‘Constellations’ for Four-Hand Piano and Actor
- Hèctor Parra, composition
- Arnau Pons, poetry
- Lluïsa Espigolé and Imma Santacreu, piano
Where?
- Fundació Miró Mallorca
When?
- February 21, 2025 - 6:00 PM
Free tickets
‘Constellations’ for Four-Hand Piano and Actor
Hèctor Parra (Barcelona, 1976), music - Arnau Pons (Felanitx, 1965), poetry
Un viatge tant al món interior del compositor com al del poeta, els quals exterioritzen la pintura de Miró sota la forma d’un llenç musical i poètic
Notes from the composer Hèctor Parra:
With the series of 23 constellations, painted between 1940 and 1941, Miró offers the world an exemplary model of tenacity, artistic development, plastic harmony, and human integrity in one of the darkest moments in history. Thus, the cycle we present is a journey both into the inner world of the composer and the poet, who externalize Miró’s painting in the form of a complex musical and poetic canvas: ethereal or dense, smooth or rough, delicate or coarse. In the hands of pianists Imma Santacreu and Lluïsa Espigolé, the piano transforms into an almost electroacoustic instrument. Combined with the poems written and recited by Arnau Pons, a suggestive universe emerges, where the stars align with each sound intervention, as our own constellations of emotions, in turn, resonate in the poetic-musical universe of the work.
Notes from the poet Arnau Pons:
The joint work –piano, writing, gesture– will always be, at the same time, a reflection on the Catalan identity lived countercurrent, as an incontrovertible fact of destiny, with no mission other than to singularize man doubly: as part of a cultural minority that is barely known in the world, and as a subject that constantly separates from it in order to be who it must be, with its own inimitable plastic language, far from any form of collective agglutination.
Hèctor Parra, composition
Hèctor Parra is one of the most internationally recognized Catalan composers. A member of the Academy of France in Rome – Villa Medici in 2021-22, he has premiered over a hundred works around the world, commissioned by institutions such as the Philharmonie de Paris, the Louvre Museum, the Munich Biennale, the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, the Stuttgart Opera, and the Guggenheim Museum in New York. He has premiered eight operas with librettos by Marie NDiaye, Händl Klaus, Fiston Mwanza, or Pier Paolo Pasolini/Calixto Bieito, and they have been staged by Bieito himself or Milo Rau. He is the recipient of the 2017 National Culture Award, the 2011 Ernst von Siemens Composition Award, the 2007 Donald Aird Memorial Award from San Francisco, and the 2005 Tremplin Award from the Ensemble Intercontemporain, among others. His works are published by Durand/Universal Music Publishing Classical and Tritó. Along with poet Arnau Pons, he received the 2022 Alícia Award from the Catalan Academy of Music for the work Les Constellations de Miró.
Arnau Pons, poetry
Arnau Pons is a writer and translator. On the international scene, he is known for his readings of the work of Paul Celan, whose Complete Works he translated, getting the 2015 National Translation Award. In 2007, he curated the two volumes of Carrers de frontera. Passatges de la cultura alemanya a la cultura catalana (IRL), for the Frankfurt Book Fair. He has translated works by authors as diverse as Jean Bollack, Luiza Neto Jorge, Peter Szondi, Maurice Blanchot, Dino Campana, Hervé Guibert, Marguerite Duras, or Walter Benjamin, and has reflected on this activity in his book La traducción, la vida (Afers, 2020). His writings on Catalan creators are collected in the volume Amb aquestes mans (Edicions Poncianes, 2021). He is also the author of the epilogue in Núria Folch’s edition of La mort i la primavera by Mercè Rodoreda (Club Editor, 2017). His most recent poetry book is Llum de ganivet (Eumo, 2012) and his latest essay is Artaud, cruz entre dos rostros (H&O, 2023).
Lluïsa Espigolé, piano
Lluïsa Espigolé is a pianist specialized in contemporary piano repertoire, her work focuses on the interpretation and premiere of new compositions as a soloist, in chamber music, and ensembles, as well as in collaboration with interdisciplinary projects and free improvisation. She has collaborated with performers, improvisers, and multimedia artists from the experimental scene at major festivals and venues throughout Europe (Internationales Musikfestival Darmstadt, Konzerthaus Wien, Lucerne Festival, Festival Musica Strasbourg, Sound of Stockholm, Harpa Reykjavik, Philharmonie de Luxembourg, etc.). She is the co-artistic director of the cycle Difraccions · Xarxa de Músiques Inusuals across the territory with Miquel Vich and a professor of contemporary piano and chamber music at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Aragón.
Imma Santacreu is a pianist with a deep curiosity for all forms of expression. A student of M. Jesús Crespo, Pierre Réach, and Françoise Thinat, she has performed on numerous international stages, such as the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, the Académie de France à Rome-Villa Médicis, Radio France, the Instituto Cervantes in Paris, CDMC/Centro Nacional de Arte Reina Sofía, Palau de la Música Catalana, Festival de Peralada, and has given recitals with notable artists such as Philippe Cuper (principal clarinet of the Paris Opera) and writers Kaouther Adimi and Guy Régis Jr. She has been awarded first prizes at international chamber music competitions, including the UFAM and Léopold Béllan in Paris. Her collaboration and joint research with composer Hèctor Parra in the fields of creation and improvisation have led to works such as Constellations, Life after architecture-Love, and the pedagogical work L’Univers a tocar (Ed. Boileau, 2022). She is a tenured professor of piano and improvisation at the Conservatoire Henri Dutilleux in Maisons-Alfort (Paris) and at the International Music Course of Canfranc.
