A Grammy for Jordi Savall

Posted by Cristina Martí on February 15, 2011  |  Leave a comment

The musicologist and orchestral conductor Jordi Savall has won the Grammy for the “Best Small Ensemble Performance” with his work “Dinastía Borgia. Iglesia y Poder en el Renacimiento” (The Borgia Dynasty – Church & Power in the Renaissance).

This work, which Savall conceived as a homage to the Valencian dynasty of the Borgia family, competed for the award with four other candidates: “Ceremony and devotion, music for The Tudors”, by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen; “Trondheimsolistene, In Folk Style”, by Ovynd Gimse and Geir Inge Lotsberg; “Victoria: Lamentations of Jeremiah”, by Peter Philips and The Tallis Scholars; and “Eric Whitacre: Choral Music”, by Noel Edison.

Thus, Savall receives recognition for his work with the ensemble Hespèrion XXI and the La Capella Reial de Catalunya, whose members are Pascal Bertin, Daniele Carnovich, Lior Elmalich, Montserrat Figueras, Driss El Maloumi, Marc Mauillon, Lluís Vilamajó, Furio Zanasi, Josep Piera and Francisco Rojas.

Source: Diario digital siglo XXI

Ara Malikian presents his latest CD

Posted by Marcel Soleda on November 23, 2010  |  Leave a comment

Following the magnificent reception given to his latest recording by both the critics and the public, Ara Malikian now presents the CD “Spanish Romantic Violin Concertos” at the FNAC in Valencia.

The CD includes two extraordinary violin concertos by the composers Tomás Bretón and Jesús de Monasterio, concertos composed in the shadow of Pablo Sarasate. The two works are also very good examples of the influence of Central European symphonism in Spain. This is the first time these concertos have been recorded.

You can listen to them here…

For further information see: www.fnac.com and www.laguiago.com

Hypermusic Prologue and Hèctor Parra in Accents

Posted by Leticia Martin on May 6, 2009  |  Leave a comment

Issue no. 38 of the review Accents published by the Ensemble Intercontemporain is dedicated to Hèctor Parra’s Hypermusic Prologue.

Hypermusic Prologue is a unique project for intercommunication between science, music and art. It explores the traditional opera form in order to generate a type of dramatic expression for the 21st century, its ideas and creative processes, including recent research into physics and its parallelisms in music and art.

The main character, a composer and scientist, experiences deep tension between his “earthly love” and his “passion for knowledge”. This tension is built up dramatically through the contradictions between his life with his lover, limited in space and time, and his conviction that there is a much bigger world waiting to be explored.

This opera represents an opportunity to foster the search for more expressive forms for the drama and the musical possibilities. Its object is to find aesthetic structural connections through sound between that most abstract of the arts – music – and the highest concepts of theoretical physics, as researched by Lisa Randall and others. We hope the result will be a novel and fascinating creative experience.

The review is free and can be downloaded here.

Hèctor Parra, winner of the Premio Tendències award for up-and-coming creators

Posted by Leticia Martin on February 5, 2009  |  Leave a comment

The composer Hèctor Parra (Barcelona, 1976) has had a good start to 2009, a year that is going to confirm him as one of the most important Spanish composers on the international scene. On 19 January he received the Premio Tendencies for the outstanding, up-and-coming creator of the year in Catalonia, awarded by the Catalan edition of the newspaper El Mundo.

The composer was thrilled to win this prize, in particular because it represents recognition of his work in his home city, something that up till now has been more evident abroad. A good example of the interest this composer is arousing is the programming of his opera Hypermusic Prologue by the Teatre Liceo in Barcelona, undoubtedly his most ambitious work to date. This opera, with a libretto by the American physicist Lisa Randall, was commissioned by the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris, and will be premiered in that city before coming to the Barcelona theatre.

Madrid has also just recently been the venue for a concert with works by Hèctor Parra. As part of the programming of Musicadhoy the Ensemble Recherche played his works Abîme- Antigona IV, String Trio and Piano Trio nº1: Wortschatten. These works have been recorded by the same ensemble on a monographic CD produced by the Austrian label Kairos in conjunction with Caja Madrid.

