Last Thursday
18th June, Cristina, Enrique and I travelled to Barcelona to attend to the act
of delivery of one of our guitars so that it took part of the collection of the
Music Museum of Barcelona.
Around a year
before, they had contacted us asking for this instrument with similar
characteristics to the one used by the great player Andrés Segovia. The idea
was not only to incorporate it to the guitar collection, but also to play it in
some of the concerts that are celebrated there. Until then, the first guitar
constructed by my nephews José Enrique and Javier Ramírez had been exhibited
temporarily.
So we built a
Traditional guitar for that purpose alone. Taking advantage of one of the
innovations carried out thanks to the advice from our good friend the guitarist
Piero Bonaguri, we constructed this guitar with what we call “thin neck”. It is
the third instrument we make with this characteristic that, no doubt, benefits
the comfort of the musician.
There, we
finally met the whole team that made such a beautiful event possible: Marisa
Ruiz, Tere Sánchez, ImmaCuscó and JaumeAyats.
JaumeAyats,
the director of the Museum, made a presentation in front of a small and
exclusive group, as it had been decided that the event would be private, in a
warm atmosphere, surrounded by wonderful instruments in one of the most important
rooms of the museum. This event was not only the presentation of our guitar,
but also of other pieces that would be included in the collection: a guitar
from Francisco Pagés that belonged to Victoria de los Ángeles and that was
donated by the foundation of the same name, a guitar from Anselm Clavé and an
Antonio Torres guitar.
After the
introduction I was invited to say a few words, and I could not but say thanks
for the invitation and also talk about the great joy it was for me knowing that
one of our guitars was in the Music Museum, and not a museum of Musical
Instruments, because there, they are used with the purpose they were created,
that apart from their aesthetic beauty, they are meant to be played and be the
means by which artists can express themselves.
Finally, the guitarist
and friend Carlos Bonell gave a brief and marvelous concert with the guitar we
gave to the Museum and, in spite of the short time he had to get used to the
new instrument, different to the Ramírez one he already had for the previously
mentioned reasons about the thickness of the neck, we all could enjoy his
outstanding musical sense and the quality of his performance, as well as his joyful
presence.
When the
event was finished, we visited the museum and Gerard Jané, owner of the Jané
Ventura wineries, invited us to take a superb cava, the Gran Reserva Do. Gerard,
a great music lover, called such an outstanding cava DO because it is a musical
note (C), and also because in Catalonian it means gift, and I understand that a
gift is also a present that turns the one who has it into someone really
special. With this cava we were given delicious chocolates, of dark chocolate,
with the shape of a guitar that had been elaborated by the Chocolate Museum
especially for the event. How much more could be asked?
The guitar
collection is truly extraordinary and it has high-value pieces. Among them it
could be seen the famous Torres cardboard sides and back that belonged to
Llobet, and that I was delighted to see in “person”, although I should say “in
guitar”.
During the
drink we had after the event we met with friends from the guitar world such as
Begoña Gómez from the Gato Negro strings, Granados’s granddaughter, María
Rivera, Jordi Pizarro from the Llobet Contest, Marc Morera from Casa Blanca
insurances and Gilles Baudu from Knobloch strings.
I also had
the opportunity to see my good friend Max Sunyer, the great jazz guitar player,
whom I had not seen many years ago, and my good friend Rosa Robles, also a jazz
singer and excellent teacher of singing, whom I would like to see more
frequently. It was a great pleasure to know the guitarist Jaume Torrent from my
friend Max. We are very blessed to have good friends everywhere.