El cercador d'estels

I cannot help but feel that “El cercador d’estels” (star finder) is one of the greatest successes that I have witnessed. Allow me to explain. It is a work imbued with extraordinary fragility and sensitivity, governed by the simplest of the musical senses: an undeniable quality in the tensional dimension. However, behind this natural conducting there lies a compositional complexity formed by different textures, tonal and atonal resources as well as delicately explored instrumentation.
All of this is woven into a creative fabric that awakens the most highly contemplated spectre of everyone. And that is where everything takes on that universal meaning that is usually present in great works, in genuine works: windows to an infinite dimension and the resulting struggle to find the light and/or the path to follow or build. Conscious of the conceptual narrative, Santi Escura could not have named the piece using any other words, nor could he have presented it to the world in any other way. On 18 October 2009, giving the premiere to one of his young students to perform as a soloist surrounded by a professional orchestra, he gave everyone (performers and audience) the opportunity to actually become star finders, showing that we are faced with a work shrouded in great humanity. Humanity in the most intrinsic sense possible.

 

Joel Riu
Composer, pianist and percussionist
*Pianist who premiered the work on
18 October 2009