It is not only a chronicle of a death announced in historic places in Barcelona. The plague has also reached Vallès, and specifically Terrassa. The prestigious Casa Farràs music store, led by the musician and trumpeter Josep Maria Farràs, has announced that it will close its shutters at the end of September, after more than a century of activity.
Founded by his father in 1916, the establishment is closing "because it is financially unsustainable, given the strong competition from selling instruments on the internet. We already started to notice it during the pandemic and now it is very hard. With online shopping, they save 50 euros, in all fairness, but they don't see that they destroy local commerce", he argues. Until it closes, it is liquidating stocks.
Over the course of the century, this shop has established itself as a reference space for professional musicians, amateurs and students with rhythm. "At the best times we sold 300 pianos a year, some in queues. But these last few years, we only sell electric keyboards, some digital wall pianos, flutes for school, guitars, books and sheet music... No woman for more", he describes.
At 81 years old and without generational relief from his children, Farràs has two employees, but the balance is negative. "I will be able to pay them until September, but I am forced to close. We have encountered the shamelessness of people who come to try the pianos and, without leaving the store, they are already buying it online", he exemplifies.
He assures that he is "very burned" with these consumer attitudes. "One day a person called us saying: 'They brought me a piano, but they left it in the street and unassembled'. I answer him: 'But, did he buy it from us?', 'No, in Germany'". But as the brand's technical service "asked us: 'Can they put it up and assemble it for me?'", he explains. He replied: "We can help you, but this service costs 150 euros. He tells me that he will take it up and ride it himself. What happened? Well, he didn't put the pedals right, nor did he know how to balance it and, in the end, I had to charge him more to save him, because the gentleman had made a disaster. If he had bought it from us from the beginning, everything would have turned out fine, because what differentiates us from the internet is the personalized attention", Farràs defends.
Unlike other historic buildings that have closed their doors due to the increase in rent, Casa Farràs is their property. The musician was born upstairs, where he lived with his parents as a child. It is a space full of stories with soul and rhythm. "When my father opened it, he had a little bit of everything: handbags, umbrellas, shirts, perfumes, phonographs... On the first day, a stringed viola was sold", according to documents. It was also the first place in Terrassa where you could listen to the BBC, in 1921 (before the foundation of Ràdio Barcelona, in 1924). "He installed a huge antenna!", he recalls, excited.
"The subsol - closed years ago due to humidity - hosted the city's first jazz club and was a vindictive space, in full dictatorship. "It was a small place, it could accommodate about 40 people. Tete Montoliu played there and Raimon performed there and even held a rally there", he points out. Farràs has been an amateur trumpet player and in the first years at the head of the shop he combined it with performances: "One summer I managed to do 32 bowls". His passion for jazz led him to found, with other fans, the Nova Jazz Cava de Terrassa, which is enjoying a splendid moment. It will continue to be linked to music, with the trumpet as the guiding thread of good vibrations.
