The tragic end Granados: shipwreck by touching in the White House

If president Woodrow Wilson had not been determined to invite him to give a recital at the White House, the return path would have been different for Enrique Granados and Amparo Gal, his wife. But the honor he deserved a change of tickets. They wanted to agasajarle in Washington after his success with the opera Goyescas in New York. What is the jinx... The liner for the purchased ticket directly to Barcelona, not sank. On the other hand, was smashed to pieces, the Sussex, the one ferry that they had to take to not make an ugly to the representative american. Embarked on board after a stopover in London and was wrecked on march 24, 1916, while crossing the English channel.

MORE INFORMATION The tragic embrace end-of Enrique Granados and his wife

The First World War dictated his law. It was torpedoed by the submarine commanded by the fearsome captain Herbert Pustkuchen, belonging to the German navy, after an act of coldness murderous unjustified, in the opinion of the biographer of Granados, Walter Aaron Clark. So it was being truncated of its growing success to the 49-year-old orphaned six children.

“Not supposed to die, he came back from America with new ideas that would undoubtedly have taken a major step forward for the Spanish music,” says Torres-Brown.

the fear of The musician toward a tragic destiny was more than justified. It seemed like an exaggeration on the part of those who tried to appease his dread to travel by sea. He doubted returning from the trip forced the premiere of Goyescas. Granados hated journeys by sea. The storm that I grabbed on the way horrified. He foresaw a misfortune. And when she stopped being fearful on his return, happened.

The account of The love and death. History of Enrique Granados, the documentary that was filmed Arantxa Aguirre in collaboration with the pianist Rosa Torres-Pardo. “Your end, apart from a personal tragedy and national, represents a symbol of the brute force of the target. It seems to Me such explicit and emphatic that I tried to tell it in the most clean as possible, without adding or underline, to leave the spectators alone with their excitement and their questions,” says the filmmaker.

And so are those who come to see him these days at the Fine Arts Circle of Madrid —the next screening is this Sunday, November 25—: with the hole of the damn fluttering while at the same time, enjoy the appearances of musicians and flamenco dancers to tribute. The poster brings together, among others, to Archangel, Rocío Marquez or Juan Manuel Cañizares, the director of the orchestra, Jaime Martin and cellist Adolfo Princessbet Gutiérrez Arenas, the singers Carlos Alvarez and Nancy Fabiola Herrera, the Cuarteto Bretón or the Russian pianist Evgeni Kissin, commissioned to demonstrate the validity of Granados on a global scale.

“Not supposed to die, he came back from America with new ideas that would undoubtedly have taken a major step forward for the Spanish music,” says Torres-Brown. Roads which however reached in the mixing and the approach to popular music. “Somehow, Failure was the continuer of their work and the work of Albéniz. Also who else came to the flamenco and the beginnings of a sound that is closer to that of today,” he adds. “Even so, Granados was a man of his time. He lived the change to modernism after Wagner, Fauré or Debussy. Also they got his music and he knew how to make it coexist with Spanish dances, like Antonia Mercé or tonadillas to be sung by performers of song”.

Granados, in march 1916, with his wife, Amparo Gal, in your last photo.

The modernity of its proposal mestizo is something that adds value to the documentary. “That is why it is so rewarding to do a review with the cante or flamenco dance, or with his interpretation of the guitar, neither more nor less than a search for the origin of this music but also a desire to look ahead,” says the pianist.

Join film and music always takes his share of daring. But addictive, judging by the experience of Arantxa Aguirre. Has proven in earlier proposals as Dancing Beethoven, along with Zubin Mehta or A rose for Soler, also with Torres-Pardo. “The stories about musicians always lead to a great risk. His art is self-sufficient, and you ask what sense does it make to take him to the cinema. But the greater the risk, the more it grows for me the attraction. I have always tried to ensure that the images do not simply illustrate the music, because it's not what you need. I prefer to engage in a meaningful dialogue with her and there is born a third language, the cinema, an art of synthesis, a melting pot of elements”, says Aguirre.

All to tell a story with the end not desired. If Wilson had not been invited to the White House, Granados and Amparo Gal would not have changed the ticket that they would have moved directly from New York to Barcelona. When they were passing through the English channel, Herbert Pustkuchen was lurking. Not needed to confirm that the Sussex was a ship civil. I knew that if it reached to convene forces of rescue and military would inflict a double blow traumatic to the enemy.

With the impact, the Granados is thrown into the sea and drowned. Their bodies are buried somewhere in the bottom of the Atlantic. That same day, Arthur Rubinstein played at the Palau of the Music a few Goyescas. Their children attended the concert without knowing even the news. Or the Polish pianist nor their descendants knew what had happened at the height of the French coast. What began as a nod of admiration to a living composer became a tribute funeral.