PICK OF THE WEEK: Monday, 28th October – Sunday, 3d November, 2019

PICK OF THE WEEK: Andorra (Pyrenees)

Main places:

Andorra la Vella, Escaldes-Engordany, San Julia de Loria, La Massana, Ordino, Encamp, Canillo, Pas de la Casa

PICK OF THE WEEK: Monday, 28th October – Sunday, 3d November, 2019

FRIDAY, 1ST NOVEMBER IS A PUBLIC HOLIDAY. Banks and offices will be closed but most shops will be open.

MUSIC

Saturday, 2nd November at 17h at the Sant Bartomeu de Soldeu Church, Canillo. Vivancos Quartet at the 2019 Romanesque Cycle.

The Vivancos quartet is a young group formed by four students from the Superior School of Music of Catalonia, who only a year ago entered the world of chamber music. Despite this short career, their talent made them finalists in the 1st Romanesque Chamber International Contest, in which they demonstrated their quality. They work regularly with the world-renowned Quartet Casals, and recently they were chosen to participate in the opening of the International
Greek Festival of Barcelona, together with the prestigious Kronos Quartet, from whom they also received classes before performing together. They will play Mozart’s 19th quartet, called Les dissonàncies , and the impressive Shostakovich quartet number 8, written in 1960, and dedicated to the victims of war and fascism.

EXHIBITIONS

Your last chance to see the impressive Robert Capa photographic exhibition at the Tobacco Museum, Sant Julià de Lòria before it closes on Sunday, 3rd November. Retrospective. Robert Capa Together with Henri Cartier-Bresson, David Seymour, George Rodger and William Vandivert, Robert Capa was one of the founders, in 1947, of Magnum Photos. Born in Budapest in 1913 under the name of Andrei Friedmann, a Jewish family, he studied political science at the Deutsche Hochschule für Politik in Berlin. Fleeing from the country by the imminent threat of a Nazi regime, he settled in Paris in 1933. Together with his colleague, journalist and photographer Gerda Taro, he invented the famous American photographer Robert Capa and began to sell photos under that name. As of 1936, his coverage of the Spanish Civil War appeared regularly in international journals.

His photograph of a Republican soldier just after he had been killed, had earned him international prestige and the photo became an anti-war symbol. After the death of Gerda Taro during the Civil War in Spain, Capa traveled to China in 1938 and a year later immigrated to New York. As a correspondent in Europe, he photographed World War II, and covered the landing of US troops in Omaha Beach on Day D, the liberation of Paris and the Battle of the Ardennes. On May 25, 1954, while photographing Life in Thay-Binh, Indochina, Robert Capa stepped on a mine and was killed.

TALKS/CONFERENCES (For those speaking – or learning – Catalan).

Tuesday, 29th October at 19.30h – 20.30h at the CAEE EscaldesEngordany Art Center. (Free for 16 years and upwards. But limited places. Pre-book: +376 802 255 or [email protected]) La Clau (The key): Art notes. 5th edition. La Clau is an introduction to art designed for non-experts, in which we intend to share the fundamental aspects
of art from an academic point of view and from experience. A key to unlock the door to art that will open new spaces for knowledge and enjoyment.

1st part Children of our time: contemporary art (technique and concept)

Teaching staff : Aurora Baena Garròs, Ruth Casabella Vehículos and Carles Sánchez Rodríguez

STREET MARKET

Saturday, 2nd November from 10h – 14h in the Plaça dels Arínsols, Encamp. Encamp Saturday market. The Encamp
Entrepreneurs Association (AEE) recommences their traditional market as a showcase for trade in the parish. This initiative, which was launched in 2014 with the collaboration of the Comú d’Encamp, has had numerous auxiliary activities such as botifarrades (sausage barbeques) children’s face painting, magic, musical performances or
batucades (drum bands).

CASTANYADES & PANELLETS & TOTS SANTS/ ALL SAINTS DAY

(taken from the book Andorra Revealed)

Originating some sixteen centuries ago, All Saints Day, or Tots Sants, is celebrated on the 1st November. In days gone by, campanologists used to toll the church bells all through the night to remind the people of Catalonia to pray for the souls of the departed and for those uncounted millions still lingering on in purgatory. To make sure the bell-ringers didn’t fall asleep on the job, friends and family would ply them with high-energy foods, hence the roasted chestnuts, sweet potatoes and panellets traditional at this time of year. You will also note a rare sight for Andorra: street vendors with permits to sell newspaper cones of hot roasted chestnuts and sweet potatoes off their little wrought-iron carts parked by the roadside.

In Andorra and Catalonia the main Castanyades or chestnut celebrations have now moved to the Eve of All Saints, also known as All Souls, the 31st October which is, of course, Halloween, which itself originated as a pagan festival celebrated by the nations of today’s United Kingdom.

For panellets you need to go to a pastry shop or supermarket or alternatively make them yourself. The main ingredients are ground almonds and refined sugar mixed to a paste – i.e. marzipan. Sometimes potato is added to help the ingredients go further. The mixture is then shaped into little cakes. There are many variations of panellet but the most popular is when the ball of marzipan is rolled in pine kernels, varnished in egg white and popped in the oven for long enough to lightly brown the nuts. Traditionally, panellets are accompanied by a sweet wine such as Muscatel.