Marc Migó, the happy composer Martha Argerich likes

Marc Migó (Barcelona, 1993) is already, at 32, a true activist in the music scene, capable of launching projects that others older than him would consider unlikely. This is what it means to live with one foot in the dynamic New York, where he settled since his time as a composition student at Juilliard. Why should we launch a foundation to promote contemporary music and quality repertoire? There he is, breathing life into the fledgling Fundació Vera Música.

The most fashionable composer on the Catalan scene has thus become an artistic advisor, music manager, occasional programmer who supports young artists... And although his intention is not at all to use the Foundation as a springboard for his personal career –“I don’t want to give the image of a mediocre composer who programs himself”–, the circumstances that have arisen now justify that the first concert organized by the entity –today at the Palau de la Música, 8 pm– is in fact the national premiere of his Carnaval de las Indias , because it is being premiered by none other than Martha Argerich, whom he met through a good mutual friend, the pianist Alan Kwiek.

We ended up creating a bestiary in which each movement portrays a mythological creature from Latin America: Woody Woodpecker, the Llorona, the Vampire..."

“We've been meaning to do something together with Martha for a while,” Migó explains, “but one day, while I was at her house in Geneva with Alan, I met her daughter, Annie Dutoit-Argerich, an actress and doctor in literature, with whom we felt an instant connection. And from that three-way brainstorming session, the idea of writing a play that reflected our Latin roots emerged. Initially, I wanted to create a bestiary of extinct animals, but through the director of the Teatro Cervantes in Buenos Aires, Gonzalo Demaría, author of the text, we ended up creating a bestiary in which each movement portrays a mythological creature from Latin America: Woody Woodpecker, the Llorona, the Vampire…”

The work, in a way a distorted reflection of Camille Saint-Saëns's Carnival of the Animals , was dedicated by Marc to Alan and Annie, who also acts as narrator, a figure who also appears in Carnival of the Animals . "And then I had the great privilege of meeting Martha, of her liking the work and of playing it. It's like the icing on the cake of an almost family project, of a troupe of friends."

The Carnival of the Indies was born in Sarasota (Florida), Buenos Aires, Buffalo, and Ottawa. And it arrives in Barcelona, sharing the program with a work by Juilliard composer Philip Lasser (for the connection between the U.S. and Europe) and Poulenc's Concerto for Two Pianos , whose harmonic and melodic refinement is a model for Lasser and Migó. And all this with the Orchestra of the Royal Artistic Circle of Barcelona, conducted by Glen Cortese.

Migó, who is also a pianist, had not had the opportunity to hear Argerich live until the rehearsals in Barcelona.

Curiously, Migó, who is also a pianist, hadn't had the chance to hear Martha Argerich live until they met last week in Barcelona for rehearsals. "I never wanted to get my hopes up, but I composed the first part with her as a performer in mind, inspired by her piano playing, not necessarily her virtuosity but her colors, that intimacy, the expressiveness, the phrasing. And it's very interesting to see her reactions: you might think that a certain passage wouldn't faze her, but it does. It's fascinating to see what she focuses on and what she emphasizes. It's magical."

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Argerich rarely plays new music. It's been years since she'd premiered anything new, let alone by a Spanish or Catalan composer. It's an extraordinary feat. But she likes this work, finding it difficult at times, "which demonstrates her perfectionism, because later she plays it perfectly." On the other hand, this Carnival is a grotesque celebration of different creatures conversing with each other, which allows the pianist to be playful, to be that actress and alchemist who combines all these specters. The work has a lot of magical realism, "as if she wanted to transfer that way of understanding literature to music," Migó notes. And it contains that interplay of masks that allows her to quote the work of Saint-Saëns, his aquarium, his kangaroos... which in turn is very metamusical, she warns, because it's full of quotations and mirages.

I wanted to follow Saint-Saëns' example, because I think one of the most attractive things you can do with today's music is to play with styles."

"I wanted to follow suit, because I think one of the most attractive things you can do with today's music is to play with styles, to be open to a vast source of all the influences you can hear these days. In this sense, the Latin character is also very present, with the rhythms, the dances, the character, the chord attacks, the harmonies," warns the Barcelona-born composer himself, who confesses to being greatly influenced by the legacy of Nadia Boulanger and that of Narcís Bonet, the Catalan composer who recently passed away, "for that way of understanding music in which harmony is vital, or the beauty of the chords and the leading of the voices." Furthermore, given his studies in New York, Migó also has a neo-romantic streak that leads him to emotion and connecting with the audience.

Marc Migó's latest work was to reimagine Bizet's Carmen for La Fura dels Baus, in a performance that opened the Los Veranos de la Villa festival in Madrid a couple of weeks ago. And in August, his Violin Sonata will be performed at the Santander Festival, although his work is mostly programmed abroad.