Maria del Mar Bonet, captivating at the Palau de la Música

"This is a popular song made now", says Maria del Mar Bonet before performing S'aigo no, one of the songs from the magnificent album L'aigua no cansa that she has just released. When she sings the verse "make all Valencians be able to return to their homes", the audience at the Palau de la Música applauds the gesture that recalls the victims of the 2024 storm. And the applause is louder when she says "let them quickly remove the responsible politicians who never served any purpose and have made the disaster worse". Indeed, a popular song made now by a captivating Maria del Mar Bonet, in a state of creative and interpretive grace.

After almost sixty years of career, she continues to be an artist with things to say and eager to engage in musical adventures like that of the album L'aigua no cansa, for the presentation of which she has designed a repertoire that includes pieces from other eras woven together by a subtle, more or less explicit, common thread: water. She is accompanied by the quintet with which she also amazed at L'Auditori 2 in 2025 in the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the concert at the Olympia in Paris. In fact, in that performance a year ago she already previewed some songs that have ended up being part of the new album and offer a Mediterranean sound in the broadest sense. When S'aigo no begins, Benjamí Salom's violin draws an almost klezmer lament, because Maria del Mar Bonet's musical Mediterranean, which is also that of Toni Pastor's lute and Marc Grases' guitar, reaches the Black Sea, passes through the entire southern shore to the East shaken by war and returns along the northern shore via Greece, Naples, Alghero, Mallorca and Valencia.

Before delving into new material, the concert, programmed within Guitar BCN, revisited gems such as Aigo, Nina, ninona, Abril, Cançó per una bona mort and Dansa de primavera. All integrated into a single musical discourse that is also very diverse. The feeling the musicians convey is one of absolute trust in each other, as when double bassist Marko Lohikari and percussionist José Llorach join forces in the progressive introduction of Nina, ninona, and the lute and violin dance the spring dance. An exultant From Mallorca to L'Alguer and an impressive I will leave home closed the first set, after which she sang the nine songs from the new album with a focused voice, sometimes taking on vocal challenges (in Sa ximbomba, for example). Maria del Mar Bonet is the antithesis of musical laziness. She likes to challenge and challenge herself with judgment and sensitivity; she is the mirror that artists of other generations seek to go further and further. L'aigua no cansa rises with clapping hands and a square tambourine. Blaus i blaus walks between the flamenco of the guitar and the jazz of the double bass. The verses by Blai Bonet and the music by Antoni Parera in Blaus i sol de roses blanques sound like a universal folk song, and she sings it exultantly. Llorach makes Cançó dels disbarats walk to the rhythm of the tarantella. And always, with Maria del Mar Bonet singing in the service of emotion.

"The war has a name, the name of Trump"

The presentation of the new material ends with a change of register. The celebration gives way to a deserved indignation. She introduces "Moon of Peace", a poem she wrote in the early nineties, following the first Gulf War. She regrets that it is still so relevant. "War has a name, the name of Trump," she says. The poem has been made into a song with music by the Cuban José María Vitier, and that's why at the Palau de la Música she dedicates it "to friends from Cuba and to all the musicians" she met there. She sings it accompanied by pianist Gori Matas. It is impressive how she manages sensitivity with her voice.

The pertinent ovation preceded exuberant encores. First with the oriental swing of "For Hippocrates" and a stratospheric "To feel" which Maria del Bar Bonet performs with that authority that explains why she is an artistic reference. With a clenched fist, she finishes "What do these people want", always moving and with the audience at the Palau de la Música completing verses. Strolling across the stage, she gifts "The Balanguera". And she closes the show with the "Jota marinera", a popular song from now and forever.