Temps de matinada

 “Temps de matinada” [Daybreak time]

 

“A simple miniature of finest musical intuition”. This is how the musical critics of 1948 define the work “Temps de
matinada”, written by the pianist and composer Leonora Milà at the age of six. It is a short piece, which was originally written for piano, and which Eduard Toldrà orchestrated to be premiered by the former Orquestra Municipal de Barcelona in a concert that took place on September 28th of 1948 at the Vilanova i la Geltrú Teatre Bosc. The orchestra, under the baton of Toldrà himself, concluded the concert program, which amongst other also included works by Mozart, Wagner, Turina and Grieg, with “Temps de matinada”, which achieved great success. It is not by accident that Toldrà orchestrated this work by Leonora Milà. Josep Milà, father of the pianist, was an outstanding violoncellist of the Pau Casals Orchestra and, later on, of the Gran Teatre del Liceu orchestra. Eduard Toldrà and Josep Milà knew each other; both were from Vilanova and had been living as neighbours for many years in Caputxins Street. So Josep Milà got in touch with Toldrà to show him what his daughter, at the age of only six, had written after having been sitting in front of the piano for hours. Toldrà assured Milà of the great beauty of the score and his intention to orchestrate it in order to premiere it at the concert he would conduct at the formerly Teatre Bosc. From this moment on, the rest is already history. Leonora Milà began a brilliant international career –still poorly acknowledged in our country– which reached one of its highlights when, in 1994, she became the first female composer to premiere a ballet in St. Petersburg, the cradle of dance, namely “Tirant lo Blanc”, a knights and knighthood novel written by Joanot Martorell in the xvth century, which Milà turned into a score and the Russian dancer and choreograph Iuri Petukhov into a two hour ballet, performed by the St. Petersburg State Ballet. But all of this wouldn’t have been possible without “Temps de matinada”. This piece from which everything starts is as well the only known collaboration between the two Vilanova inhabitants Leonora Milà and Eduard Toldrà.

Decades after, namely in June 2011, “Temps de matinada” was performed again at the inauguration of the Vilanova i la Geltrú Auditori Eduard Toldrà. In this occasion, it was the Orquestra de Cambra del Garraf under the conduction of Salvador Brotons who were in charge of its performance. Among the public, Leonora Milà herself and Narcisa Toldrà, the daughter of the composer of “Vistes al mar”. “Temps de matinada” was given new life. The Camerata Eduard Toldrà, conducted by the prestigious Edmon Colomer, performed the piece again in the presentation concerts of this new ensemble. All of this took place on November 16th and 18th 2012, again at the Auditori Eduard Toldrà. This proofs that “Temps de matinada” has placed itself as a reference piece of the extensive catalogue of more than one hundred pieces written by Leonora Milà throughout her life. An early work full of maturity.