12 Cançons populars catalanes

Like Carles Riba, who expressed his desire to have his "blessed condition of a poet faithful to the language" inscribed on his tombstone, I would also like to be remembered as a "musician faithful to the land." This is the meaning of these 12 Catalan folk songs that I composed between 1996 and 1999, following in the footsteps of our great guitarist Miquel Llobet.

In fact, my former disciple, the Japanese guitarist Sinichi Fukuda, proposed to me to compose a new version of the same twelve popular songs that Llobet had arranged for guitar and that have been spread around the world, to jointly present both versions.

From the original version for guitar, in 1997 I decided to orchestrate a selection of seven songs, which premiered on April 21, 2001 at the Palau de la Música Catalana, with the Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès under the direction of Salvador Brotons.

Other transcriptions followed, for guitar and string orchestra, guitar and piano, piano 2 and 4 hands and even a version of the Testament d'Amèlia for 3 pianos and 12 hands that premiered in the Sala Cortot in Paris. Later I made a new transcription for string quartet, which premiered the admirable Quartet Teixidor in Lleida in 1915.