On 4 December Antonio Galera gave the world premiere of two piano works by Francisco Coll at the Hispanic Society Museum & Library in New York City. Both are inspired by Spanish painters: Tenebrae is a 4 ½-minute work that gestures to Francisco de Zurbarán, whose religious artworks are characterised by an austere and dramatic play of light and shadow; Disparates, lasting 3 minutes, draws on Francisco Goya’s The Follies, a series of nightmarish prints that went unpublished during his lifetime.
They are the latest instalments in a series of eleven piano pieces Coll is writing as homages to Spanish artists. The first, Madre, premiered in May 2023, and was written for the Iturbi International Piano Festival. The 7-minute piece takes its title from a painting by Joaquín Sorolla; Coll discusses the piece in an interview here; the second, Ball de Carn (‘Dance of the Flesh’) was premiered by Alain Planès in April 2024 at a concert for the Barceló in La Pedrera Ceramics exhibition, and is inspired by the eponymous painting by Miquel Barceló. Gradiva, the third, premiered in June 2024 at the Festival Internacional de Música da Póvoa de Varzim in Porto by Raúl da Costa, and is a tribute to Salvador Dalí.
Coll’s chamber music will be in focus ahead of the Madrid debut of Enemigo del pueblo, with a concert at the Fundación Juan March on 11 February; the opera after Ibsen, which made a celebrated debut in November 2025 in Valencia, opens at Teatro Real on 12 February, conducted by the composer. The concert at the Fundación sees Jacob Kellermann premiere Sefarad, a new guitar suite drawing on Sephardic folk music, as well as performances of Coll’s String Quartet ‘Códices’ from 4Sonora and his piano works Three Pieces ‘after Turia’ and Ball de Carn from Hilario Segovia. Kellermann, who has previously championed Coll’s guitar concerto Turia, gives the US premiere of Sefarad at the Phillips Collection on 29 March, alongside the national debut of the String Quartet from the Terra String Quartet.