The Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera and the Liceu present on 12 May an intimate recital by Albert Cano Smit in the Foyer. The programme explores melancholy with works by composers such as Satie or Debussy and engages in dialogue with the spirit of the Nabis and the exhibition at La Pedrera. A proposal that brings together music and visual arts in a poetic and immersive experience.
The Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera and the Gran Teatre del Liceu present the piano concert by Albert Cano Smit, on Tuesday 12 May at 8 p.m. in the Foyer of the Liceu. This concert engages in dialogue with the work of the Nabis, a group of artists who transformed painting at the end of the 19th century. The dialogue between music and the artistic universe of the Nabi movement proposes a sensory experience around the creative centre of Paris in the early 20th century, shared among the artists and composers of that same period.
Albert Cano Smit brings to the Liceu a recital that engages in dialogue with the universe of the Nabis
Pianist Albert Cano Smit will offer a concert inspired by the art of the Nabis, in which music will enter into dialogue with visuals related to the exhibition at La Pedrera. The Foyer space will be transformed to evoke a domestic salon from the early 20th century, in an immersive experience that recreates the atmosphere of private concerts of the period: an intimate setting where the solo piano becomes the centre, and where image and music intertwine through a stage design made of frames suggesting paintings hanging on the walls. Within these frames, works and enlarged details will be projected, gradually shaping different visual compositions throughout the recital.
The programme will include pieces by Erik Satie, Claude Debussy, Camille Saint-Saëns, Mel Bonis, Gabriel Fauré, Cécile Chaminade, Maurice Ravel, Modest Mussorgsky and César Franck, in tune with the poetic and spiritual sensibility of the Nabi movement.
For this concert, the visuals will be created by architect and designer Carles Berga, who will bring audiences closer to the works in the exhibition currently on view at La Pedrera and build a visual narrative in dialogue with the music. Sergio Gracia is responsible for technical direction and lighting design. The proposal seeks to build bridges between composers and visual artists of early 20th-century Paris, many of whom shared creative circles, thus generating an experience that connects context, artwork and sound.
Praised as “a moving young poet” and “a great Romantic” (Le Devoir), Albert Cano Smit enjoys a growing international career in orchestral performance, recitals and chamber music.
Recognised for his captivating interpretations, narrative ability and nuanced musicality, the winner of the 2019 Young Concert Artists International Auditions First Prize has appeared as a soloist with the symphony orchestras of San Diego, Seattle, Montreal, the Colorado Music Festival, Las Vegas, Manchester and Barcelona, among others.
He also won First Prize at the 2017 Walter W. Naumburg Piano Competition, which led to a recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. More recently, Albert was awarded the 2020 Arthur Rubinstein Piano Prize from The Juilliard School.
Exhibition «The Nabis: from Bonnard to Vuillard» at La Pedrera
The ticket also includes a visit to the exhibition «The Nabis: from Bonnard to Vuillard», a show that explores how a group of artists transformed painting at the end of the 19th century, placing emotion, subjectivity and everyday life at the centre of modern art. This is the first exhibition in Barcelona exclusively dedicated to this movement. The exhibition can be visited in the exhibition hall of La Pedrera, the former residence of the Milà family, until 28 June.
The Nabis group –a word derived from the Hebrew neviim, ‘prophets’– sought to bring a new creative vision and generate a total art conceived in perfect resonance with modern life. They understood painting not as a simple representation of reality, but as an expressive language capable of conveying sensations, memories and inner atmospheres. With a gaze removed from naturalism, they opened the way to a new conception of art that anticipates many of the fundamental ideas of modernity.
Active between 1888 and 1900, the group formed around Paul Sérusier, originally with students from the Académie Julian in Paris: Paul-Élie Ranson, Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard and Maurice Denis, and were soon joined by Henri-Gabriel Ibels, Georges Lacombe, Aristides Maillol, József Rippl-Rónai, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Félix Vallotton and Jan Verkade.
The exhibition journey, with nearly two hundred works, is divided into several thematic sections to present the main characteristics and themes of the group.
