A birthday celebration: Postcard from Barcelona

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Strangely, it seems like only the other day that the Casals Quartet was celebrating its 20th season, with Beethoven cycles performed in various musical centres throughout Europe. In late summer, to mark its 25th anniversary, the group held a five-day festival in its home town. The event – which took place from 14 to 18 September – was the second iteration of the quartet’s Bienal de Cuartetos de Barcelona, a project launched in 2020 in collaboration with Barcelona’s concert hall L’Auditori, where the ensemble has been a constant presence since the venue’s inauguration in 1999. Situated in a newer part of the city, L’Auditori is a short walk from that perennial construction site, Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Família (below). The haunting Gothic Quarter, Barcelona’s old town, is also a stone’s throw away, as is the welcoming beach, of which I took regular advantage during a week of perfect weather!…