Premiere of “Diferencias” by Jesús Torres

Posted by Redacción on November 7, 2007  |  Leave a comment

The first concert of the season by the Orquesta de Cámara del Auditorio de Zaragoza “Grupo Enigma”, this 6 November in the Sala Luis Galve of the Auditorio de Zaragoza, features the Spanish premiere of Diferencias by the Zaragoza-born composer Jesús Torres. Commissioned by the conductor Ernest Martínez Izquierdo for Ensemble Barcelona 216, with the intention of premiering it at the 1999 Strasburg Festival, the piece was finally premiered in London, under the direction of André de Ridder with the Royal Academy Ensemble.

The title “Diferencias” refers to 16th-century Spanish music; without formal references, it is rather a homage to a period and style the composer admires, similar to what he does in the works “Glossa” or “Tiento”.

Jesús Torres‘ presence this autumn in the music programme of his native city is worthy of note: this past 28 October, the Trío Arbós presented in Zaragoza the piece “Trío”, dedicated to this wonderful ensemble. This 12 and 13 December see performances at the city conservatory’s Auditorio Eduardo del Pueyo of his “Cuentos de Andersen”, for narrator and chamber ensemble, premiered in Madrid last year.

Among his recently published works, we should mention “Presencias” for solo piano and “Chacona” for solo violin, both new additions to the Tritó Ediciones catalogue.

Premier of Escenas de pájaros, Ramón Humet

Posted by Redacción on October 15, 2007  |  Leave a comment

This 18 and 19 October, the Spanish Radio Television Orchestra, under the direction of its principal conductor Adrian Leaper, will premiere in Spain the work by Ramon Humet Escenas de pájaros, which won the last Reina Sofía Composition Prize from the Ferrer Salat Foundation. At the concert the president of the Ferrer Salat Foundation, Sergi Ferrer Salat, will present the Catalan composer with the prize. Also present will be members of the jury who decided the prize: Cristóbal Halffter, Jesús Rueda, César Camarero, the orchestra conductor José de Eusebio and the winner of the 2005 Eneko Vadillo prize. This work also won the first Oliver Messiaen Composition International Prize from the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. On the occasion of the award last January, the work saw its world premiere and the composer was commissioned to do another work for the Orchestra’s coming season. On the strength of these two important awards Mr Humet has received international commissions which give him an outstanding presence in the Canadian and French festivals. In addition to the commission from the Montreal Symphony Orchestra there is another from the Centro para la Difusión de la Música Contemporánea (CDMC) for the concert season at the Museo Reina Sofia Auditorium within the programme “Residencias”, by the renowned ensembles Trío Arbós and Neopercusión. Finally, he has received a commission from the Festival de Òpera de Bolsillo y Nuevas Creationes (Pocket Opera and New Creations) for the 2009/2010 season.

World premiere of David del Puerto’s 3rd Symphony

Posted by Redacción on September 17, 2007  |  Leave a comment

In its 15th year, Otoño Musical Soriano commemorates the centenary this year of the poet Antonio Machado’s arrival in Soria. For the occasion, the festival, directed by Odón Alonso, commissioned a work from the composer David del Puerto, according to whom it is his “most personal composition”, given the freedom he was allowed by a commission which dictated no scoring nor timing conditions. This is Del Puerto’s Third Symphony, subtitled “En la melancolía de tu recuerdo, Soria” (In the Melancholy of Your Memory, Soria). The author classifies it as a “dramatic symphony” due to the way it draws on cantata and theatre music. David del Puerto resolved the sole condition of the commission – to include texts by Machado – by choosing 19 poems that enabled him “to condense Machado’s life in Soria along one year”, and which are recited and sung along with the orchestral music. The texts reflect the poet’s varying moods over the seasons of the year, among which stands out summer, given that “the summer poems are the most heartfelt because that was the season when Leonor died”.

This is the first symphony in which David del Puerto includes sung and recited parts and, at once, the first of his large-scale works in which he puts to music poems written by someone other than himself. Nonetheless, it is a work in which the author has renounced deliberately the brightness of other pieces of his in order to capture and transmit better the sobriety and ascetism of Machado’s verse. The premiere takes place on 20 September, 2007, at the Auditorio “Odón Alonso” of the Centro Cultural “Palacio de la Audiencia” in Soria, with Enrique García Asensio conducting the Oviedo City Symphony Orchestra. The solo voices are the mezzo-soprano Elena Gragera and the soprano Carmen Gurriarán, with narration by the actor José Sacristán.   The score and CD of David del Puerto first symphony, Boreas, is already available from Tritó and we will soon be publishing his second, Nusantara, as well as the above-mentioned third. The most recent works we have published by this composer have been chamber pieces: “Dos dedicatorias”, for solo violin, and Seis estudios, for guitar, while forthcoming are Diario, for accordion and piano  and Advenit, for clarinet, violin, cello and piano.

