Free live music and stuff in Bilbao, Vitoria and Las Palmas, September 2024

We spent the first week of September in Basque Country. Here are some exhibitions we’ve seen in Azkuna Zentroa / Alhóndiga Bilbao, Plaza Arriquibar, 4, Bilbao:

• 6 October 2022 — 29 September 2024: «Ur aitzak»
  Six sculptures by Elena Aitzkoa, in collaboration with artists Josu Bilbao and Leo Burge.

  

• 20 June 2024 — 6 January 2025: «Allora & Calzadilla: KLIMA»
  Works by a collaborative duo of visual artists Jennifer Allora (1974, USA) and Guillermo Calzadilla (1971, Cuba).

  

...and in Artium Museoa, Francia Kalea, 24, Vitoria-Gasteiz:

• 10 May 2024 — 22 September 2024: «Artxiboa/Archivo»
  The documentary collection of Néstor Basterretxea (1924—2014).

  

• From 31 March 2023: «Bilduma Hau Colección. Movimientos elementales (1950—2000)»
  Works by Gabriel Aresti, Isabel Baquedano, Néstor Basterretxea, Gabriel Celaya, Eduardo Chillida, María Franciska Dapena, Esther Ferrer, Luis Peña Ganchegui, Agustín Ibarrola, Cristina Iglesias, Itziar Okariz, Merche Olabe, Jorge Oteiza, Blas de Otero, Álvaro Perdices, Juan Antonio Sistiaga, Susana Solano and others. Read more here.

  

• 26 April — 29 September: «Unform»
  Works by Patricia Dauder.

  

Back to Las Palmas — and to live music.

• 10 September: «Ars Polyphonica» @ Casa de Colón, Calle Colón, 1
  Camerata Iberia featuring Gabriel Díaz (countertenor), Juan Carlos de Mulder (lute) and Carlos Oramas (vihuela). The programme included:
  1. Pierre Attaingnant: Tant que vivray
     Luys Milán: Fantasía VIII
     Jean-Baptiste Besard: La voila la nacelle d’amour
     Josquin des Prez: El Grillo
  2. Luys de Narváez / Diego Ortiz: Passamezzo antico
     Juan del Encina: ¿Quién te traxo, cavallero?
     Vincenzo Capirola: Ricercar alla Spagnola
     Anonymous (from Cancionero de Palacio): L’amor, donna
     Juan del Encina: Levanta Pascual
  3. Josquin des Prez: Mille Regretz
     Anonymous: Et in Spiritum Sanctum
     Josquin des Prez: In te Domine speravi
     Bartolomeo Tromboncino: Voi che passate qui
     Anonymous (from Cancioneiro de Paris): Não tragais borzeguis pretos
  4. Anonymous/Cristóvão Falcão (from Cancioneiro de Paris): Pois tudo tam pouco dura
     Fabritio Caroso: Spagnoletta
     Juan del Encina: ¿Qu’es de ti, desconsolado?
     Juan del Encina: Folias

  Llibre Vermell de Montserrat: Mariam matrem virginem (encore)

  

• 17 September: «Tríos de corno di bassetto en la Viena de Mozart» @ Casa de Colón, Calle Colón, 1
  Mayrhofer Trio featuring Eric Hoeprich, Kayo Nishida and Alejandro Fariña (basset horn). The programme included:
  • Divertimento No. 3, KV439b
    Allegro
    Menuetto
    Adagio
    Menuetto
    Rondo
  • Arrangements for three basset horns
  Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja (Die Zauberflöte, KV620)
  Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen (Die Zauberflöte)
  Marsch der Priester (Die Zauberflöte)
  Voi che sapete (Le nozze di Figaro, KV492)
  Non più andrai, farfallone amoroso (Le nozze di Figaro)
  • Duets for two basset horns, KV487
    Allegro
    Larghetto
    Menuetto
    Polonaise
    Allegro
  • Divertimento No. 4, KV439b
    Allegro
    Larghetto
    Menuetto
    Adagio
    Rondo

  Menuetto from Divertimento No. 4 (encore)

  

• 19 September: Ángel Ravelo & Dani Cano @ Museo Castillo de Mata, Calle Domingo Guerra del Río, 147
  Another concert from the cycle «12 Noches de autor»; another mixed bag. When I thought it was all over and I was ready to leave, both cantautores performed the very last song. Turned out, Ángel Ravelo plays sax really well.

  

• 28 September: Ensemble DifrAcción @ Conservatorio Superior de Música de Canarias, calle Maninidra, 1
  This concert was a part of the IV Festival Contemporáneo del Festival Internacional de Música de Canarias. Featuring Pablo Araya (violin), Verónica Cagigao (percussion), Laura Delgado García (oboe), Pablo Díaz Estrada (flute, pito herreño), Gustavo Díaz-Jerez (piano), Ciro Hernández Perdigón (cello), Ewa Moszczynska (viola) and Francisco Suárez Hernández (clarinet); conducted by José María de Vicente. The programme included:
  • Leandro A. Martín: Tal traje saliva (première)
  • Laura Vega: Like a tiny drop of dew (ensemble version)
  • Gustavo Díaz-Jerez: Yajna (première)
  • Olivier Messiaen: Abîme des oiseaux (clarinete solo)
  • Tristan Murail: Cloches d‘adieu, et un sourire (piano solo)
  • Toshio Hosokawa: Drawing
  I already commented on the state of ventilation in this auditorio a year ago. No, it didn’t improve. On top of that, when the concert was over, we (the audience) discovered that the gates were locked. It took about 10 minutes for the security guard to locate the spare set of keys and let the crowd out, to the roaring applause.

