Tritó pays tribute to the most famous

Posted by Marcel Soleda on November 27, 2008  |  Leave a comment

With the figure of the composer Xavier Montsalvatge we are launching a series of biographies of some of the most famous Spanish composers of all time, which will be published periodically in this blog.

Xavier Montsalvatge is the first because he is the publisher’s principal composer and almost the totality of his work has been published by Tritó. Montsalvatge will be followed by Isaac Albéniz in view of his evident importance on the Spanish music scene together with Enrique Granados.

You can access the series by clicking on Biographies.

Albéniz for guitar, by Javier Riba

Posted by Marcel Soleda on November 17, 2008  |  Leave a comment

Although Isaac Albéniz did not compose for the guitar, the transcriptions for this instrument of his music constitute an important oeuvre and were numerous even during the composer’s lifetime. Francisco Tárrega’s transcriptions for performers like Andrés Segovia have contributed to the renown of Albéniz’s piano works.

Some of Tárrega’s transcriptions are included on the recording La guitarra soñada, along with others by the guitarist Javier Riba, who on this CD offers an elegant and solid performance backed by a profound grasp of Albéniz and the guitar idiom. Included on the CD is a selection of some of the best-known works by the Catalan composer: Iberia, Suite Española, España and Pavana.

This is what Walter Aaron Clark, an Albéniz scholar, has to say about the quality of these transcriptions: “But I had always felt that a solo guitarist could not do justice to this music. The guitar virtuoso Javier Riba, an artist of the first order, has proved the falseness of that claim, for which we should all be grateful.”

Jesús Guridi and Isaac Albéniz at the Cadiz Festival

Posted by Marcel Soleda on November 17, 2008  |  Leave a comment

The 2008 Spanish Music Festival of Cadiz, organized by the Government of Andalusia, which runs 20-30 November, features a range of works from the Tritó catalogue.

On Saturday, 22 November, the Basque National Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Pablo Gonzalez, winner of the 2006 Cadaqués Orchestra Conducting Competition, presents Jesús Guridi’s monumental Sinfonía Pirinenca. This work, which premiered in 1946, is one of the best examples of the Basque composer’s oeuvre, with three contrasting movements, from passages of great melodic beauty to others of stunning rhythmic richness, and including influences from folk music and French impressionism.

On 29 November, the Granada City Orchestra conducted by JF Haisser performs three of Jesús Rueda’s orchestrations of Isaac Albéniz’s Suite Iberia: Triana, Lavapiés and Evocación. The Madrid composer’s particular tribute to one of the great piano works of all times retains all the freshness and immediacy of the original rendered in orchestral form. The Granada City Orchestra performs the same programme on 30 November as part of the orchestra’s regular concert season.

Javier Riba plays El puerto, by Albéniz

Posted by Marcel Soleda on November 4, 2008  |  1 Comment

The guitarist Javier Riba plays El puerto from the Suite Iberia (original for piano)  by Isaac Albéniz in his own guitar arrangement. More of these transcriptions can be listened in his recent recording, “La guitarra soñada”. These transcriptions are being prepared today and will be available the next December.

Isaac Albéniz: La guitarra soñada

Posted by Marcel Soleda on November 4, 2008  |  4 Comments

The commemoration in 2009 of the centenary of the death of Isaac Albéniz will be a great opportunity to review the work of one of greatest Spanish music geniuses of all time.

In this respect, for the first time we are able to listen to the transcription for solo guitar of some parts of Iberia, one of the most important piano masterpieces of European music.

The Cordovan guitarist Javier Riba offers us the world debut of the arrangements of Evocación, El puerto and Almería, altogether in the tradition initiated by the maestros Francesc Tàrrega and Miquel Llobet.

In addition to Ibèria, the recording includes Capricho catalán, Preludio and Tango (España), the parts Cuba and Granada from the Suite española, all of them arranged by Riba himself, and the already classic transcriptions by Tàrrega and Llobet of the Pavana and the Serenata española.

It is worth mentioning the sleeve notes, written by the prestigious musicologist specialised in Albéniz, Walter Clark, where he draws attention to the fact that Albéniz’s piano works have become one of the central parts of the guitar repertory par excellence.

