Exciting tribute to the friendship between Conxita Badia and Pau Casals

There are friendships that endure beyond one's own life and impact future generations. This is the case of Conxita Badia and Pau Casals, two musicians and friends whose respective careers were cut short by the Civil War. This year, the fiftieth anniversary of their death, we celebrate the Year of Conxita Badia with a series of events that aim to vindicate the figure –not sufficiently known– of one of the best Catalan sopranos of the 20th century.

With the title of Shared melodies, soprano Montserrat Seró, cellist Pau Codina, and pianist Marc Heredia offered an intimate and moving recital in the church of Carmen in Peralada, which celebrated this uninterrupted friendship despite the war. The concert, structured in two parts, explored the soprano's most beloved songs, evoking lieder, international melodies, and songs composed by Casals and Badia herself.

Seró, one of the rising Catalan sopranos on the international scene, displayed a clear, limpid voice with good projection and intense high notes, with careful and expressive phrasing. She opened with Eternal elegy, by the late Badia teacher and great friend of Casals, Enric Granados, followed by Bist of you at mir, by Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, and Schubert's wonderful lied Stands. In After a reverie, by Gabriel Fauré, highlighted Codina's warm and musical cello, with its delicate textures.

Morgen, by Richard Strauss, was a particularly inspired moment, with exquisite performances by all three musicians. I captivated her, Berlioz's, Seró struggled with the difficulty of the score, with Codina opting for an expressive and confident reading, while in Élégie, From Jules Massenet, the cellist obtained all the colors of his instrument with a romantic and deep sound. Heredia's piano, always attentive and refined, sounded a little too loud in theIntermezzo of Goyaescas, occasionally covering the cello in the most intense passage.

The second part, dedicated to Catalan song, featured various works by Pau Casals created specifically for Conxita Badia: Ballad of the New Solveig, the delicate one At a Child's Funeral - The White Lily and, obviously, The song of the birds; while from Badia we discover her great melodic sensitivity as a composer with Lullaby and two versions of I love you, the first more naive and delicate; the second, I love you so much, more complex, probably because it is sung in public. The two final encores, the popular Catalan song The girl from Empordà and samba Blue, by Jayme Ovalle, closed an elegant evening full of shared sensibilities.