The Filmoteca de Catalunya presents “Música per a cinema” (Music for silent films), by Joan Pineda

Posted by Leticia Martin on January 29, 2009  |  Leave a comment

On Monday 2 February at 19:30h the Filmoteca de Catalunya and Tritó Ediciones will present the CD “Joan Pineda a la Filmoteca: Música per a cinema” (Joan Pineda at the Filmoteca, Music for silent films) in the assembly room of the Palau Marc (Rambla Santa Mònica 8, Barcelona). The presentation act will be hosted by Lluís Falcó, lecturer at the Universidad de Barcelona and an expert on music and cinema, Roc Villas, director of the Filmoteca, and Llorenç Caballero, director of Tritó Ediciones, and will count on the participation of Joan Pineda himself.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The double CD “Joan Pineda at the Filmoteca, Music for silent films” is a selection of themes that the musician has composed for piano down through the years to accompany the showing of silent films at the Filmoteca de Catalunya. This extensive compilation contains two hours of music consisting of 41 themes that have accompanied 31 film classics, including, for example, The Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian, 1925), Broken Blossoms (David W. Griffith, 1919), and Easy Virtue (Alfred Hitchcock, 1928).

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Joan Pineda i Sirvent studied at the Conservatorio Municipal de Música de Barcelona and although he is a doctor by profession he has won has great national and international prestige as a film musician, especially for the composition of scores for silent films. He has appeared regularly on radio programmes: in 1960 he made his debut on Radio Barcelona with the programme “Cine sin imágenes” (cinema without pictures) and his appearances on Radio Nacional de España and Radio 4 have enabled him to give film music a wider audience. Pineda is also the composer of various scores for sound films, such as “La otra imagen” (Antoni Ribas, 1973), “La respuesta / M’enterro en els fonaments” (Josep Ma. Forn, 1975), “La muerte del escorpión” (Gonzalo Herralde, 1976), and “Alícia a l’Espanya de les Meravelles” (Jordi Feliu, 1979).

He has won various awards in recognition of his work, among which particular mention should be made of the Prize of the Public at the XXV Semana Internacional de Cinema de Barcelona (Internatinal Cinema Week) in1983, the Premio Centro de Investigaciones Cinematográficas (centre for film research prize), from the Universidad de Barcelona (1990), the Premio Sant Jordi (1992), the Premio Altaveu (Sant Boi de Llobregat) (1995) and the Premio Cuaderno de Música in the Catalan  ambit (Fundació Amics de les Artes i de les Lletres de Sabadell) in 1995.

El soldadito de Plomo (The Tin Soldier), advance promotion

Posted by Leticia Martin on January 19, 2009  |  1 Comment

El soldadito de plomo, by Emilio Aragón, comes to life thanks to an animation. Just as it did with “La flor mas grande del mundo” (The biggest flower in the world), Continental Producciones has created a short animated film using plasticine, set in the Toy Museum in Allariz (Orense) and where Andersen’s story is told from a new angle.

This animation is fruit of twelve months’ work and 18,000 shots. For the voices of the characters Continental Producciones and Algarabía Animación have chosen actors of the calibre of Manuel Manquiña (the “Cigarrón”) and Luis Piedrahita (the Soldier).

Music Reader, the future of the score

Posted by Marcel Soleda on January 15, 2009  |  Leave a comment

It’s called Music Reader and it may be the format that definitively pensions off the traditional score and parts in paper. And there’s really no doubt it has many advantages:

The musical notes are visualised on a tablet PC type of screen that can be placed on the music stand while the pages are turned with an accessory pedal. Another advantage that also affects the publishing companies is that it permits the introduction of corrections in real time by the musicians, and also various annotations.

Naturally Music Reader is not the only initiative in this direction. Another device on the market with similar characteristics is MusicPad Pro.

We will have to wait and see what happens but what’s for sure is that the digital revolution is arriving everywhere and classical music is no exception.

Alejandro Posada conducts Cap de Quers in Valladolid

Posted by Leticia Martin on January 10, 2009  |  Leave a comment

Cap de Quers by David del Puerto, a work commissioned by the Orquesta de Cadaqués and the CDMC for the 9th International Conducting Competition of the said orchestra, was presented in Valladolid on 9 and 10 January. The principal conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, the Columbian Alejandro Posada, chose this work for this season’s opening performance with the orchestra at the Auditorio Miguel Delibes in Valladolid.

Cap de Quers received its name from David del Puerto as a tribute to the Orquesta de Cadaqués and the conducting competition. It was played by the finalists in the 9th competition and it proved to be a work of great interest for both the musicians and the public, which was completely won over, as is demonstrated by the fact that it has been performed on several occasions since its premiere and will shortly be played at Auditorio Nacional de Madrid.

Cap de Quers

Alter Klang by Benet Casablancas in Holland, Belgium and Sweden

Posted by Leticia Martin on January 9, 2009  |  2 Comments

The Dutch youth orchestra, Nationaal Jeugd Orkest, conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw, has chosen the work Alter Klang by Benet Casablancas for its January concert tour, which takes it to the cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht in Holland and Antwerp in Belgium. This work consolidates Benet Casablancas’ place among the most internationally acclaimed Spanish composers.

Alter Klang (Antique harmonies) refers back to a well-known painting with the same name by Paul Klee. The composer brings a broad spectrum of sustained rhetorical resources and synesthesiae into play, which emerged in the adaptation of the pictorial language to music.

Composed in a sole movement for large orchestra it has received chamber music treatment on various occasions. It is dedicated to Josep Pons, who conducted the premiere at the Auditorio Nacional de Madrid in 2007. This same conductor will perform it in Malmö (Sweden) with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra in April.

Alter Klang

Puss in Boots (El gato con botas) by Xavier Montsalvatge returns to Oviedo

Posted by Leticia Martin on January 5, 2009  |  3 Comments

Puss in Boots by Xavier Montsalvatge returns to the Teatro Philharmonic de Oviedo on the 9 and 10 January in a production realised in 2005 by the Teatro Real de Madrid and co-produced by the Gran Teatro del Liceu, the Asociación Bilbaína de Amigos de la Ópera and the Asociación Asturiana de Amigos de la Ópera. On this occasion it is the version for small orchestra which the composer Albert Guinovart was commissioned to arrange by Tritó Ediciones.

Emilio Sagi’s staging counts on costumes and a set design by Agatha Ruiz de la Prada, which give special colour and impact to the story, winning the hearts of both children and adults. Vicente Alberola is the music director and the main roles will be played by Raquel Lojendio (the Cat), David Menéndez (the Miller), María Luz Martínez (the Princess), Isidro Anaya (the King) and Miguel Angel Zapater (the Ogre).

This score by Xavier Montsalvatge presents the traditional tale by Perrault in the personal style and with the surprising musicality that always characterises this composer’s works.