During the first months of 1919, Manén offered recitals in Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona with great success and also performed in London. In May he embarked on an extensive tour of over a hundred concerts that lasted until January, 1920, in several countries of South and Central America: Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Panama, Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico.
On his return to Barcelona, ??he continued his concert activity in France and Spain, giving recitals with the pianist Pura Lago. In October, 1921, before traveling to the United States again, he gave his first recital in Berlin after a five-year absence. In New York, one of his first concerts took place at Carnegie Hall on the 16th of November. He returned to this famous hall on the 2nd of January of the following year, performing Lalo's Spanish Symphony; incidentally the same work that he had performed for his debut at Carnegie when he was eleven years old. During his stay in New York he also gave a recital on the 12th of February for the inauguration of the Town Hall. These first presentations in New York appear to have been programmed with the intention of making himself known in the U.S and laying the ground work for extensive tours there during the following seasons. In March he returned to Barcelona and continued his activity with recitals in Berlin, Rome and various Spanish cities. On the 7th of October, the “Berlin Philharmoniker Orchester” conducted by Fritz Reiner performed his Symphony Nova Catalònia within its regular programme. In December Manén travelled to England to record for the Gramophone company in the Hayes studios (London): the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, the Bruch Concerto No. 1 and various works for violin and piano.
Between the months of January and May 1922 Manén made an extensive tour of Europe; France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and England. During the same year he premiered his Concerto da camera Op.A-24 for violin, string orchestra and harp with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In October he resumed his concerts in Spain, France, Switzerland, Holland and Czechoslovakia; on the 18th of November he performed Bruch's Scottish Fantasy, Saint-Saëns' Concerto in B minor and his Tartini Variations with the Paris Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Luciene Wurmser, and on the 25th of November he performed Edouard Lalo's Concerto in F major with the Suisse Romande Orchestra conducted by Ernest Ansermet. A review of the latter concert reads as follows: "Manén has that elegant clarity, that aristocratic correction in which the characteristics of Sarasate are discovered" (“La Tribune de Genève”).
On the 8th of January, 1923, he performed again at Carnegie Hall in New York, thus initiating a first tour of the United States that would take him to a large number of American cities. The tour ended in August with concerts in Cuba, including one where he conducted Beethoven's second symphony. Newspapers reported on the success of the tour: "Manén shows that he shouldn't be afraid to compare himself to Kreisler: rich, solid sound, phenomenal mastery of technical skills ..." (Boston Globe, 5 January 1923); "An Extraordinary Violinist: Beauty, Warmth, Expressiveness, Technical Precision, Distinction of Style" (New York American, January 9, 1923); "His tuning is perfect, purity sublimated. He always has his right hand under control, he plays harmonics close to the bridge as easily as if he were doing it on an open string, with him the sound can start as a whisper, rise as a scream and return to be a whisper, all this with a single bow stroke. He plays some of the longest notes I have ever heard - his 'trills' are supernatural and blow you away. Above all, Manén is a purist, a classicist of the highest level..” (Evening Mail, January 23, 1923). During the last months of the year he performed in Spain and finished writing the new version of his opera El camino del sol, a theatrical symphony in three acts that was published in Catalan and in German (Der Weg zur Sonne) by Universal Edition.
Between January and March, 1924, Manén made a second tour of the United States, Canada and Cuba. Back in Europe, he continued his concert activity touring Germany, France, Holland, England and ended the year with twenty concerts throughout Sweden. Universal Edition published his String Quartet Op. A-16.
During this time, Manén's music, especially his songs with Catalan text and some of his works for violin and piano, such as his transcriptions, began gaining popularity among interpreters such as the sopranos Mercè Plantada, Andreua Fornells and Dagmara Renina, the mezzo Conxita Supervia and the violinists Manuel Quiroga, Henri Temianka, Julius Richter, Pablo Ibarguren and Fernando Guérin.
1925 marked the beginning of Manén’s third concert tour of the United States. Manén continued to combine recitals in Spain, accompanied by pianists such as Josep Maria Roma, Frederic Longàs and Alexandre Vilalta, with intense international activity throughout Europe, visiting countries such as Romania, Yugoslavia and Slovakia. In February 1926, during a concert tour of Holland, he once again performed with the “Amsterdam Concertgebouw”, conducted by his esteemed Willem Mengelberg and throughout the year he performed on several occasions at the Paris Conservatoire as a violinist and as a conductor, premiering works by young French composers. On the 2nd of May, 1926, his third opera Der Weg zur Sonne (The Way of the Sun) premiered in Brunswick, conducted by Franz Mikorey. Brunswick's newspaper “Staatszeitung” assured that "Manén's orchestral language possesses, in its richly polyphonic structure, such a strong melodic and picturesque charm that one is overcome with joy and happiness by a musician who knows how to respect the most sacred of musical evolution". On the 19th of October Joan Manén appeared at the Berlin “Beethovensaal” as a pianist, performing his Piano Quintet Lui et elle with the “Post-Quartet”. After several performances in Catalonia, Manén began an extensive tour of Europe on the 14th of February, 1927, with concerts in England, Germany, Romania, Austria and Hungary and the year was finished with tours of Holland and Poland.
