Local News: Money Fraud and la Palau de la Música
La Palau de la Música de Catalunya is one of the greatest symbols of Catalan culture. Located within the Gothic quarter of Barcelona, it stands out with its beautiful architecture and mosaics designed by the modernista architect, Lluìs Domènech i Montaner. The beauty continues throughout to the inside that is decorated with colorful tiles and its stained glass bulb dripping from the ceiling. Not only is it a symbol for Catalan culture, but it also represents the rise of the wealthy middle class who profited of the growth of industrialization in the city and enjoyed spending their leisure and money on fine arts such as concerts.
La Palau has also allowed for its directors of administration to benefit greatly, including the former director, Jordi Montull. He is on trial for the laundering of money from the profits of la Palau, which he sent to political parties in order to gain political influence. His daughter, Gemma Montull was the chief financial officer of la Palau and faces 26 years in jail because she over saw and approved of these financial exchanges. Montull hopes to wage a deal with the prosecution so that his daughter can serve a shorter sentence. He admitted that the institution was used to collected illegal funds for a construction company called Ferrovial that was then given to the political party Convergència Democràtica (CDC). In return the CDC would award the company with public work commissions. I am not exactly sure how donations to political parties work in Spain
, however, handling the transfer of money through a backdoor process is suspicious and it is obvious that the convoluted process was deliberate in order to hide a paper trail.
A few days after this confession from Montull, I visited la Palau with my grandparents to watch an orchestra concert. We listened to the last symphony of Beethoven, which was conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. In the days preceding the concert we attended, Dudamel and his orchestra had performed the first eight symphonies. My grandmother informed me that this was a very impressive feat because usually orchestras learn just one symphony and do not even attempt to master more than one at once. She also said that Catalans are very judgmental of how well a piece is performed and if they do not think it was done well then they will not acknowledge its efforts. I am not an avid listener of classical music and therefore I would not be able to recognize if the orchestra performed well or not. That being said I enjoyed listening to the music very much and as did everyone around me who stood up and applauded the musicians for ten minutes after the finale.
After reading the news stories about Montull, I was interested to see if the popularity of la Palau had subsided, however it had not as practically every seat was filled. This symbolize to me that political parties, while they do influence the lives of Catalonians, very seldom do drastically change the culture of Catalunya and their mishaps do not influence constituents choices as to where to enjoy their own culture.