The Magic Opal by Isaac Albéniz

Posted by Arnau Farré on April 14, 2011  |  2 Comments

Josep Pla was of the opinion that music should be systematically understandable: “if necessary, to the point of sheer vulgarity, mud and bricks and that’s it.” The operetta genre lends itself more freely to this description than others, or to put it in a more pedantic and euphemistic way, this excess of comprehensibility.

Using an eccentric libretto that situates the action on the coast of Greece (a circumstance that determines the names of some characters but has no influence on the music, unless it’s the abundance of Phrygian cadences) Isaac Albéniz complies effectively with the customs of Victorian operetta.

Now, in a magnificent edition by Borja Mariño, this work is newly available and we have the opportunity to approach it with a full and thorough knowledge of the facts. Forget any condescension towards the genre, though: it is more than likely that “The Magic Opal” has moments of ambivalent simplicity in store for us, unbearable and delicious at the same time.

Listen to an excerpt from The Magic Opal >

Greek medicine in New York

Posted by Cristina Martí on April 11, 2011  |  Leave a comment

Askeplios is the name of the Greek god of medicine, usually depicted next to a snake entwined on a stick, a symbol of renewed life. Askeplios is also one of the works by the Bilbao composer Gabriel Erkoreka that can be heard on 28 April at the Judson Memorial Church in New York, performed by the Maya Ensemble, whose members are the flutist Sato Moughalian, harpist Bridget Kibbey and percussionist John Hadfield. Premiered in Manhattan last June, in this piece Erkoreka uses melodic archetypes from Greek traditional music, which twist and turn like the snake on the Greek physician’s stick.

You can find information on performances of this and many other composers’ music in the Tritó concert schedule

Zagreb and Alexandria to hear Benet Casablancas

Posted by Cristina Martí on March 23, 2011  |  Leave a comment

Coinciding with the twenty-sixth Zagreb Music Biennale (7 to 17 April), this year will see the celebration of the Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music from 10 to 15 April. Benet Casablancas will attend the closing concert to listen to his work “Dove of Peace: Homage to Picasso” being performed by the “Zeitfluss” ensemble. Casablancas, musicologist and composer born in Sabadell (Barcelona), and academic director of the Conservatorio Superior de Música del Liceo in Barcelona since 2002, is also a member of the international jury that has selected sixty-eight modern compositions, in fourteen categories, out of the 400 submitted for performance during the 2011 ISCM World New Music Days.

“Dove of Peace: Homage to Picasso”

Commissioned by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chamber Concerto no. 1 for clarinet and ensemble, “Dove of Peace: Homage to Picasso”, will be performed in Zagreb by Davorin Brozić as soloist and the Ossian Ensemble from Canterbury, led by Darren Bloom. This first performance in Croatia follows on from the world premiere of the work in May 2010 in Liverpool, with Nicholas Cox and the Ensemble 10/10 conducted by Clark Rundell. Its Spanish premiere is scheduled for next January in Madrid.

Forthcoming concerts with Casablancas

In addition, the Egyptian premiere of “New Epigrams” will take place at the II Alexandrina Contemporary Music Biennale, with the London Sinfonietta conducted by Diego Masson (whose programme includes works by Benjamin, Saed Haddad, Ligeti and Birtwistle), and the also three “Epigrams” for sextet, to be played by the Barcelona 216 ensemble conducted by José María Sánchez-Verdú. Both concerts will be offered at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (26 and 27 April), and will be repeated on the following days at the Cairo Opera House and the Falaki Theatre in the same city (2 May). For further information, consult the European-Egyptian Contemporary Music Society website.

And in the near future, works by Casablancas will also be premiered in Argentina and, once again, Japan. As regards concerts in Spain, particular mention should be made of those to be offered next May by the Deutsches Kammerphilharmonie from Bremen, which will present the “Nocturne” for orchestra in Bilbao and Barcelona, and the first performance of the “Third String Quartet” in Barcelona, to be played by the Arditti Quartet, which premiered the work and recently recorded a CD on the Tritó label with the complete quartets and string trio.