On the 31th of January, 1928, his opera Nerón y Acté was premiered at the “Landestheater” in Kalsruhe, conducted by Josef Krips. The work was a rewritten version of Acté, premiered in Barcelona in 1904 and performed in numerous German theatres with great success before the First World War. Twenty-four years had passed since its last performance and Manén decided to make important changes and publish it anew with the August Cranz publishing house. The premiere was described by the press as follows: "The colour of Manén's music is beautiful and original. The listener loves the indisputable maturity that the work presents due to the novelty of perspectives. Manén works with clear and artistic means to obtain the desired effect, knowing where he is going and following absolutely personal rules. For Manén, the most important thing is the search for means of expression. He illustrates the work with the most refined art, discreetly underlines it and each of the characters has a characteristic colour which is maintained with its variants. The public has had a great, deep, immense impression of the work” (“Voksfreund”). In March of that same year, Nerón y Acté was also performed at the Baden-Baden Opera. On the 5th and 7th of March, 1928 Manén performed at “Palau de la Música”, playing the Double Bach concert with the renowned Galician violinist Antonio Fernández Bordas in the second concert. From mid-March to June he gave over thirty concerts in different South American countries, including Brazil and Argentina. While on tour he coincided with the guitarist Andrés Segovia who probably commissioned a work for guitar from him. Returning from America, he continued to perform in Europe with the pianists Josef Schelb and Edward Steinberg.
In 1929 Joan Manén finished the first movement of an unfinished Concerto for violin and orchestra by Beethoven, a juvenilia work written in 1788 discovered in manuscript form at the Vienna Library. The work was published by Universal Edition under the title “Konzertstück” and was performed with Manén as the soloist on numerous occasions. 1930 was one of the musician's busiest years. Several chamber ensembles such as the “Quartet Laietà”, the Catalan Quintet or the “Sedlak-Vinkler Quartett” performed his chamber works and he himself premiered two important works from his catalogue in Barcelona: the Concerto da camera for violin, string orchestra and op harp. A-24, performed on the 25th of March at Palau de la Música with “Sabadell Orquestra de Cambra”, and the Overture La vida es sueño op. A-23, premiered on the 3rd of July at “Palacio de Exposiciones” in Barcelona with the Pau Casals Orchestra conducted by Manén. During 1930, he continued to perform a large number of concerts and played in Spain, Austria, France, Switzerland, Hungary, Slovenia and Yugoslavia. In some concerts he would also perform as a pianist, interpreting his Quintet or accompanying the soprano Mercedes Plantada.
In 1930 Manén decided to embark on two adventures outside the realm of his usual activity. Firstly, he accepted the artistic direction of the magazine “Música” at its second stage; a magazine that had correspondents throughout Spain and America, and that Manén promoted, obtaining the participation of important musicologists. Secondly, he founded the “Sociedad Filarmónica de Barcelona” in September, a new entity set up to organize concerts around the city. The board of the Association, chaired by Joan Manén, included musicians such as Antonio Massana and Joan Gols. Although the association initially was very well received by the Barcelonian públic, ??the entity did not consolidate its activity, lasting only one proper season plus some sporadic concerts programmed later on. The musicians participating during that season included the guitarist Andrés Segovia, the violinist Henri Temianka and the pianist Giuseppe Picciolo.
The autumn of 1931 saw Manén on tour through Europe, to Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Germany while the year 1932 meant visiting Romania, Hungary, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. Music critics from Berlin, transcribed in the “Revista Musical Catalana”, remarked that "a sound such as we had not felt after Sarasate [...] is the incarnation of the culture of the art of the violin [...] Its execution has reached the highest classical maturity. A more elegant and noble violinist cannot be imagined." During 1932 Manén was able to conduct and perform several of his orchestral works, such as the Concerto espagnol for Violin with the London BBC Orchestra and the Wiener Philharmoniker Orchester”, the Overture La vida es sueño with the “Berlin Philharmoniker” or the Piano Concerto -with Pere Vallribera as soloist- and the Symphony Nova Catalònia with the Pau Casals Orchestra. He also premiered the monodrama Medea at “Palau de la Música Catalana” at the end of the year. Medea was a work for recited voice, piano, organ and string orchestra, which featured texts by Ambrosi Carrión and was composed for Àurea de Sarrà, a prestigious dancer who performed a very personal reading of the piece.
