I just returned from a trip to Barcelona, where I gave a lecture at the Intitut d’Estudis Nord-Americans (Institute for North American Studies). Here, as in Buenos Aires, I spoke about “John Cage’s silent piece(s)”. There was a good audience, and I had a wonderful time afterwards talking about music, food, and other subjects over wine and tapas with Carmen Pardo and Lluís Nacenta.
Carmen & Lluís co-organized a series of events celebrating Cage’s 100th birthday in Barcelona, including performances of the Sonatas and interludes, Satie’s Vexations, Roaratorio, and Cartridge music, all held at Arts Santa Mònica. I dropped in for part of Vexations and was honored to meet Carles Santos after he completed his portion of the 12-hour performance. The performance was covered by local television and newspapers.
Before my talk I stopped by the Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA), where I finally got to meet Clara Placencia, with whom I had worked on the catalog for the Cage show “The anarchy of silence” in 2009. I was at MACBA to be interviewed by their online radio program, Radio Web MACBA. Lluîs Nacenta was the interviewer and we spoke for over an hour. I’ll be interested to see what makes the final cut. I found the whole experience quite stimulating and it has inspired me to write more, both here on the blog and elsewhere!
After the interview and lecture, Frances & I spent a couple of days as a tourist in Barcelona, including the mandatory visit to the magnificent Sagrada Familia church. Photos in this post are all from our visit there. I was particularly amused by the appearance of a bassoonist among the heavenly musicians present at the Nativity (see below).
