Ramon Gener

2024 Ramon Llull Prize for Catalan Literature. Guided by the masterful baton of Ramon Gener, a novel that moves through twentieth-century Europe with the emotional rhythm of a delicate score.

Carved inside a Grotrian-Steinweg piano, serial number 31887, a music lover discovers the names of the instrument's previous owners, which he has just purchased in a store in the Gracia neighbourhood of Barcelona. Determined to find out everything about its history, he embarks on a journey that takes him back a hundred years.

First World War: in Magdeburg a poor widow spends her last savings on a Grotrian-Steinweg piano so that her son, a young man with an extraordinary musical talent, can play it as soon as he returns from the front. But it will not be poor Johannes who plays the piano for the first time, but rather an enemy soldier, an English officer, who shows us that music can bring out the best in human beings, even in times of war.

Thus, the Grotrian-Steinweg 31887 changes hands according to the inscrutable whims of fate. It survives the turbulent transformations of the last century while witnessing small stories lost in the past, anonymous lives crossed by impossible loves and shattered hopes, or transported by the wonderful power exerted by music in favour of unity and friendship.

“If music can save us, then literature can too. We feel as if we’ve discovered a treasure, a magnificent book.” Ramon Llull Prize Jury

“One of the most important Catalan novels I’ve read in many years. Each page is beautifully written.” Pere Gimferrer

“Ramon Gener makes the impossible possible: spreading the passion for poetry and seducing the most sceptical.” The New Barcelona Post

“[…] A worthy Ramon Llull Prize. Pacifist, culturally rich, and well-scripted.” La Vanguardia

Beethoven’s life and music recounted by the unusual voice of the most recognized and best-liked music populariser in Spain.

Illustrated by Fernando Vicente.

Who was Beethoven? Why is his music immortal? What kind of life did he have? What were his dreams? What women did he love and why did he never make a commitment to any of them? With his enormous romantic spirit, how did he come to terms with the great revolutions and the profound transformations that took place in the world he had to live in?

Rather than set out to write a definitive biography of Beethoven, Ramon Gener, the most internationally known Spanish music populariser, takes a most enjoyable, informal and at the same time thorough approach to the life and work of this eternal universal genius. Since he was born two hundred and fifty years ago, there has been no other musician like him and his legacy is still performed in auditoriums around the world. And not only this, it has also served as the soundtrack to major historical events, such as the Tiananmen Square protests, and is a living part of our popular culture, from the Simpsons to the unforgettable Schroeder in Peanuts, the little music genius who adored Beethoven more than any other composer and played him sublimely on his toy piano.

A book where music is very present, that speaks to us above all of emotions and feelings: the love of life.

Ramon Gener is one of the great musical educators of our time, who has triumphed on television with his programme 'This is Opera'. On 22 December 2013, Ramon Gener lost his father after a long illness. Las Moiras, personifications of fate, guide Gener on a musical journey that reveals itself to be a true catharsis until the cycle is closed in a circular fashion. Time and space allow us to visit the great names in music and literature, who help the author bear the pain of loss with music alongside the protagonist. The author takes us to see Giuseppe Verdi in the process of omposing Nabucco. We visit Maria Callas, and watch as Clara Schumann bids her final farewell to Johannes Brahms. We encounter Joaquín Rodrigo in his room in the Latin Quarter on one of the most difficult nights of his life, which led him to compose Concierto de Aranjuez.

"El amor te hará inmortal is a book full of anecdotes of musicians but, above all, of emotions and feelings that have been triggered by death. It is the desire to escape from a hole that sooner or later and on several occasions, will swallow us all." Libros y Literatura

"Music is the best travel partner I've could ever dreamt to have. This is a book to learn how to listen, understand and love music, and also to learn universal values like friendship, courage, imagination or the need to be curious all the time. A book in which I share all the things that music has taught me.” Ramon Gener is passionate about music. In fact, there’s only one thing he feels more passionately about: sharing his obsession and helping people appreciate this way of living and feeling. As Gener explains, if we learn to listen, understand, and love music, it can help us comprehend the value of friendship, the need for imagination, and the importance of staying curious and courageous. These are some of the lessons music has taught Gener throughout his life. He shares them in a book full of history, curious anecdotes, biographical sketches, humour, passion, and plenty of music.

“This book is the product of passion, and the author’s purpose is for us to catch it, to make it our own the way he did. An incessant falling in love, attentive to artistic sensibility, but without forgetting the obsessions of the world surrounding us. To recommend this book is to recommend music.” Ramon Guillem, Llevant