BIOGRAPHY
ALBERT GUINOVART
The composer and pianist Albert Guinovart is the exceptional heir of the extraordinary cultural renaissance that emerged so powerfully in early twentieth-century Catalonia. It led to the birth of new aesthetic foundations, firmly built upon great European culture and drawing upon popular sources and inherited tradition.
His prolific work includes the composition of two operas, a ballet, an extensive catalogue of symphonic works and a no less important production of chamber repertoire, the piano being a constant feature of his work from the beginning of his career to the present. His works have been premiered in prestigious concert halls around the world by leading performers, orchestras and conductors of recognized international prestige.
Albert Guinovart represents the perfect synchrony of his own different facets, especially composition, orchestration and teaching, and as the established performer that he has proven to be, both through great classical and romantic repertoire and extensive pianistic catalogue.
He is the composer of two operas, Atzar and Alba Eterna, a ballet, Terra Baixa, and six musicals, works endorsed by two Max awards for best music and three Butaca awards for best composer, in particular Mar i Cel, Flor de Nit, Gaudí and La Vampira del Raval. The success of his musicals is such that, thirty years after some of their premiers, fragments of Mar i Cel or Flor de Nit can still be heard on the streets of Barcelona, sung by an adoring audience.
His orchestral works, full of tremendous strength and vitality, such as El Lament de la Terra (commissioned by the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and premiered by Roberto Minczuk), El Somni de Gaudí (commissioned by the Castile and León Symphony Orchestra and conducted at its premiere by Vasily Petrenko), the three concertos for piano, the “Clarosbcur” concert for percussion, piano and strings or L'amor i el foc, evoke their profound universal message without forgetting their sonic roots. They also reveal a delicate art of orchestration that can also be heard in their debt to religious music in works such as Réquiem, Te Deum and the award-winning Gloria.
Albert Guinovart also has an important catalogue of chamber works, amongst which Les Aventures de Monseur Jules Verne for brass and piano ensemble, sonatas for flute and saxophone, the Mirall Trencat trio for violin, horn and piano and the Kepler Quartet stand out. The latter work is already considered a repertoire piece amongst chamber ensembles. His work for piano emerged from the visual greatness of Mompou and Montsalvatge and has evolved into its own discourse that offers us a whole catalogue of essential works, such as Nocturn (for Pilar Bayona), Retrats de Barcelona, Nocturn for Chloé, Fantasia-Evocació, Skyshadows or the work that has already become a point of reference, Valses Poéticos.
His compositions and arrangements, both orchestral and chamber music, have been premiered by leading international figures such as Plácido Domingo, Gustavo Dudamel, Christopher Hogwood, Vasily Petrenko, Lawrence Foster, Franz Paul Decker, Edmon Colomer, Enrique Diemecke, Daniel Cohen, James Laughram, Josep Pons, Neville Marriner, Phillipe Entremont or Gianandrea Noseda, together with prestigious orchestras such as the Sydney Festival Orchestra, Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Saint Petersburg Academic Symphony Orchestra, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra of Budapest, Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and National Orchestra of Catalonia, Madrid Symphony Orchestra and Castile and León Symphony Orchestra, amongst others.
As a performer, Albert Guinovart has given concerts in which he performs his own compositions, as well as the great repertoire, in numerous recitals in the most prestigious concert halls in Europe, America, Japan and Australia. It is not difficult to find him in important and renowned concert series and he has left us with unforgettable moments in the recitals that he has given all over the world, together with Victòria de los Ángeles.
There are numerous works that he has recorded to date (over sixty), many of them released by prestigious record labels such as EMI, DECCA, Harmonía Mundi or SONY Classical and drawing both from repertoire on which he is an authority (Joaquín Turina, Enric Granados, Isaac Albéniz and Joaquín Rodrigo), and his own compositions.
Albert Guinovart’s relationship with the creative sound world of his generation has led him to compose original music for cinema, with successful results such as El llarg hivern, or his orchestration of the Oscar-winning soundtrack of The Artist. His theme songs for the television series Nissaga de Poder, Laberint d’ombres, Mirall Trencat and El Cor de la Ciutat are also well known.
In 2003 and 2013, Albert Guinovart was commissioned to compose the official music for the World Swimming Championships held in Barcelona.
A new work in the creative universe of Albert Guinovart came to light in May 2022, with the premiere of Ve-t'ho aquí, a children's cantata composed with David Pintó, which was premiered within the framework of the 55th anniversary of the Secretariat Children's Choirs of Catalonia. The work, which proposes a new look at classic tales and their protagonists, their identities and relationships, is now available on different playback platforms.
Among his most recent laurels, is the transformation into a record of his opera Alba Eterna, a tragedy in two acts about beauty and the passage of time. Around 2022, Sony Classical has released this work —which after Atzar has been Guinovart's second opera— recorded by the Franz Schubert Filharmonia and conducted by Tomàs Grau. Two hours long for this musical work that was premiered in Reus in 2009, recorded in 2016 with four lead singers (soprano Martha Mathéu, mezzo-soprano Anna Alàs, tenor Marc Sala and baritone Josep-Ramon Olivé) and then of a postponement in post-production forced by the health emergency, turned into a record and published at the beginning of the post-pandemic spring. A work that, like the entire sound universe created by Guinovart, highlights its delicacy and enormous beauty.
In 2023, Albert Guinovart achieved significant milestones in his artistic career, such as his highly anticipated debut at Carnegie Hall in New York in June. The recital, dedicated to the memory of Alicia de Larrocha and framed within the centennial year of the great Catalan pianist, was particularly poignant. Guinovart had a close professional and admiring relationship with Larrocha, and the program featured iconic pieces the pianist had performed worldwide, such as Granados' "Valses Poéticos" and Turina's "Danzas Fantásticas." Additionally, the recital included a world premiere of Guinovart's own composition, "Nocturn a Alicia," dedicated to the revered Alicia de Larrocha.
Months before his Carnegie Hall debut, Guinovart released "Poems Without Words," his fifth album published by Sony Classical and his second solo piano monographic work. In this album, Guinovart interprets his latest piano compositions. The project has become one of the most successful releases in recent months, reaching over 100,000 streams on various streaming platforms in less than four weeks since its launch.
"Poems Without Words" emerged during the challenging period of the pandemic when Guinovart aimed to gift the audience a ray of hope and confidence in a better future. He published a piece daily on his social media platforms, and these pieces were compiled into twenty-four preludes. These compositions served as a reminder that beauty is more crucial than ever in such challenging times.
BIOGRAPHY TEXT: © MIOTTA & MOLIÈRE
HONOURS &
AWARDS
Alícia Award for Authorship
by "Les Aventures De Monsieur Jules"
ALICIA AWARDS
2021
Best Contemporary Classical Music Album
by "Les Aventures De Monsieur Jules"
CARLES SANTOS AWARDS 2020
Recognition Award for creativity and
the contribution towards Copla music
AGUSTÍN BORGUNYÓ NATIONAL AWARD
2020
Best Composition
by "Gloria"
ANSELM CLAVÉ AWARDS 2019
Steinway Artist
STEINWAY & SONS
2019
Recognition Award for
the Overall Work
CIUTAT DE BARCELONA AWARDS
2014
Best Musical Composition for a Performing Arts
by "La Vampira del Raval"
MAX AWARDS
2013
Best Musical Composition for a Performing Arts
by "La Vampira del Raval"
MAX AWARDS
2013
Best Musical Composition
by "La Vampira del Raval"
BUTACA AWARDS
2012
Best Musical Composition
by "En la Toscana"
BUTACA AWARDS
2008