Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona, is a basilica (literally a “royal house,” by papal designation) rather than a cathedral (which is the seat of a bishop), but let’s not get lost in the weeds. After 144 years, it approaches completion, which by the standards of cathedral construction puts it smack in the Goldilocks zone (Chartres shot up in 50 years; Cologne, with stops and starts, limped along for over six centuries). Gaudí’s maximum opus has never lacked for detractors; George Orwell, for one, judged it “one of the most hideous buildings in the world.” Anarchists who destroyed Gaudí’s architectural drawings and plaster model during the Spanish Civil War may well have agreed. But thanks to the New Zealand architected Mark Burry, who circa 1990 adapted rocket-design software for the purpose, the project continued. Still on the punch list today is a set of 84 tubular bells that Gaudí dreamed up in 1906, thinking to convert the structure—the tallest church in the world—into one colossal musical instrument. The nutty Palau de la Música, with its stained-glass and over-the-top stucco Valkyries (completed in 1908) seems just the place for a preliminary sound check—and that’s what’s on offer with the world premiere of Olivia Pérez-Collellimir’s Seven Dreams of Gaudí. If only a full octave’s worth of bells can be delivered on time! (Here’s hoping.) Marin Alsop conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra and a consort of three local choruses. Suitably celestial selections by Arvo Pärt set the mood. —Matthew Gurewitsch