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.

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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).

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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.

Ramón Humet wins the “Ciutat de Tarragona” International Award for Musical Composition

Posted by Leticia Martin on December 19, 2008  |  Leave a comment

The score Gagaku by Ramón Humet has been chosen the winner of the 16th “Ciutat de Tarragona” International Award for Musical Composition. This was the jury’s decision after examining the thirty-two competing scores.
The prize money in this competition, organised by Tarragona City Council and sponsored by Repsol YPF and Spanish National Radio (RNE), amounts to 12,000 euros.

Gagaku, which lasts twelve minutes, is dedicated with thanks and admiration to the maestro Joan Guinjoan. The jury was made up of the musicians Tomás Marco, Héctor Parra, Vincent Paulet, Yves Prin, Zuriñe Gerenabarrena, Jean Pierre Dupuy and J. Mª Mestres-Quadreny. The winning work will be premiered in 2009 by the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya.

During his career Ramón Humet has won awards such as the Montreal Olivier Messiaen International Composition Prize and the Queen Sofia and the Joaquín Rodrigo-Villa de Madrid Composition Prizes. He has received commissions for the Festival Òpera de Butxaca and the Ensemble Residencias among others.

Among his projects for the future three commissions deserve special mention, a symphony for the JONC (Joven Orquesta Nacional de Cataluña), a chamber work for the Festival Nous Sons (Oriol Aymat – Sílvia Vidal duet) and a commission from the Fundación Caixa Cataluña for the pianist Alberto Rosado.

Reported in the Diari de Tarragona and www.mundoclasico.com. Further information at www.docenotas.es y www.catradio.cat

A talk with Lisa Randall

Posted by Marcel Soleda on December 15, 2008  |  Leave a comment

Yesterday published in The Boston Globe, an interview with Lisa Randall about her present project: the opera Hypermusic Prologue, by Hèctor Parra.

Read the whole interview…

Hèctor Parra and Lisa Randall: Hypermusic Prologue

Posted by Leticia Martin on December 9, 2008  |  2 Comments

At beginnings of 2008 the DLD (Digital, Live, Design) Conference in Munich provided a platform for the music of composer Hèctor Parra. DLD is one of the world’s leading showcases for digital design and interactions between art, science and technology, with the presence of many of the top names in this new network of creativity.

Hèctor Parra, the only Spaniard present at the conference, appeared with the artist Matthew Ritchie, the art patron and impresario Francesca von Habsburg and the theoretical physicist Lisa Randall, who is collaborating with Mr Parra on a chamber opera project entitled Hypermusic Prologue.

Check the video highlights after the jump…

Manantial de luz by Jesús Torres selected by the UER

Posted by Redacción on February 19, 2008  |  Leave a comment

Each year RNE Radio Clásica selects works for the European Broadcasting Union, and this year’s selection includes Manantial de luz by Jesús Torres. This work was commissioned by the Spanish Centre for the Diffusion of Contemporary Music (CDMC) for its Residencias season and premiered 11 June, 2007. This is a concertante work for piano and six instruments performed by the Ensemble Residencias, on this occasion comprising Trío Arbós, Juanjo Guillem, José Luis Estellés and Paul Cortese. Torres’ music is among the most lucid of our day, in terms of the rigour of his writing and the clarity of his ideas. This selection includes the most outstanding – in terms of performance or musical interest – concerts broadcast and recorded by Radio Clásica. The works selected by the EBU jury will be broadcast by member public radios, thus contributing to the diffusion of contemporary Spanish music.

Hèctor Parra presents his music in Munich

Posted by Redacción on January 28, 2008  |  Leave a comment

The DLD (Digital, Live, Design) Conference in Munich, Germany, provided a platform for the music of composer Hèctor Parra. DLD is one of the world’s leading showcases for digital design and interactions between art, science and technology, with the presence of many of the top names in this new network of creativity. Hèctor Parra, the only Spaniard present at the conference, appeared with the artist Matthew Ritchie, the art patron and impresario Francesca von Habsburg and the theoretical physicist Lisa Randall, who is collaborating with Mr Parra on a chamber opera project.