Manuel Blancafort (1897-1987) - Complete Piano Music (Miquel Villalba)

Manuel Blancafort i de Rosselló was born on 12th August 1897 in the spa town of La Garriga, near Barcelona, into an educated, middle-class Catalan family. His parents owned a famous hotel in the town which was frequented by many artists, intellectuals and politicians. An enterprising man, and an enthusiast for technological innovation, his father had also set up a factory in La Garriga to produce pianola rolls, and this in effect became Blancafort’s music school.
Blancafort studied music first with his father, and then with Joan Alsius, who taught him the basics of composition. Then, as a teenager, he began to work in the family factory. It was his job to examine music scores in minute detail and convert the notes into series of perforations on rolls of paper. He was therefore able to learn all about different styles of writing, from the classical composers to the latest works by Debussy, Ravel and Schoenberg, among others, and to complete his musical education — to all intents and purposes he was self-taught. Life at the hotel also gave him the opportunity to meet a number of musicians and composers, including Joan Lamote de Grignon and Frederic Mompou, both of whom gave him advice and looked over his early compositions.
It was his meeting with Mompou, in 1914, that was to prove the most significant for the young Blancafort, not only musically but also aesthetically and spiritually. Mompou took on the rôle of elder brother, supporting Blancafort and guiding him as he took his first steps as a composer, as well as helping him find his way around the rich and innovative musical scene of 1920s Paris.
The première of Blancafort’s El parc d’atraccions (The funfair), given by the pianist, Ricardo Viñes, in Paris in 1926, was enthusiastically received by that city’s demanding public, and Maurice Sénart, one of the leading French publishing houses, took an interest in the young composer and went on to publish most of his works.
Unfortunately, a promising career was soon brought to an end: the demands of family life (he was to have eleven children), the closure of his father’s factory (caused by the growing success of the gramophone), and problems arising from the Spanish Civil War combined to oblige Blancafort to set up home in Barcelona and spend most of the rest of his life working for an insurance company. Despite the restrictions this entailed, he was nevertheless able, with the support of his remarkable wife, to find a few precious moments in which he could compose, eventually building up a sizeable catalogue of works which represent “the living synthesis of Catalan musical culture” (Manuel Valls).
Spanish isolation during the Franco years, and in particular the closure of the French border, made it difficult for Blancafort to achieve any international fame for his work, but he won prizes and official distinctions in his native country from 1949 until his death in Barcelona on 8th January 1987.
Blancafort’s work is clearly rooted in Catalan traditions, and its emotional and aesthetic content is always bound to a stable formal structure. This “classical” approach, in the strict sense of the word, where intellect reigns over sentiment, is present in even his earliest works. In these, despite numerous touches of Romanticism, the composer succeeded in creating, in his own words, “something that stands up”. His music has a clarity and simplicity far-removed from the German transcendentalism in fashion at the time, his aim being to compose music which was “tonal, logical and concise”. To this end he took French music as his model, although he believed it was not a question of “giving Catalan music a French flavour … it has to speak of things Catalan in a European idiom”.
Blancafort’s choice of the piano for his first compositions was quite natural, given his years of close contact with the pianola, his feeling for French aesthetics and his friendship with Mompou, a fine pianist.

Tracks CD 1:

01. 7 Peces de jouventut - Record [0:02:27.02]
02. - Arietta-confidencia [0:00:51.20]
03. - Retorn [0:01:31.43]
04. - Pensament de tristesa [0:02:05.56]
05. - Sense titol [0:01:41.49]
06. - Paraules de quiexta [0:01:11.31]
07. - Tema campanyart [0:02:41.31]
08. Cancons de muntanya - I Canco del vent gronxant les branques [0:01:33.01]
09. - II Canco dalt del cingle [0:01:17.38]
10. - III Canco de l'hivern [0:02:10.05]
11. - IV Canco de l'adeu [0:01:27.43]
12. - V Vanco de l'arribada al cim [0:00:54.11]
13. - VI Canco de la tarda morint [0:01:46.26]
14. - VII Canco d'enyoranca [0:02:01.05]
15. - VIII Canco del silenci del capvespre [0:02:19.34]
16. - IX Canco del mati Iluminos [0:01:59.22]
17. Notes d'antany - En arribar la tardor [0:02:08.20]
18. - Al jardi [0:01:33.29]
19. - Lament [0:01:06.27]
20. - Els joiosos cpmanyons [0:01:53.40]
21. - Record d'infantesa [0:01:57.36]
22. - La Iluma brilla [0:03:13.59]
23. - Ocells al cel d'abril [0:01:32.48]
24. - Tema popular [0:01:40.68]
25. 12 Cancons - 1st Canco [0:01:17.65]
26. - Canco de la canalla [0:01:16.05]
27. - Canco del pastoret [0:01:41.49]
28. - Canco en la solitud [0:01:39.11]
29. - Canco del capvespre [0:01:24.52]
30. - Canco en l'ermita [0:02:24.35]
31. - Canconeta peradormir [0:01:46.26]
32. - Canco a la platja [0:01:04.41]
33. - Senyora Isabel 1 [0:01:15.55]
34. - Sonyora Isabel 2 [0:00:56.49]
35. - El mal ric [0:01:38.58]
36. - Muntanyes regalades [0:01:06.55]
37. - Rossinyol que vas a Franca [0:01:24.28]

Tracks CD 2:

