And now for some genuinely new music


Catalonia is a creative powerhouse: Pau Casals*, Joan Miró, Antoni Gaudí, and Salvador Dalí were all proud Catalans, and today Barcelona is a vibrant centre of the arts. Jordi Savall is just one of the contemporary Catalan musicians who has had a global impact, and modern modal master Ross Daly's Crete-based music co-operative has an annual Labyrinth in Catalunya outreach workshop.

My recent plea for the composers in the photo above taken at the summer workshop of the National Youth Orchestra of Catalonia in 2000 to be identified has been answered by Santi Barguñó of Neu Records with help from Ramón Humet who is in the photo. They are from left to right: Benet Casablancas (bio & music), Marcos Bosch (bio & music), Josep Maria Guix (bio & music), Carles Tort, Moisés Bertran (bio & music), Ramón Humet (bio & music), Enric Riu (bio & music), Joan Guinjoan (bio & music) and Jonathan Harvey.

I have added links to biographies and music samples for the composers**. These are contemporary composers with something new to say. So why not take a break from the depressingly predictable albums of the year and Grammy nominee listicles, and instead explore some genuinely new music.

* One item of little-known music trivia is that Pau Casals - typically stereotyped as being rather po-faced - was a close friend of the Russian composer Thomas De Hartmann who is best known for collaborating with the controversial mystic G. I. Gurdjieff. Although Hartmann is remembered for his joint compositions with Gurdjieff he was a prolific composer in his own right, and Casals performed Hartmann's Cello Concerto opus 57 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1935. Pianist Elan Sicroff has recently masterminded a 7 CD overview of Hartmann's previously unrecorded chamber music.
** I could trace no information on Carles Tort. If anyone can supply links to a biography of him and music samples I will add them.

No review samples involved in this post. Any copyrighted material is included as "fair use" for critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Also on Facebook and Twitter.

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