a narrow road. A car approaches in the opposite direction to that of the procession, so one of the cyclists stands in the middle of the road to demand that the driver stop and make way. The brave pedaler turns out to be the journalist Mercedes Miláwho learned about the initiative through his sister-in-law and did not stop until the organizers made room for him even though the capacity was practically full: “I had to kneel in front of the top boss [el azorado Daniel Tarrida] so that he would let me come,” he overreacts.
After eating some artisan sausage from Gori producers, established in the municipality for almost a century, we proceed to listen to one of Bach’s ‘Cello Suites’. Milá, established as Big Brother, records and photographs with her cell phone everything she can, to upload it to networks. She is excited about the event: “I will repeat it all my life,” she says.
At the end, a popular meal at Can Trona with all the participants around a good rice, exchanging impressions, but also recommending innovative experiences like this one, which have become more frequent in recent years. The Liceo organizes opera performances for young people that end with electronic music; while Real tours Spanish cities with La Carroza to bring the lyric to the public who cannot go see it in a theater.
The Juan March Foundation, also in the capital, constantly innovates in formats, offering concerts of the highest musical level, where performers coexist with diverse artistic styles and disciplines but with a very careful aesthetic discourse. The National Auditorium organizes the ‘Bach Vermut’, a series of organ concerts that take place at noon on weekends and end, as the name suggests, with a tapas: Bach must have something to inspire such a brilliant idea.
