Spain Inside a Piano. A Musical Journey throughout Spain from 18th to 21st Century

Premiered at the Casa Granada in Madrid in July 2018 this programme includes fundamental and highly significant pieces by composers from Spain or with strong connections to Spain alongside music by the composer-pianist Luis Agius. The geographical-musical route that Agius presents covers the entire Spanish territory from Cádiz to Finisterre passing by Córdoba, Jaén, Granada, Barcelona, Toledo, Aranjuez, Madrid, Valencia and Majorca.

Luis Agius' music -as the pianist himself affirms- "is melodic and impressionistic, and easily connects with an audience that always enjoys it". Both in his compositions and in the range of selected pieces of music that make up Spain Inside a Piano “flee from clichés and the hackneyed in search of rigor, musical sense and exceptional sensitivity and try to offer a comprehensive worldview of Spain from its landscapes to its culture and its art which has been and still is a source of inspiration for national artists and also for others from all over the world who found no impediment for their cultural baggage to intertwine with the insights they found in Spanish lands”.

Luis Agius (Madrid, 1969) is a pianist, composer, cultural critic and writer, as well as a playwright. He is director of the cultural magazine El parnaso de las musas. Agius graduated in Law from the Complutense University of Madrid, and he began his musical studies in 1981, composing his first musical work in 1990. Agius has been a concert pianist since 1996, and in his career he has achieved great national and international recognition, performing in many Spanish (Madrid, Seville, Toledo, Lanzarote, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, etc.) and European cities: Bratislava, Brussels, Lisbon, Berlin, Leipzig, Munich, Malta, Paris, Toulouse, Bordeaux; etc.

Agius has published two piano albums including his compositions, Doce Klavierstücke (Twelve Klavierstücke) and Interiores. He has also recorded a piano recital with pieces by Chopin, En busca de Chopin (In Search of Chopin, 2010); and a large-format piece paying homage to the victims of the 2011 tsunami and earthquake in Japan, Tsunami en Sendai y amanecer en Tokio (Tsunami in Sendai and Dawn in Tokyo). Additionally, Luis Agius has published two plays, Todos somos Albert Camus (We Are All Albert Camus, 2010) and Mi nombre es Sarah (My Name is Sarah, 2013). His most recent book is Músicos frente al Abismo (Musicians Before the Abyss, Oportet Editores, 2014).

6:45 pm – Pre-concert talk: Music is not played, it is lived, by Luis Agius

Music is a passion that has to be transmitted. Throughout my long musical and artistic career, both in its training period and as a professional, I have progressively discovered that in addition to developing the cognitive-intellectual capacities related to the realm of music (sound, language, technique, aesthetics, musical forms, history of music and its interpretation, harmony, etc.), it is essential to cultivate our sensitivity and take note, in some way, of the delicate connections between our mind -or our soul, spirit, whatever we want to call it, according to our beliefs or convictions- and our body. Connections which, sometimes, are interrupted and imprisoned by the intellect and by the external noise of the chaotic and complex world in which we live.

That is why my way of working, both as a performer and as a composer, is mainly based on experience (Music is not played, it is lived), in a way that close and direct contact with the rest