Xavier Montsalvatge

Xavier Montsalvatge
(b Gerona, 11 March 1912). Spanish composer and critic. He studied at the Barcelona Conservatory with Millet, Morera, Costa and Pahissa (1923–36).

In 1934 he received the conservatory’s Rebell Prize for his Impromptus for piano, and two years later he was awarded the Pedrell Prize for the Suite burlesca. By temperament he tends towards the theatrical, and is particularly conscious of rhythm, so an early interest in the ballet was natural. In 1936–7 he worked on the ballet El ángel de la guarda, which remains unpublished, and during the 1940s wrote 19 ballet scores for the Goubé-Alexander company of Monte Carlo, including La muerte enamorada (1943), Manfred (1945) and La Venus de Elna (1946). It was at this time, too, that he began work as a critic, becoming music critic of the weekly Destino of Barcelona in 1942. In 1962 he began to write for the Vanguardia española. He has taught in Barcelona at the San Jorge Academy, the Destino Seminary and the conservatory.