New works by Albert Guinovart, Jesús Rueda and Hèctor Parra

Posted by Redacción on July 4, 2007  |  Leave a comment

Tritó announces the release of Symphony I by Jesús Rueda, composed in 2000, and since its premiere lauded by critics as one of the most important orchestral works of our day. The recording by the Spanish National Youth Orchestra conducted by Ernest Martínez-Izquierdo – also including symphonies by Jesús Torres and David del Puerto – has also received widespread praise in the specialist press. The piece, which is scored for large orchestra with triple woodwinds, six horns, piano and three percussionists, is subtitled Laberinto in reference to the labyrinth from classic mythology and a programme which takes the listener on a journey in four stages each joined and resolved by the Sphinx, with the Minotaur as the apotheosis of the work at the end of the journey. Tritó Edicions has also released three new works by Hèctor Parra: Time Fields II, Time Fields III – composed for unaccompanied instruments – and Andante sospeso, a duet for flute (or clarinet) and piano. The latter title refers to the counterpoint between the concept of mobile and static sound, with the flute and piano alternating in the creation of atmospheres which are at once complementary and opposing. Time Fields II, on the other hand, is written for solo clarinet and exploits all the potential of the instrument (multiphonics, microtones, changes in timbre), while Time Fields III, originally conceived for baritone saxophone and later adapted for bass clarinet, now appears in version for solo flute. The work is constructed out of three separate instrumental materials – melodic lines, extended notes and complex rhythms – which are combined with the many shifts in speed which mark the work. Tritó’s saxophone repertoire, meanwhile, grows with the piece Haendeliana, which Albert Guinovart originally composed for performance with voice, recalling the opera arias of the Baroque composer Georg F. Haendel. The success of the piece inspired the composer to make several versions and transcriptions, and this one is adapted for soprano saxophone, clarinet or oboe, accompanied by the piano.

Jesús Rueda debuts “La Tierra” and concludes the work of Holst

Posted by Redacción on May 30, 2007  |  Leave a comment

This past 1 June at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla conducted by Pedro Halffter performed the world premiere of this work by the Madrid composer Jesús Rueda. La Tierra is an appendix to Gustav Holst’s suite The Planets. Rueda’s piece, of a length similar to those of the English composer, is subtitled ‘la mare gaia’ (Mother Gaia) and translates the author’s personal idea regarding the planetary spirit as a “vertiginous turbine”. This is a virtuoso work for orchestra which stretches the limits of the instruments, especially in the formal aspect, and is notable for its intense tempo. The composition was co-commissioned by Fundación Autor and the SGAE (Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers) and the Seville Symphony Orchestra with its principal conductor Pedro Halffter. Also by the same author, Tritó has recently published the score of Memoria del Laberinto for violin, cello and piano. This latter piece was recorded on a CD by the Arditti Quartet with Ananda Sukarlan on piano, published by Fundación Autor.

World premiere of the work by Santiago Lanchares

Posted by Cristina Martí on May 24, 2007  |  Leave a comment

On the 28^th of May the ORCAM will perform Escenas de Castor y Pollux, by Santiago Lanchares in the Auditori Nacional de Madrid. Under the baton of Gloria Isabel Ramos, this concert presents three scenes originally belonging with the fourteen that made up his ballet for piano and percussion, based on two Greek myths, the twin children of Leda and Zeus. This is the second symphonic work premiered this year. Not so long ago Apertura was specially commissioned for the inauguration of the Auditori de Valladolid, and was performed on the 13^th of April.

David del Puerto: “Sinfonía núm. 2 Nusantara” and “Concierto para violín y orquesta”

Posted by Cristina Martí on May 4, 2007  |  Leave a comment

The new CD with the Sinfonía núm. 2 Nusantara and the Concierto para violín y orquesta by David del Puerto is available on the Stradivarius label. It will be performed by the Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, with the pianist Ananda Sukarlan and the violinist Manuel Guillén, and conducted by José Ramón Encinar. The two works, of similar magnitude and characteristics, both symphonic pieces with soloists, were written with ten years’ difference, thus offering a good overview of the composer’s development during this time.

Premiere of Variaciones in memoriam Gonzalo de Olavide, by David del Puerto

Posted by Marcel Soleda on April 16, 2007  |  Leave a comment

This 27 April sees the premiere of Variations in memoriam Gonzalo de Olavide, by David del Puerto, at the Auditorio Nacional de Madrid.

This commissioned work will be performed by the Spanish National Orchestra (ONE), under the baton of  Pablo González. The concert also includes the debut of a work commissioned by the ONE from Gonzalo de Olavide, who died two years ago, and who was very close to David del Puerto, both as an artist and as a friend.

These two transitional works of the 20th-21st centuries will be performed along with two other transitional works from the 18th-19th centuries, Mozart’s Concerto No. 1 for Flute and Orchestra and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 in D Major,Opus 36.

Premiere of Hyperión II, by Jesús Rueda

Posted by Marcel Soleda on April 16, 2007  |  Leave a comment

Hyperión II by Jesús Rueda is to premiere in a concert by the Castilla y León Symphony Orchestra (OSCyL), conducted by Alejandro Posada, at the Valladolid Auditorium this 26 April. The work, which is along the lines of an overture, features strong contrasts with two quite distinct sections. Hyperión II comes six years after the premiere of the first Hyperion.

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.