The Museu de la Música de Barcelona opened the year by bidding farewell to two exhibitions linked to Catalan musical heritage. The first, 100 Years of the Orchestra Pau Casals. Musical Excellence and Social Commitment took advantage of the centenary of this historic ensemble, founded and conducted by Pau Casals, to pay tribute to its important legacies. The second, Joan Manén. Pride and Destiny highlighted the key role that was played by this celebrated Catalan violinist and composer on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his death.

In total, the exhibitions were visited by over 32,000 people, with almost 23,400 visitors to the Orchestra Pau Casals exhibition and over 8,650 to the Joan Manén one. In addition to the interest that was aroused by the exhibitions, the related activities that were organised, made up of concerts, conferences and guided visits, were accessed by almost 400 people.

With regard to the exhibition dedicated to the Orchestra Pau Casals, the research work by musicologist Josep Maria Codina, aimed at identifying musicians from the OPC who appeared in photos but whose names were not known, deserves to be highlighted. The research process is described in a study published on the Museu de la Música website.

The exhibition 100 Years of the Orchestra Pau Casals. Musical Excellence and Social Commitment, curated by Núria Ballester, was held from 24 November 2020 to 9 January 2022 in the museum’s temporary exhibition room. The room will now close until September to make the necessary technical changes to ensure compatibility with the museum’s new artistic programme. Co-produced by the Pau Casals Foundation and the Museu de la Música de Barcelona, the exhibition made a concerted effort to make the history of the Orchestra Pau Casals known to the public and to uphold Pau Casals as one of the 20th century’s finest conductors. The exhibition traced the orchestra’s history and its impact on the world of music through numerous documents, concert programmes and scores conserved in different collections.

The exhibition Joan Manén. Pride and Destiny, produced in collaboration with the Joan Manén Association, was curated by Daniel Blanch and it ran from 4 November 2021 to 6 February 2022. Organised to mark the 50th anniversary of the musician’s death, it paid tribute to a highly individualistic, intuitive, self-made musician who felt, from an early age, that he was pre-destined to play an important role in the world of music. In many respects, Manén lived a life worthy of a novel, marked by the historical upheaval of the period, his talent and his overpowering personality, representative, to a certain extent, of the successor to the 19th century’s archetypal genius.

Through documents and other objects–including photographs, paintings, drawings, programmes, scores, letters and some of the musician’s instruments–, the exhibition draws a portrait of Joan Manén, offering visitors an insight into the highpoints of his life and artistic career.