Josep Soler wins the Tomás Luis de Victoria prize

Posted by Cristina Martí on March 21, 2011  |  Leave a comment

The Catalan composer Josep Soler (Villafranca del Penedès, Barcelona, 1935) has won the Tomás Luis de Victoria Ibero-American Music prize offered by SGAE (General Society of Spanish Authors). The jury praised the “outstanding quality” of the Soler’s work, which belongs to “the great tradition of Western music, touches on all the genres” and “reveals a creative world of rare and fascinating personality, a reflection of the everyday and the transcendent, of the obsessions and yearnings of human beings of our time.” The award, instituted by the SGAE eleven years ago, constitutes the highest recognition for living composers in the Ibero-American world, both as regards the prestige of the jury and the prize of 60,000 euros. Soler competed alongside a total of sixty finalists from sixteen Ibero-American countries.

You can find a large number of works by the winner of the XI Tomás Luis de Victoria Ibero-American Music prize in our shop.

Source: El Pais.

Frankfurt Musikmesse 2011

Posted by Cristina Martí on March 14, 2011  |  Leave a comment

As on previous occasions, Tritó will attend this year’s Frankfurt Musikmesse, which takes place from 6 to 9 April. All the information about Tritó has already been published on the fair’s website. Tritó will have a stand displaying the products of which it is sole agent, novelties, collections – such as Música Breu – and  catalogues of our composers, with the aim of publicising the company’s work in the area of the revival and dissemination of Spanish music at this important international fair of music. In this respect, we will be promoting the works of Xavier Montsalvatge, Eduard Toldrà and Frederic Mompou, among others, whose anniversaries are due to be celebrated in 2012.

The Frankfurt Mussikmese is the most important of the international showcases for music, with thousands of manufacturers, publishers, record labels, producers and music organisations being able to share their knowledge, discover the lines of work of other businesses and strengthen ties of all kinds with a view to the future.

See Tritó Edicions in messefrankfurt.com >

Agustí Charles premieres “Lord Byron” in Germany

Posted by Cristina Martí on March 9, 2011  |  Leave a comment

On 12 March in Darmstadt, the composer Agustí Charles premiered his opera “LByron, un estiu sense estiu“ (LByron, a year without a summer), commissioned by Darmstadt’s Staatstheater and scheduled for the 2010/2011 season.

In Spain it will be premiered at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona on 25, 27 and 28 June 2011, with the participation of the choir of the Gran Teatre del Liceu and the Orquesta BCN216. In Germany, on the other hand, it will be performed on nine occasions over the coming months. Both the Liceu Theatre and the Teatros del Canal are involved in this production, which will also be staged in Madrid.

Marc Rosich’s libretto sets the action in Europe after the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo. While he was losing on the battlefield, the Tambora volcano in the Pacific Ocean erupted, releasing a cloud of toxic ash that covered the entire planet and perturbed the order of the seasons. The cloud, accompanied by violent storms, reached Geneva in the summer of 1816, leaving an unusual group of English exiles trapped in their summer home: Lord Byron, Percy B. Shelley, his lover Mary, Mary’s stepsister, Claire Clairmont, and Dr John Polidori. A gathering in the middle of a “year without a summer”, which gave rise to two of the most important texts in Gothic literature: Frankenstein and The Vampire.

Orchestra, choir and voices construct an all-enveloping sound space that situates the listener at the centre of the opera, on the stage, which also serves as an important instrument, with even the percussion located in the hall itself, and including subtle amplification that enables the public to delve into the subconscious of the characters and deduce their obsessions.

Source: docenotas.com

Contemporary music 2011

Posted by Cristina Martí on March 7, 2011  |  Leave a comment

On various Wednesdays in the months of March, April and May, the 2011 Seville Contemporary Music Cycle will be held at the Teatro Central in Seville. The programme consists of eight concerts, including works by David del Puerto, Hèctor Parra and Gabriel Erkoreka.

Specifically, on 27 April the ensemble Rejoice will perform the concert version of the work Carmen Replay by David del Puerto, and on 30 March the Ensemble Recherche will present works by Hèctor Parra and by students of the Manuel de Falla Chair of Composition at the University of Granada. In addition, on the 25 May you will be able to listen to works by another of the composers who works with Tritó, Gabriel Erkoreka, along with other contemporary composers such as Saariaho and Fineberg, at the hands of the Taller Sonoro under the joint title “Angelus Novus: el futuro presente”.