01. 6 PECES BREUS - consolaci0 [0:01:01.50]
02. - ballet d'infants [0:00:44.33]
03. - sin titulo [0:01:25.40]
04. - plany (lamento) [0:01:45.10]
05. - brises disperses [0:02:00.48]
06. - repos a l'hora del crepuscle [0:03:06.51]
07. JOCS I DANSES AL CAMP - un poc mogut (un poco moto) [0:01:51.55]
08. - poc a poc [0:03:01.29]
09. - suaument (dolcemente) [0:03:27.23]
10. - reposat (tranquilo) [0:02:25.65]
11. - a tota pressa [0:02:17.31]
12. - molt animat [0:02:19.55]
13. CANTS INTIMES I - encara he trobat flors carcides [0:01:20.70]
14. - he anat a reposar a la platja i el cel era tot gris… [0:02:40.51]
15. - llagrimes [0:02:26.56]
16. - estic sol i estic trist [0:01:43.62]
17. - queixant-me amargament [0:03:08.20]
18. - en res puc trobar consol [0:01:46.29]
19. - t'he perdonat [0:02:19.23]
20. - la mare canta i el bressol gronxa [0:02:47.34]
21. 8 PECES PER A PIANO - el vent remou la pineda [0:01:28.62]
22. - esglesia endolada [0:02:09.35]
23. - neguit [0:01:59.36]
24. - inquietud [0:03:01.26]
25. - dolca tristesa [0:02:00.00]
26. - els segadors - sardana [0:03:50.74]
27. - adeu a l'ermita [0:01:36.65]
28. - sin titulo [0:01:42.26]

Tracks CD 3:

01. CAMINS - I cami del solitari [0:06:13.21]
02. - cami de festa sense alegria [0:02:25.26]
03. - cami del darrer encontre [0:03:35.74]
04. - cami damunt del turo [0:02:37.67]
05. CANTS INTIMS II - l'absencia [0:03:53.72]
06. - confidencia [0:03:08.20]
07. - epitafi [0:02:36.02]
08. - epitafi [0:02:56.66]
09. - canco vespral [0:04:06.72]
10. EL PARC D'ATRACCIOONS - l'orgue dels cavallets [0:03:03.71]
11. - el tumult desvetlla records [0:04:14.22]
12. - abstracciones [0:03:43.73]
13. - polca de l'equilibrista [0:01:43.42]
14. - la terrassa i la musica militar [0:04:37.42]
15. - prop del dancing [0:06:40.44]
16. PASTORAL EN SOL [0:08:33.36]

Tracks CD 4:

01. Pastorella [0:05:12.30]
02. American Souvenir - I. Transatlantic en ruta [0:08:43.14]
03. American Souvenir - II. Homenatge a Chaplin [0:04:16.01]
04. Sonatina antiga - I. Exercici [0:05:53.20]
05. Sonatina antiga - II. Tendresa [0:06:15.34]
06. Sonatina antiga - III. Recreacio [0:05:55.30]
07. Ermita i panorama - Ermita [0:05:40.23]
08. Ermita i panorama - Panorama [0:04:58.66]
09. Cavatina i dialeg [0:06:32.69]
10. Romanca, intermedi i marxa - Romanca [0:04:51.58]
11. Romanca, intermedi i marxa - Intermedi [0:03:55.72]
12. Romanca, intermedi i marxa - Marxa [0:02:21.65]

Tracks CD 5:

01. 5 Nocturnes - No. 1 [0:05:51.27]
02. 5 Nocturnes - No. 2 [0:04:50.22]
03. 5 Nocturnes - No. 3 [0:04:46.22]
04. 5 Nocturnes - No. 4 [0:04:41.42]
05. 5 Nocturnes - No. 5 [0:02:47.10]
06. Hommage a Faure [0:03:22.07]
07. 2 Tonades - No. 1. Tonada ingenua [0:02:26.31]
08. 2 Tonades - No. 2. Tonada intermitent [0:03:12.43]
09. Sardana simfonica [0:05:19.37]
10. Obsessio [0:02:41.56]
11. La verge de Palau Solitar [0:04:32.69]
12. 3 consejos de Turina - No. 1. Me parece muy bien la via que usted sigue [0:02:58.14]
13. 3 consejos de Turina - No. 2. Persevere en la claridad y sencillez de su estilo [0:03:06.34]
14. 3 consejos de Turina - No. 3. Fiel a si mismo, rechaze influencias perturbadoras [0:02:24.07]
15. Elegia [0:03:50.70]
16. Peces petites per a mans menudes - I. Illustracions per adornar un partvulari [0:00:47.27]
17. Peces petites per a mans menudes - II. Intermitencies [0:00:46.39]
18. Peces petites per a mans menudes - III. Bressol [0:01:50.29]
19. Peces petites per a mans menudes - IV. Vals [0:01:33.25]
20. Peces petites per a mans menudes - V. Marxa [0:00:47.72]
21. Peces petites per a mans menudes - VI. Canco d'Isabel [0:02:06.58]
22. Peces petites per a mans menudes - VII. Imma [0:00:56.63]
23. Peces petites per a mans menudes - VIII. Ofrena a Camila [0:02:14.50]
24. Peces petites per a mans menudes - IX. Eugenia [0:00:43.73]
25. Peces petites per a mans menudes - X. Cortesia [0:01:17.31]
26. Peces petites per a mans menudes - XI. Galop favorito [0:01:03.29]