And that was it for September.

Hágase tu voluntad

a film by Adrián Silvestre

Ricardo wants to die. He lost his beloved wife, Carmen, he suffered two strokes and is depressed. Before dying, however, he wants to speak to his two sons — one of them is the film’s director — whom he didn’t see for more than 20 years. The reason for their separation is never adequately explained. Maybe it shouldn’t be.

I do sympathise with the protagonist although at no point did he strike me as a particularly nice person. He clearly needs to be the centre of attention, now that the family unites around him. While he wallows in nostalgia and self-pity, Adrián’s mother, who’s been caring for her ex-husband for years, feels abandoned. (We’ll probably never know how did Ricardo treat Carmen.) When Adrián accompanies him to start a request process for euthanasia (this is the only scene in the film spoken in Valencian), Ricardo seems to be taken aback by apparent simplicity of the whole thing. Is it that easy?

In the beginning I thought, here comes another “let’s make a documentary about my parent” project in the vein of Une vie comme une autre or Muchos hijos, un mono y un castillo. (Indeed, in an interview, Adrián Silvestre quotes the latter film as an inspiration). It turned out to be a completely different affair. No more spoilers, just let me say that Hágase tu voluntad is worth watching for the final scene alone.

The Informer

a film by John Ford

Now it’s hard to understand why in 1936 this unthrilling thriller won four Oscars. Probably the weakest of John Ford movies I’ve seen so far but hey, those were the early days of awarding. Victor McLaglen is good enough as a leading man, for a while, and there are some comic moments in this otherwise pathetically predictable feast of over-acting.

The Informer was screened at the Aula de Cine of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria as a part of the John Ford cycle (September—December 2024).

Tabu: A Story of the South Seas

a film by F. W. Murnau

This 1931 classic was shown as a part of the cycle Tiempo de memoria, memoria en el tiempo, organised by Instituto Canario de Desarrollo Cultural (ICDC). The picture quality of this restored version, in almost square aspect ratio, is surprisingly good, given that the original negative was lost.

Tabu was the last film by Murnau: a week before its première, he died as a result of a car accident, at the age of 42.

Free live music and stuff in Las Palmas, August 2024

These are a few things that we’ve seen in August. Sketches by Tamara.

• 10 August: LPA Groove Summer @ Auditorio José Antonio Ramos, Parque Doramas, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
  • Nala Rami, a band led by Alan Imar Rodríguez Mitchell (vocals, sax, flute), accompanied by Carlos Artiles (bass), Kilian Barrera (drums), Marta Herrera “Holly” Hollingsworth (vocals), Luis Sánchez Guerra (keyboards) and Leonardo Segovia (guitar).
  • A new incarnation of D’Local Groove with Miqui Delgado (piano, keys), José Carlos Cejudo (bass), César Martel (trumpet), Luis Merino (guitar), Javier Montero (drums), Miguel Ramírez (sax, rap) and Alba Serrano (vocals).
  • Eddie Roberts & The Lucky Strokes featuring Ashley Galbraith (bass), Taylor Galbraith (drums), Shelby Kemp (guitar, lead vocals), Eddie Roberts (guitar, vocals) and Chris Spies (keyboards).

  

• 22 August: «Iberia» @ Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno (CAAM), Calle de los Balcones, 9
  Sergio Sánchez presented “electroacoustic concert with experimental sounds from social environments” of Iberian Peninsula. In my book, standing behind his laptop, even if pressing occasionally some keys, does not count as a concert, but well. There was no other visual support, so I was bored beyond belief. This performance was closing the cycle CAAMSonora of which I was blissfully unaware until now.

  

• 22 August: Jesús Garriga @ Museo Castillo de Mata, Calle Domingo Guerra del Río, 147
  I couldn’t listen to «Iberia» for longer than 15 minutes and left for another concert (the real one) from the cycle «12 Noches de autor».

  

• 23 August: Notas de Verano en Colón: Ana Falcón & Alba Rodríguez @ Casa de Colón, Calle Colón, 1
  A double bill of two young Canarian cantautoras.

  

And exhibitions, all of them seen in CAAM before «Iberia»:

• 20 June — 1 September: «Toda utopía pasa por la barriga»
  Works by Carlos Garaicoa (Havana, Cuba, 1967).

• 4 July — 6 October: «Legado»
  Works by Juan Hidalgo Codorniú (1927—2018).

  

• 18 July — 29 September: «Artistas en residencia»
  Works by Adriana Frutos and Gregorio Viera.

Looking forward to September already.