Albert Guinovart: "What I like is to serve music and excite the audience"

—Let's start with the most recent: long live Mar i Cel, right?

--- Yes, well… it's over. Or not. I always say that what has ended, apparently, is Dagoll Dagom. And not even that: they're simply closing up shop, let's say.

--- And they have left the door open for it to continue being performed.

--- És clar. Com a companyia han decidit plegar, però l'obra queda. I tota la seva altra obra, també: n'han fet tanta que ja és patrimoni del teatre català. Mar i cel, per exemple, es va fer a Alemanya, i això pot tornar a passar.

--- Even on Barceloneta beach!

--- That was very emotional. I have a good relationship with the Liceu Orchestra and Choir: for nine years I have conducted El conte de Nadal, and before that I spent three years with Els Pastorets. In Barceloneta, I was integrated into the orchestra, with the company in front and the choir behind... It was my true farewell. I couldn't attend the last official performance because I was at a wedding in Italy.

--- A success, in short.

--- It was theatricalized a bit, like a semi-staged opera, but not everything could be done due to time constraints. I think the audience liked it.

--- And with subtitles: exposing the work to an international audience also helps.

--- Everything adds up. It also serves to say: "Hey, we also do good things here."

--- What is your current relationship with Mar i Cel?

--- Very good. Although for a while it wasn't comfortable for me.

"When Mar i Cel was so successful, I experienced it with a feeling of injustice: I had studied piano a lot, and, on the other hand, as a composer I felt unprepared"

---Not exactly. The thing is, when I did Mar i Cel, I was training as a pianist, not as a composer. I had studied harmony, counterpoint… but that wasn't my natural path. When the work was so successful, I experienced it with a sense of injustice: I had studied a lot of piano, and, on the other hand, as a composer I felt unprepared.

--- It seemed to you that it had cost you too little.

--- Exactly. I thought it needed to be revised. When the TNC proposed to restage it in 2004, I didn't leave a single note as it was: I revised orchestrations, songs… And I reconciled with the work. That spontaneous music made by someone young, eager to please, seemed very honest to me.

--- What comes first: your music or Bru de Sala's text?

---He. Normally, the word must come first. The music has to serve the dramatic moment being explained. Although there are librettists who prefer to do it the other way around, because that way they can better control the accents. But it's not easy in either case. With Flor de nit, for example, it was very difficult for me to fit the lyrics.

"Composition cannot be taught. You can teach the tools, but the artist has to have something to say"

--- Yes. The musical Gaudí was made in 2003, but it didn't quite work out. Gaudí doesn't offer much scenic play. But musically, it gave me a lot. With Rafael Pascual Vilaplana, director of the Municipal Band, we decided to make an instrumental symphony. And L'Auditori commissioned it from me.

--- The same year that the Franz Schubert Filharmonia commissioned the Simfonia dels Àngels from you.

--- Imagine: from having none, to having two at once. It was also a commission from Tomàs Grau.

"Very intellectual music is made, but little sensitive music. Sometimes I think: life is short, there's no need to suffer to listen to music"

--- If you have to novelize someone's life, you already have a base. In music, there are also references and tradition. Personal taste is formed over time. I always tell my students that they must build an internal library, and from there find their resources. Now then: composition cannot be taught. You can teach the tools, but the artist must have something to say.

--- How would you define your style? Do you consider yourself a contemporary composer?

--- Well, if I'm alive, I'm contemporary (laughs). But yes, you've said it well: I reclaim a certain emotionality, more on the surface. Since the avant-garde, the public has been forgotten. Very intellectual music is made, but little sensitive. Sometimes I think: life is short, there's no need to suffer to listen to music. I often apply a phrase from Victoria de los Ángeles: the musician must serve music, not serve themselves from it.

---How have the experiences with Gaudí and Victoria de los Ángeles been?

--- The Simfonia dels Àngels was born from a tribute to Victoria. I had played with her more than 130 concerts all over the world. The challenge was: how to make a symphony for a singer? And I decided to include a soprano, Ermonela Jaho. She accepted. We made five movements, one of them with texts by Petrarch, Eliot, and Chekhov. It was very successful.

--- And the Simfonia Gaudí?

--- A month and a half later. It has themes from the musical, but treated in a classical way. It was performed by the Barcelona Municipal Band, one of the best in the world. And the Palau de la Música has already programmed it twice.

"(Conducting) it doesn't interest me. I lack character. I would say: "I would do this, but you'll know... have fun"

--- Mozart: composes, plays, conducts, teaches… And always pleases without lowering quality. Then, French music (Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc) and American music (Gershwin, Bernstein). But also Chopin, Schumann, the Russians… No, I cannot answer.

--- Question suspended, then.

--- And Richard Strauss!

--- Nothing by Schoenberg?

--- That generation was excellent, they knew tradition and that's why they could break it. The problem is that today, often, the avant-garde is imitated without having gone through tradition. Thus, it seems we are moving nowhere.

--- And on the piano, what do you like to play most?

--- Chopin, surely. But I have also played a lot of Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Debussy, Granados... And Catalan authors like Montsalvatge or Mompou.

--- And conducting?

--- It doesn't interest me. I lack character. I would say: "I would do this, but you will know... have fun."

--- Do you have anything in the works right now?

--- Many big things, but for two or three years from now. Now I am working on a symphony for Peralada, a version of the Gloria for band, a wind quintet for the Palau, I have premiered a saxophone quintet in Mahón... I write continuously. Chamber music and songs I never stop, and the big things... in due time.