Homenaje a Joan Miró

In this Suite «Homage to Joan Miró» - which dates from 1988 - the visual art of the celebrated Catalan master is described, narrated, commented on and/or evoked musically, from the distance of some ambiguous thought to the closeness of heartfelt affection.

It comprises 5 movements, whose titles correspond to specific works by the Spanish artist:

1.   Spanish Dancer – A Preamble

2.   The smile of a tear in siesta – A Song

3.   Drop of water on the lark’s wing – An Interlude

4.   Woman dreaming the heart of her Poppy – An Evocation

5.   The harlequin’s games – A Scherzino with interruptions & finale

Because - as Paul Éluard expressed in a 1937 text, written in poetic prose - certainly:

        “When the bird of the day just freshly came to nest in the colour tree, Miró tasted the pure air, the fields, milk, herds, simple eyes and tenderness of the glorious breast gathering the mouth’s cherry.

        No windfall was ever better to him than an orange and mauve road, yellow houses, pink trees, the earth, on this side of a sky of grapes and olives which will breach four walls and boredom for a long time.

        When I first met one of the two women, I have known best - have I known any others? - she had just fallen in love with a painting by Miró: The Spanish Dancer. A more naked picture cannot be imagined: on the virgin canvas, a hat pin and a wing feather.

        First morning, last morning, the world begins. Shall I isolate, obscure myself in order to reproduce more faithfully quivering life, the change? Words that I would like outside cling to me at the heart of this innocent world which speaks to me, sees me, listens to me, and whose most transparent metamorphoses Miró has always reflected”.

(from «Naissances de Miró» - Miró’s beginnings)

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Premiered by Sef Albertz on August 9th, 1989

Festival Internacional de Agosto, Caracas (Venezuela)