The Cuarteto Arriaga at the Donostia-San Sebastián Musical Fortnight

Posted by Cristina Martí on August 19, 2011  |  Leave a comment

As many of you will already know, the Donostia-San Sebastián Musical Fortnight has just taken place, an event with a wide-ranging programme where a large number of performers gather together at what is the oldest festival in Spain, dating back to 1939. It offers symphonic concerts, ballets, early music, chamber and contemporary music in diverse venues such as churches, the Palacio de Miramar, and the splendid Auditorio Kursaal, designed by Rafael Moneo.

Precisely in the chamber music hall at this auditorium, the Cuarteto Arriaga gave a concert on 24 August. The group presented an eclectic programme that included both classical and 20^th century works, performing pieces by the composer from Vitoria, Jesús Guridi (Quartet nº 1 in G Major), Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga (Quartet nº 2 in A Major), the virtuoso Italian celloist Luigi Boccherini (Quartet G159 in C minor, Op. 2, Nº1), and also Vistas al mar, a composition with a marked Mediterranean flavour, by Eduard Toldrá. This composer was an essential model for the Catalan music of the last century and he and Guridi were close friends. The programme was performed a second time on 26 August in the Parque Lamuza in the town of Llodio in Alava, as part of the “Quincena Andante”.

Consisting of the violinists Aitzol Iturriagagoitia and Rodrigo Bauzá, the violist Miguel Ángel Lucas and the cellist Damien Ventula, the Cuarteto Arriaga brings together four key figures in the world of European chamber music and their wide international experience is confirmed by the concerts they give all over Europe.

Escucha aquí audios de Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga

The Cuarteto Arriaga

Ainhoa Arteta and Sir Neville Marriner perform Arriaga

Posted by Redacción on January 28, 2008  |  2 Comments

The figure of Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga (1806-1826) has gained renewed recognition in recent years thanks to the celebration of the bicentennial of his birth. This new recording from Tritó catalogue, provides a view of different stages of his brief but very prolific and interesting career as a composer, including pieces never before recorded. Among them we find Arriaga’s first and last symphonic works, both in the characteristic overture form of the period: Overture in F major, “Nonetto”, op. 1 and Overture in D major, op. 20. The CD also includes one of the best known works by Arriaga, Symphony in D minor, composed when he was fourteen years old and already residing in Paris, and a piece that did much to establish the composer’s reputation.

Rounding out the CD is Herminie Cantata for soprano and orchestra, which despite the title is a one-person dramatic scene, with lyrics taken from Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata. The enthralling Ainhoa Arteta provides the voice.

The union of two great names in classical music – the conductor Sir Neville Marriner and Ainhoa Arteta, one of the most celebrated sopranos of our day – with the Cadaqués Orchestra, recorded live at the Kursaal Auditorium in San Sebastián during the 2006 Quincena Musical Donostiarra, make this CD essential listening for anyone interested in (discovering) Arriaga.