1. Evocación

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2. El puerto

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3. Granada

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“El Puerto” by Albéniz orchestrated by Jesús Rueda

Posted by Cristina Martí on July 30, 2008  |  Leave a comment

This year’s Peralada Festival provides the setting for the Cadaqués Orchestra’s premiere of the fourth orchestration, done by the Madrid composer Jesús Rueda, of Albéniz’s Suite Iberia.
Suite Iberia is one of the best-known works by Isaac Albéniz. Originally written for piano, its scenes of Hispanic references have been orchestrated several times, but this is the first adaptation for classical orchestra. Rueda’s profound feeling for the music of Albéniz has produced orchestrations of Triana, Evocación, Lavapiés and now El Puerto that demonstrate tonal and musical richness.
In addition to El Puerto, the Peralada Festival concert, this 5 August, also features Evocación, under the direction of maestro Neville Marriner, principal guest conductor of the Cadaqués Orchestra.

Ricard Viñes on the piano

Posted by Redacción on July 21, 2008  |  Leave a comment

This CD presents the complete recordings of Ricard Viñes from 1929 to 1936. While the relatively small selection of pieces he recorded does not do justice to his vast repertoire, it remains an excellent sampling of his art.

The CD includes the recording of the speech given by Viñes on 18 March 1938 during a radio programme in which he tells anecdotes about his friendship with Claude Debussy.

Scarlatti: Sonata en re

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Albéniz: Dos danzas españolas

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Isaac Albéniz, Poèmes d’amour

Posted by Redacción on March 6, 2008  |  Leave a comment

A joint project by the Cadaqués Orchestra and Tritó Edicions has brought back to life an all but forgotten work by Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909). A new CD recording and edition of the score, with parts for rent, of Poèmes d’Amour are now available from our website.

“Poèmes d’Amour”, composed in 1892, is a work for recitalist or rhapsodist with chamber ensemble that Isaac Albéniz structured around fourteen poems by the French Symbolist Armand Sylvestre (1837-1901). It premiered on 29 June, 1892, in London with one of the most famed actresses of all times, Sarah Bernhardt, reciting. Over the years the work was largely forgotten. Now the prestigious conductor and musicologist José de Eusebio has edited the score. De Eusebio is the world’s top specialist in Albéniz’s work and for years has been dedicating himself to the composer’s stage works such as “Merlín”, “Henry Clifford” and Pepita Jiménez. De Eusebio’s new score is based on the manuscripts held at the Barcelona Music Museum. With this new score, and the recording by the Cadaqués Orchestra, “Poèmes d’Amour” has been rescued from obscurity.

This project would not have been possible without the support of the Fundació Caixa Catalunya, which has joined forces with “Tritó Edicions” and “The Cadaqués Orchestra”. The recovery of patrimony and the revival of the works of our composers, Albéniz, in this case one of the foremost names in Catalan and Spanish music of all times, is always a source of satisfaction, especially when it involves the acclaimed Cadaqués Orchestra, which has long stood out for projects such of this nature.

To celebrate this release, www.trito.es is offering a 15% discount on the CD with score pack.

The Cadaqués Orchestra and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla successfully perform Shostakovich and Albéniz

Posted by Marcel Soleda on April 2, 2007  |  Leave a comment

The Castilla y León Symphony Orchestra and the Cadaqués Orchestra (ODC), conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, interpreted this symphony at the Auditorio Nacional de Música de Madrid, as part of the Ibermúsica season. This was the first concert in a joint project between the two orchestras which included a repeat performance in Zaragoza, offering another chance to hear this intense, expansive symphony. The project is to culminate in the upcoming release of a CD by Tritó. Another point of interest in this collaborative effort is the world premiere of the new orchestration of Evocación - the movement from Isaac Albéniz ’s Suite “Iberia” – by Jesús Rueda, winner of the Spanish National Music Prize 2004 and resident composer with the Cadaqués Orchestra, who has also orchestrated two other movements, Lavapiés and Triana.

Albéniz’s piece featured in the first half of the two concerts, played by the Cadaqués Orchestra (ODC) alone, while in the second part the two orchestras performed Shostakovich ’s 4th Symphony together.