Concerts from Spain this week with a really fascinating one featuring Orquesta Sinfonica y Coro de RTVE in concert from Madrid and recorded live by RNE Radio Clasica on February 22, 2013.
Two composers I am not very familiar with begin the concert: Tres Aires Chilenos by Chilean composer Enrique Soro and Colores de la Cruz del sur by Argentinian composer Esteban Benzecry. The concert concludes with Dvorak’s Symphony number 7.
A few words about Enrique Soro (via Wikipedia and a gist translation):
Considered one of the first Chilean symphonists, Enrique Soro Barriga made his first studies in Concepción, with Clotilde de la Barra ( piano ) and Domingo Brescia ( harmony and counterpoint ). With scholarship from the Chilean Senate. In 1898 he went to study in Italy, at the Royal Conservatory of Milan, one of the most important in the world at that time. From this place he graduated in 1904, the year in which he began a recognized and extensive career of pianist works of the universal repertoire, in addition to their own.
With musician Luigi Stefano Giarda, Soro soon became professor of harmony and counterpoint of the National Conservatory of Music in Chile, where he quickly became deputy ( 1907 ) and then director, professor of composition and professor of piano ( 1919 ), remaining linked to this institution for almost two decades. He was professor to: Domingo Santa Cruz , Juan Allende-Blin, Nino Marcelli, Héctor Melo, Juan Casanova Vicuñaand Roberto Puelma, all relevant personalities of the Chilean musical world that survived him.
He premiered and presented his works in Europe, the United States and Latin America ; He recorded piano rolls for the Aeolian Company, records for Columbia and received a 50-year contract with the publisher Schirmer .
Recognized as a great improviser in the piano, his life was linked to great personalities of the time, such as Pau Casals , Vincent D’Indy , Pietro Mascagni , Ignacy Paderewski , Giacomo Puccini , Maurice Ravel and Camille Saint-Saëns , among others.
From the musical point of view, his work is linked to the classical-romantic tradition, with a recognized style immersed in classical forms, full of a spontaneous lyrical sense. The researcher Raquel Bustos recognizes two periods in his work: from its beginnings until 1911 (beginning period), and, subsequently, from 1911 until his death in 1954 (maturity period). He wrote few works with vernacular material in its natural state, being the most interpreted Tres aires chilenos, from 1942.
And these words about Esteban Benzecry from the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society website:
Argentinean composer Esteban Benzecry was born in 1970. After receiving his diploma as professor of painting from the Buenos Aires Superior School of Fine Arts, Benzecry studied musical composition with H. Gerardi and S. Hualpa in Argentina and with J. Charpentier at the Paris CNR, where he was awarded First Prize by a unanimous jury in 1999. He pursued his studies in composition with P. Mefano and in electro acoustic music with L. Naon and L. Cuniot at CNSM. His most recent works attempt a fusion between diverse aesthetic currents in European contemporary music and rhythms and folklore rooted in the Latin American tradition.
His works have been commissioned and performed by the Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Tampere Philharmonic, Stavanger Symphony, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta de RTVE Radio Television espaí±ola, Orquesta y Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid, Orquestra Gulbenkian de Lisboa, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de Montpellier, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Colburn Orchestra, Orchestre Colonne de Paris, Orchestre Pasdeloup, Orchestre Lamoureux,
ensemble Itineraire, Simon Bolivar Orchestra of Venezuela, among others, and the principal orchestras of Latin America.He was distinguished by the Musical Critics Association of Argentina, Academie des Beaux Arts de l’Institut de France . In 1995 he was composer-in-residence at the Yehudi Menuhin International Music Academy (Switzerland) and in 2004 he was winner of the Fondation d’entreprise Groupe Banque Populaire. He is a resident composer at the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid from 2004 to 2006. In 2008 he received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship for Music Composition.
An interesting and very rewarding concert that certainly qualifies in the Anti-Road Rage Wednesday category. I would definitely pull up a chair, relax and spend the next 90 minutes with this one.