The year 1933 began with a visit to England, where Manén performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the BBC Orchestra conducted by Henry Wood during the Promenade Concerts. Shortly afterwards he performed at “Palau de la Música”, playing his Suite for violin, piano and orchestra op. A-1 with the great pianist Paquita Madriguera. During this time Manén introduced Paquita to the guitarist Andrés Segovia, who would later become her husband. On the 11th of February, 1933, Manén’s opera Nerón y Acté was performed again at “Gran Teatre del Liceu” in Barcelona with some success, conducted by the composer himself, just like in the 1904 premiere. That year Manén made two tours of Sweden, performing as a violinist and conducting symphonic works by Joan Lamote de Grignon and Francesc Pujol. On the 9th of October, 1933, Andrés Segovia premiered Joan Manén's Fantasia-Sonata for guitar in Lausanne and later continued performing it in other cities, such as London, Paris and Barcelona. This work was commissioned by Segovia, probably in 1928 during the South American tour, and exposed a cyclic structure and great formal ambition. In August 1930, the publishing house Schott published the work revised and reworked by Segovia with the approval of the composer, and the guitarist decided to record it 1956 on the Decca label.
During the 33-34 season Manén continued to make extensive tours throughout Europe, visiting the Balkan countries, Turkey, Finland, Sweden and Norway. At the beginning of 1934 his two most recent works, the Concerto da Camera and the Overture La vida es sueño, were performed at the “Salle Gaveau” in Paris and at the Queen’s Hall in London respectively. Subsequently Manén began preparing the publication, by Universal Edition, of the Four Catalan choirs Cuatro coros catalanes for choir and orchestra, of which three were published: Papallona i Margarida, Els dos camins and El Pardal. In May, 1934, Manén finished composing the Concerto for cello and orchestra written for Pau Casals, responding to a commission by the cellist made 23 years earlier in November 1911. On the 9th of November, a musical day organized by “Radio Asociación de Cataluña” took place at “Palau de la Música”, with the participation of Joan Manén as a violinist, composer and conductor, performing among other works the symphony Nova Catalònia. The concert was broadcasted by more than 40 radio stations around the world.
Manén always defended the idea that operas had to be performed in the native language of the country where they were performed and he continued demanding the creation of a national opera theatre in Spain - following the German model - in which the works would be performed in Spanish so they could be understood properly. He always had his operas translated into different languages for performance in various countries. Precisely in November and December of 1934, Manén conducted four performances of “Der Rosenkavalier” by Richard Strauss in a Catalan adaptation by Joaquim Pena at “Gran Teatre del Liceu” in Barcelona.
In January of 1935 he began an extensive tour of several cities in Germany and Poland, continuing to Denmark, Sweden in March, as well as visiting Oslo and performing a recital in front of the Norwegian crown princes. In April, the Stuttgart Radio recorded the opera Nerón y Acté performed by the “Reichssender Orchestra” of the same city and conducted by Manén, and in May he performed as a violinist at “Palau de la Música” with the conductor and composer Eduard Toldrà for the first time. His compositions continued to be published, including his third Catalan choir piece Els dos camins by Universal Edition in a version for choir and orchestra. Furthermore, the Düsseldorf Opera House commissioned a ballet that Manén titled Rosario la Tirana, a work set in the outskirts of Madrid during the period of Goya and that included several of the characters portrayed by the painter; for example the famous actress María del Rosario Fernández. The Ballet was successfully premiered on the 27th of October in Düsseldorf. During this time Manén also composed his work Dos canciones Ibéricas for voice and piano, op. A-26. The last months of 1935 were spent performing in France, England, as well as in Czechoslovakia where he performed a work dedicated to him by Francesc Pujol titled “Lai i Ballada”.
In January 1936, after a few days off in Barcelona, ??Manén began a new tour of Germany, France, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Austria and Hungary. In April he visited Iceland, which was the first appearance of a Spanish violinist in that country. When the Spanish Civil War broke out in July, the violinist found himself in England and due to the warlike situation to which Spain was subjected after a few months, Manén decided to stay in France with his wife, Valentina Kurz, with whom he would share the rest of his days.