“Apocalipsis” in the Cuenca Religious Music Week

Posted by Cristina Martí on March 2, 2011  |  Leave a comment

On 17 April, Palm Sunday, the first public performance of the work Apocalipsis by Jesús Torres, commissioned for the 50^th Cuenca Religious Music Week, will take place at the Iglesia de la Merced in the said city. It will be the fourth of the twenty-two concerts programmed from the 16 to 24 of the coming month of April for a musical event now dating back half a century.

The composition is based on texts from the Apocalypse of St John in the New Testament and is intended to be performed by a Gregorian choir with seven members, two mixed choirs with twelve members each, seven percussionists, two pianos, two brass groups (two trumpets, two horns, two tenor trombones, two bass trombones) and one oboe. To this end it will count on to the most important Gregorian choir in Spain, Schola Antiqua, the French choir Accentus, and the Ensemble Residencias, all of them conducted by Nacho de Paz.

The work

While looking forward to the concert in order to discover this new composition by Jesus Torres, we can for the moment disclose that it lasts 49 minutes and consists of seven movements:

I. Vision; II. The seven seals; III. The seven trumpets; IV. The beast; V. Fall of Babylon; VI. The last judgement; VII. The new Jerusalem

The work of Jesús Torres has been published entirely by Editorial Tritó since 2002 and we expect it to be available in our shop in brief.

Now you know: if you live in Cuenca or are lucky enough to spend your Easter holidays there, don’t miss this concert or any of the others scheduled for the 50^th Cuenca Religious Music Week.

Casablancas, finalist at the XV Music Awards

Posted by Cristina Martí on February 27, 2011  |  Leave a comment

Benet Casablancas has been selected as a finalist at the XV Music Awards in the ‘Best Classical Music Composer’ category with his work ‘Alter Klang. Impromptu for orchestra after Paul Klee”.

A recording of the piece is included in the monographic CD ‘Benet Casablancas. Orchestral Works’, released on the Anemos/Inaem label and performed by the Orquesta Nacional de España under the baton of its chief conductor Josep Pons, with Bertram Kornacher overseeing the musical production.

The album, beautifully presented and with documented sleeve notes by Yvan Nommick, also includes ‘Three Epigrams’ for orchestra and the world premiere of the composer’s latest work, ‘Darkness visible. Nocturne for orchestra’.

Written as a commission for the Orquesta Nacional de España, which premiered the piece in January 2007 at the Auditorio Nacional de Madrid in February 2007, ‘Alter Klang’ has enjoyed notable success, having been played on repeated occasions in Spain and abroad (Holland, Belgium, Sweden) by orchestras such as the Filarmónica de Gran Canaria, the Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, the NJO from The Netherlands, the Orchestre National de Belgique and the Malmö Simfoni Orkester. And in March 2012 it will be performed in Barcelona by the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya.

Pau Marsal i Boguñà (1761 – 1839)

Posted by Cristina Martí on February 25, 2011  |  Leave a comment

This year, 2011, marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Pau Marsal i Boguñà (Terrassa, 1761 – 1839), Catalan organist, composer and cellist whose life bridged the 18th and 19th centuries.

He trained at the Montserrat choir school with Narcís Casanoves and at the age of seventeen he took up the posts of organist and chapel master at the church of the Sant Esperit in Terrassa. In addition, he completed ecclesiastical studies and was ordained a priest. Later, he held the posts of chapel master in Ibiza and organist at the Cathedral of Palencia and the Palau de la Comtessa in Barcelona.

He composed religious music but specialised, above all, in piano and chamber works, among which one of the few string quartets by a Catalan composer from this period deserves special mention. Eight of his religious compositions are held in the archive at the Cathedral of Terrassa.

Tritó has published his Seven Sonatas, basing the edition on the manuscript M921/3, held at the Biblioteca de Catalunya under the title “Quadern de Sonates de D. Pablo Marsal” (Book of sonatas by D.Pablo Marsal.

See the Seven Sonatas by Pau Marsal >