The Gift That Kept on Giving

The Gift of the Locked Door…that’s the gift that keeps on giving! We were recently lucky enough to buy tickets for an Art de Guitarra concert (see prior post for long explanation of all the “luck” at work that day). Immediately following the concert there was a hosted wine reception with the two guitarists. We spent some time chatting with our fellow attendees in a mix of Spanish, Spanglish, English and – I think – Dutch. We learned that a rather well known spanish guitarist would be performing a “History of the Spanish Guitar” concert the next night at the Palau de la Musica and that tickets were still available. Turns out the Palau was just up the street from us so the next morning we walked over and bought tickets. For about $30 each we were able to buy box seats in the historic and beautiful main concert hall of the Palau. It’s an Art Noveau building from the early 1900’s – absolutely beautiful if a little “frilly.”

Palau – exterior (photo not mine)

Palau – interior (photo not mine)

While we had very much enjoyed the concert the evening before it was quickly clear to us that that Xavier Coll, the artist for the evening, was a “whole new level’ of guitar concert. He played for about 90 minutes using 4 different guitars: a renaissance guitar (Vihuela), a Baroque style guitar, a Romantic style guitar, and then a modern Spanish version. Here is an example of what we saw – taped at a prior concert in the same venue. Coll is playing the Romantic guitar (from early 1800’s) in this video.

It was another wonderfully random evening and, once again, one we probably wouldn’t have experienced without having locked ourselves out of our flat! I took a few photos of the interior of the Palau that give some idea of the detail feel of the concert hall.