The desire of the Serra de Montsant Natural Park to reveal its most hidden and wild face multiplied by the sensitivity of a pianist connected with nature. Lídia Papió, musician and composer, dreamed some time ago of taking her grand piano in the middle of a forest or next to a cliff to give hers “baths of music” to an audience wanting to live new experiences.
The formula, successfully tested in natural enclaves such as La Mussara, next to the Prades mountains (Baix Camp), is transferred this summer to three of the lesser-known hermitages of Montsant, a mountain historically linked to spirituality. The first of the three concerts, with the involvement of the three councils of the municipalities that host them, is held today (7:00 p.m.) in the Santa Llúcia cave, in an emblematic place close to nature, in La Bisbal de Falset ( Priorat).
“It has the purpose of revitalizing spaces with many dimensions within the natural park. The hermitages have a strong spiritual charge, and we have always opted for the integration of natural and cultural heritage. The hermitages are the gateway to Montsant”, highlights Montserrat Solà, a technician from Ús Públic i Patrimoni Cultural of the Sierra de Montsant natural park.
The Santa Llúcia cave has another added value, since it is a place of historical memory. A Republican field hospital was set up here to care for the wounded on the Ebro front.
Three unknown hermitages have been chosen that are in three enclaves of dreams, such as a peak or a rocky cavity. “They are really special places, the three lesser-known hermitages in the wildest area of Montsant, where sometimes only climbers go,” says Solà. Nothing to do with the most popular part, in many cases thanks to Instagram, as is the case with Siurana (Cornudella de Montsant).
The cycle, Escolta Montsant, will tomorrow move the same grand piano from Papió to the hermitage of Sant Pau, in La Figuera, and next Friday (August 4) to the hermitage of Sant Roc, in Cabacés, all in the region of Priory
“It is a different concert, more than letting oneself be carried away by the senses in the middle of nature, just like when we bathe in a river or in the sea. I play non-stop”, explains Papió, influenced by Shinrin-Yoku's forest bathing, “with psychological and physiological benefits”.
The initiative was born with the will of continuity. The Serra de Montsant natural park, with nine protected hermitages, is already thinking about future concerts, all of which are free. Each trip begins on the way to the hermitage.
