As part of its Year of Gaudí celebrations, Barcelona marked the centennial of visionary Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí’s passing on June 10th. Catalan native and Berklee professor Olivia Pérez-Collellmir honors the architect with her new piece, Seven Dreams of Gaudí. The piece received its world premiere at the Palau de la Música Catalana, performed by 200 musicians from the London Philharmonia Orchestra and the choirs of Orfeó Català, conducted by Marin Alsop.
WCRB's Brian McCreath speaks with Morning Edition's Tori Bedford live from Barcelona about attending the concert and the Gaudí festivities taking place in Boston’s sister city.
TRANSCRIPT:
Tori Bedford: This is GBH's Morning Edition. I'm Tori Bedford. What you're hearing is the music of Berkelee composer Olivia Pérez-Collellmir. It's part of Seven Dreams of Gaudí, written to celebrate Catalan-Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí whose basilica Sagrada Familia is the architectural signature of the city of Barcelona in Spain.
Barcelona is a sister city of Boston, and GBH Music's Brian McCreath was at the world premiere of Seven Dreams of Gaudí last night. He joins me now from Barcelona. Brian, thanks for joining us.
Brian McCreath: Hey, good to be with you, Tori.
Tori Bedford: So why is Barcelona celebrating Gaudí at this moment in time?
Brian McCreath: There's actually a lot of reasons. One is that yesterday marks the centenary of Gaudí's death, and so it's just one of those round number things that we all like to celebrate. But more importantly, they just completed the highest spire of Sagrada Familia. So this is this incredibly wild church that Gaudí came up with. They started building it in 1882. There's 18 spires that are meant to be built, and 14 of them have been built so far. And this tallest one, the spire for Jesus, was just completed. So it's a huge celebration just for that. Also, Barcelona is the UNESCO World Capital of Architecture for 2026, and there's Gaudí architecture all over Barcelona. And it's also the year of Gaudí just in Barcelona. They're doing maybe an extra special celebration because of this centenary.
Not for nothing, by the way: the Pope arrived in town also to celebrate all this stuff. So there's this extra buzz of energy around the city as the Pope has been making his way around.
Tori Bedford: When I think about Gaudí, I think about excess and detail and drama. We should get more into describing the Sagrada Familia. It's like these tall, stained glass windows and detail, little architectural details, everywhere. How did they kind of capture his spirit in this concert that you went to last night? Tell me about the concert.
Brian McCreath: Oh, in so many ways. Well, you're right. First of all, I should say that I was not able to actually walk into the Sagrada Familia. You have to get tickets so far ahead of time, and with the Pope in town, I kind of gave up hope of that. [McCreath laughs] But I went just to get the scale of it, to stand next to this amazing basilica. Everything you described is exactly right. There is such detail, there's such whimsy, maybe, there's so much symbolism in this architecture, and so in the music that was written to celebrate this. It's a special concert that was staged last night at another amazing place, not one designed by Gaudí, but the Palau de la Música Catalana (or the Palace of Catalan Music) is an unbelievably beautiful concert hall. I've known about it for years and was so happy to finally actually be there.
And it was a concert given by the Philharmonia Orchestra of London with conductor Marin Alsop. She's the Music Director Laureate of the Baltimore Symphony, and she also has a close relationship with the Philharmonia Orchestra. There was also a Catalan soprano soloist, Núria Rial—she's internationally known, but she's from this area—and then a choral group called Orfeó Català, and they're a legendary group with many levels of youth and professional choirs. They were all there singing. And to celebrate Gaudí in this concert, there were two pieces composed specifically for this occasion. One of them was Seven Dreams of Gaudí that you referenced earlier, and the other is a piece by David Cieri called 84 Bells.
So, the bells that are referred to in that title were actually used in both pieces, but they are bells that have just been cast after plans that Gaudí left behind at the time of his death and had never been made. A few of them have been made and they're going to be installed in the Sagrada Familia sometime in the future, but they were used in this concert for these specific pieces of music.
Tori Bedford: It's so incredible to think. So he had envisioned 84 bells, and they've built these bells, and then David Cieri incorporated them into this song. I want to play a little bit of it and we'll get back into it in a minute, but let's hear a little bit of 84 Bells.
[MUSIC]
Tori Bedford: The drama. The drama!
Brian McCreath: And just real quick, Tori, I'll just offer a quick correction. That's actually Olivia Pérez-Collellmir's piece Seven Dreams of Gaudí. They both used—
Tori Bedford: Oh I'm sorry. They both used the bells?
Brian McCreath: No, no, it's ok! They do, they do. And so the idea of these bells is they're very special bells that are cast in a special way. It's a bit complicated to explain, but you can actually hear two pitches on a single bell when someone plays them in the right way. It's really wild, and they added an amazing sort of tone to this concert that's really going to make it a one of a kind event.
Tori Bedford: And Olivia Pérez-Collellmir, she is from Barcelona. She has a Boston connection. Can you tell us more about her?
Brian McCreath: That's right. She went to the Berklee College of Music and now teaches there, and she's known really for her, for her work in jazz piano. She teaches piano and ensembles at Berkelee, but she also writes other kinds of music, and this is the first symphonic level piece that she's ever written. And so there was a very special feeling in the hall last night as the audience knows her, knows her Catalan roots and knows her connection. Her father was an architect who was literally baptized at the Sagrada Familia. There's so much very, very personal connection between what she was writing about and the music itself that she expressed that through.
Tori Bedford: Brian, where can we hear this music here in Boston?
Brian McCreath: So the music is going to be in a broadcast that we will present later on this year on WCRB 99.5. And so we will feature it in a couple of news stories coming up in the next couple of months, but then the entire concert will be on the air later on in the fall. And in fact, I should just mention that our own colleague Antonio Oliart is here. He recorded the concert. He himself has family roots in Barcelona, so there's an extra special angle there as well.
Tori Bedford: Amazing. We'll look forward to it. So let's hear a little more of Seven Dreams of Gaudí to end with. Here's those amazing bells. Thank you so much, Brian.
Brian McCreath: My pleasure, Tori. Great to talk with you.
[MUSIC]
Read the program notes for this concert.
Thank you to the Mattina R. Proctor Foundation for providing support for this coverage.