Barcelona 1936, capital musical internacional: El Congrés de la SIM i el Festival de la SIMC

In April 1936, Barcelona became one of the international capitals of music with the joint celebration of the 3rd Congress of the International Musicological Society (SIM) and the 14th Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music (SIMC), an initiative promoted by Edward J. Dent, British musicologist and president of both societies. Both events brought together in the city some of the most prominent figures in musicology, performance and musical composition of the time, and placed Barcelona at a central position within the international networks of musicology and contemporary music. The Festival hosted, among other milestones, the premiere of Alban Berg's Violin Concerto, today recognised as one of the key works of the 20th-century repertoire for violin and orchestra, as well as the premiere of Robert Gerhard's Suite Ariel. Drawing on the collections held at the Biblioteca de Catalunya, especially those of Higini Anglès and Robert Gerhard, the exhibition reconstructs this exceptional episode in Barcelona's cultural history. The director of the Music Section of the Library, Higini Anglès, and the composer and librarian Robert Gerhard became the main local promoters of a project that brought together the 3rd Congress of the SIM and the 14th Festival of the SIMC. From complementary trajectories—musicological research and contemporary creation—both contributed decisively to the international profile of Barcelona and of the Biblioteca de Catalunya in the fields of musicology and contemporary music. For more information about the exhibition "Barcelona 1936, capital musical internacional: El Congrés de la SIM i el Festival de la SIMC", visit the Biblioteca de Catalunya website.