One movement.

Mixed choir *2*2*32-4330-tmp+2-pf-cu

09-04-1960 Orfeó Català. Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona. Lluís Maria Millet, conductor. Palau de la Música Catalana, Barcelona.

Lluís Millet Prize given by the Orfeó Català for the 50th anniversary of the Palau de la Música Catalana.

Text from Joan Maragall's poem.

Symphonic poem or cantata for orchestra and choir.

Comments

"When I was still studying at the Barcelona Conservatory, deeply impressed by Joan Maragall's poem, I imagined it as a song of great pathos, blinded by its luminous spiritual celsius. It seemed to call for the voices of a polyphonic ensemble and the strength of a orchestra to make its powerful expressiveness more apparent. Musically, Canto espiritual is presented as a poem, in which the orchestral effects gloss - sometimes precede - the plot of the themes, to which the voices give a harmonic structure in accord with the emotional sense of the text."

Xavier Montsalvatge, 1994.

"The climate created in the introduction by the chromatic designs of the wood over a bass of the piano and strings grows and accelerates to give way to the singing that takes the lead, while the strings discreetly accompany Maragall's own writing. The different lyrical climates of the poet are underlined by individualized treatments of choir and orchestra."

Xosé Aviñoa, 2002.