The Four Buenos Aires Seasons by Astor Piazzolla are inspired, yet remotely, in Vivaldi’s precedent. Even though they are distant in terms of content and purpose (there are, in principle, no suggestion of the natural world, nor a clear descriptive pretension) they are similar in the freshness and spontaneity of the melodies that interweave, with contrasting rhythms and varied orchestral resources. The importance of the violin, in Vivaldi’s work, reappears in Piazzolla’s composition, whose main role is assumed by Leticia Moreno. Responsible of a recent recording dedicated to him -highly recommended recording, by the way, in which besides Piazzolla’s Seasons are included other emblematic hits

the expected presence of the violinist on the Palau de la Música stage will be completed, in the second part, with the interpretation of The Firebird, a work performed by the Orquestra Simfònica Camera Musicae, under the direction of Tomàs Grau. The music that Stravinsky composed for that ballet continues to arouse admiration and surprise -the episode of the dance of the evil Kachai, for example-, though perhaps not comparable to that surprise when its Parisian premiere, in 1910 (after which the ballet Petruchka would come, and also the celebrated Rite of Spring). The music for this "danced tale" works even in the absence of staging due to the rhythmic richness of its movements and the instrumental colouring, shaped by the novelty of the instrument’s timbres.

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After the success obtained in the Festival Grec this summer, the programming of Cuculand Souvenir at the TNC is excellent news for the lovers of the performing arts who did not have the chance to witness the show created by Roberto Olivan: a spectacular, daring

and very entertaining one, that allows us to translate critically our common way of spending time, enjoying a technologically induced entertainment. The illustration is produced according to circus’ style, and mostly through dance, which is itself a fascinating pirouette, with a huge number of ways to capture the viewer's attention. Its architects spend several resources to amaze the eye and, to the same extent, encourage a positive review of one's own critical conscience. A display which is not excessive on the audio-visual side, but rather relies on the unthinkable contortions and equilibriums of the protagonists, and that seduces through dances that transcend sensuality, even allowing space for humour. A must see, whose second opportunity should not be wasted.

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Toulouse-Lautrec and the spirit of Montmartre is an essential exhibition, undoubtedly one of the best news for the lovers of nineteenth century and avant-garde art. For it is in the context of the marginal neighbourhood, home of artists and souls without too many material attachments, that some of the most influential trends for the art of the s. XX are developped. An absolutely anti-academic art that, in effect, grows apart from norms and established "good taste". Toulouse-Lautrec, vocational painter of aristocratic origin, was caught in the world of celebration, in a not always pleasant way. He had to experience the two sides of bohemian life: on the one hand, its moral ductility, source of a frantic creativity that would be reflected even in ephemeral supports, such as posters or posters announcing cabaret shows (despite which they would transcend, becoming true pagan icons, massively reproduced); on the other hand, the excesses of schedules and customs that his fragile health probably did not take well. He wrote to his mother, when he was a young man of only 22 years old: "I would like to tell you a little bit what I do, but it is so special, so 'out of the law' that, surely, father would say that I am an outcast. I had to make a very big effort because, as you know well, against my will I am living a bohemian life and I cannot get used to this environment".

The magnificent exhibition of the Caixaforum recreates, until January 20th and through a considerable number of pieces -the massive amount of 350 is reached- the feverish microcosm of the most rogue hill of the time; a location in which circus shows and cabaret -popular amusements, remarkably stimulating for the artists- were the day to day reality, as well as satire, reproduced graphically through the caricature. The general public will discover works as interesting as those by Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, Georges Bottini or Jean Veber, and will be able to delight with the skill of a Toulouse-Lautrec who is not only responsible of a figurative movement with thick lines and vivid colours, through which he portrays the protagonists of that elevated sub-world, but also of a series of works that are perfectly in line with the two best-known post-impressionists, Paul Gauguin and Vincent Van Gogh, influencing -just like them- the future Parisian prodigy: Pablo Picasso.

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The relationship of the spectator to the work of art, in the 20th century, has been transformed. Leaving behind the nineteenth-century veneration of the artist "genius" -in many cases a paradigm of virtuosity or originality, in a fully romantic sense-

contemporary creations vividly enquiry the viewer; they seek to awaken a reaction, a meaning in those who contemplate and somehow complete them through an apprehension that is not objectual, nor merely intellectual. In the exhibition at La Pedrera a selection of works by 37 international artists show, by means of movement, the real need for an interaction, something that the first avant-garde already tried at the dawn of the 20th century. In this sort of "movement aesthetics" a new reality -the reality of becoming- demands a constant adaptation of the look and conception of the artistic fact, defying statism and objectification -even if what animates this new vision is a "thing", an elaborate artifice or construct, perfectly working. The exhibition has been curated by Jordi Ballartefd and Marianna Gelussi, who selected works by artists of different origins and sensibilities, such as Marina Apollonio, Alberto Biasi, Pol Bury, Alexander Calder, Gianni Colombo, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Dadamaino, Marcel Duchamp, among many others. They also include artists representing this trend in Catalonia and Spain, such as Leandre Cristòfol, Ángel Duarte, Jordi Pericot, Eusebio Sempere and Francisco Sobrino.

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