• First Spanish Suite for solo cello (II-Zarabanda III-Flaménca)
• Hallucinations

Rogelio Huguet i Tagell (1882-1956), a Catalan composer who lived and worked in Paris for most of his life; a musician who was highly regarded and appreciated in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s, but who is now completely forgotten in France, Spain and the rest of the world.

I came across one of his compositions (the third movement of his First Spanish Suite for solo cello, one of the few to have been recorded) when I was looking for cello sounds that would bring me closer to flamenco, a passion that had been with me since childhood and that I wanted to combine with my other great passion: instrumental performance. I knew very little repertoire for the cello inspired by flamenco, except for Requiebros by Cassadó, which I played at the age of 17 in the final concert of my conservatory studies. Curiosity led me to Huguet and I couldn’t understand the silence surrounding this composer.

The pieces chosen for this project are the second and third movement from his First Spanish Suite for solo cello (II-Zarabanda III-Flaménca) and Hallucinations for solo cello. About this last piece there is an article in my blog titled “Weaving music, dramaturgy and visual creation in Hallucinations by Rogelio Huguet” which you can read for more insight. This collaboration is motivated by the fact that there is a narrative behind the piece, which we aim to bring to life through both music and dramatic interpretation. This collaboration was further supported by visuals created by my uncle, Onésimo Samuel Hernández.

To conclude, I would like to reflect on something; I am aware that culture, by definition, is selection; that every history of artistic production is accompanied by destruction, since not all works survive the test of time. If culture did not filter, it would remind us of Borges’ character “Funes the Memorious”, who is able to remember everything. But the question is, who or what decides to preserve or not to preserve? The criteria should be artistic and not of any other kind.