A Joan Isaac of ‘champions’ at the Palau de la Música, with Serrat, Maria del Mar Bonet and Paco Ibáñez

2023-11-29 02:45:45

BarcelonaWhile his beloved Barça played the European Cup against Porto, Joan Isaac celebrated 50 years of service with a musically top-notch, emotionally Champions recital and at the end also with a political ramble when the singer-songwriter of Esplugues closed the night with To whom it may concern. “What did you do with that Sunday / of that year two thousand and seventeen. / I don’t believe you anymore, I don’t trust you, / leave us to the people!”, he explodes with rage against the subsequent management on the 1st of October in this song from the album I have a house by the sea (2023), and upon hearing the lyrics, a large part of the audience responded by shouting “independence” with the same resounding with which they had previously cheered “the black flag in the heart” in reference to Salvador Puig Antich in In Margalidaboth in the choral version of Cor Arc and in the interpretation with the pianist Antoni-Olaf Sabater.

It was just the second time that Joan Isaac had given a concert at the Palau de la Música in 50 years of dedication to the author’s song, and he wanted to celebrate it with professional colleagues from different generations. On the one hand, Paco Ibáñez, Joan Manuel Serrat, Maria del Mar Bonet and the actress Carme Sansa. “Mother always told me that it was necessary to listen to the masters, and today you will listen to a few of them,” he said before introducing Paco Ibáñez, with whom he performed a duo in Catalan and Spanish of Words for Julia. There were also younger representatives, such as Anna Roig and Roger Mas, and among others, colleagues such as Sílvia Comes, “of the generation that arose in one of the worst moments for the original song [els anys 80]”, and Pemi Fortuny, “the best rock singer this country has given,” according to Isaac. The collaborations, which occupied the second part of the concert, offered great moments, such as the fun duet with Serrat about If in the other world, the song that begins by saying “If in the other world there was football every Sunday…”. By the way, as expressly done, Serrat came out to sing it just after the match between Barça and Porto.

Anna Roig and Roger Mas

Maria del Mar Bonet, “coherence and rigor”, took off once again the fury of What do these people want?, with that anger that always projects with such force. With Anna Roig, who Isaac said has “extreme sensitivity”, they traveled to Giorgio Conte’s Italy to sing How beautiful the moon is. To Roger Mas, “a voice rooted in the cingles and obagas”, he gave him the central verses of For a kiss, a caress. Pemi Fortuny recalled the days of Lax’n’Busto placing the voice in the rockiest record of the night in The train of a thousand wagons. With Carme Sansa, quite a prodigy reciting a poem by Luis Eduardo Aute about death, they refished the Excess of the joint show about the seven deadly sins. And the ferocity of Sílvia Comes added to the musical exuberance of Little daytime serenademagnificent demonstration of the great level and elasticity of the sextet formed by Walter Porro (accordion and keyboard), David Palau (guitar), Jordi Gas (bass), Xesco Grau (percussion and flute), Gloria Maurel (drums) and Antoni- Olaf Sabater (piano and musical direction).

All this happened in the second part of the concert. Before, a Joan Isaac who contained the emotion while maintaining the commitment to the tuning, had linked an anthological repertoire that progressed from disc to disc, with the arm of the Italian aromas and a Serratian sentimental customism reinforced by the flute arrangements. It’s late, To live, Barcelona gray city, But I prefer your eyes they started a vital journey with remarkable instrumental deployments, like the one he was wearing What a cheat life is towards a country-folk festival, and with ironic anecdotes, like when he said that the song Manfred was born as a result of discovering years ago a story “on the Sunday ofThe countrywhen the Sunday ofThe country it was sundayThe country“. The repertoire, clearly, did not forget the absent friends: Moncho and Aute. The former remembered him by expanding the colors of the bolero where are the people (the theme of Isaac that Moncho made his own). And to Aute, his “beloved brother,” he invoked him with The beautyin Spanish and Catalan, in one of the few moments in which the voice was about to collapse from emotion.

Joan Isaac’s night of Champions ended after two and a quarter hours with the singer-songwriter inviting Pere Camps, the director of Barnasants, to come up to greet the stage. “Without him this concert would not have been possible,” said Issac. All said and done, Camps also took the opportunity to unfurl a Palestinian flag while the audience kept alive an ovation that came in the wake ofTo whom it may concern. Then all the guest artists, except for Serrat, went back on stage to receive the last round of applause.