El salón musical de los Güell (1889–1931)

Abstract

The paper focuses on the vibrant activity held at the Concert Hall inside Barcelona’s Palau Güell, a building commissioned to Antoni Gaudí by the first Count Güell Eusebi Güell i Bacigalupi (1847-1918) and inaugurated in 1888, year of the Universal Exhibition. The concert hall became the symbolic and real heart of the building under the influence of Eusebi Güell, a regular at European opera houses and patron to Catalonian composers and performers such as Josep García Robles, Melcior Rodríguez de Alcántara, Antoni Ribera or Carles G. Vidiella. Count Güell transmitted his family the need to be surrounded by music. Therefore, he was deeply concerned that his daughters Isabel and María Luisa would study organ (in Paris with Eugène Gigout) and that the family Palau hosted several musical innovations. From January 1889 to mid-1931, the latest composers and performers of the time were welcomed to premiere their most recent creations at the Güell Hall. In addition, interesting musical novelties were presented for international diffusion and operas were released in concert versions. The Hall was the venue where Isabel and María Luisa Güell debuted as composers and organists playing the instrument built by Amezua for that unique place. María Luisa would follow her father’s example by carrying on with the Hall receptions during the 1920s until her departure for France in 1931; the “Mondays at Casa Güell” where the hostess herself offered recitals to her selected guests or introduced young artists.