Over to Madrid this week for a concert featuring the Danish National Symphony, led by Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and Pepe Romero as soloist.
The concert was recorded March 21, 2013 in Copenhagen and relayed to RNE in Madrid.
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos was principal conductor of the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra from 1958 to 1962. During this time, the orchestra’s manager persuaded Frühbeck to use a name that would more clearly indicate his Spanish identity. He subsequently took the professional surname Frühbeck de Burgos as his artist’s name, to include the name of his birth city. He served as principal conductor of the Spanish National Orchestra from 1962 to 1978.
Outside Spain, Frühbeck de Burgos served as Generalmusikdirektor of the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra (1966–1971), music director of the Rundfunkorchester Berlin, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, artistic director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and chief conductor of the Vienna Symphony. He also was principal guest conductor for various orchestras in Europe, Japan, and the United States, including the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, DC, from 1980 to 1988. He made his American debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in February 1969. From 1980 to 1983, he was principal conductor of the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra of Tokyo.
From 2001 to 2007, Frühbeck de Burgos was principal conductor of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra. He was music director of the Dresden Philharmonic from 2004 to 2011. In January 2011, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra announced the appointment of Frühbeck de Burgos as the Creative Director of its Masterworks Series of concerts, starting with the 2011–12 season. He held the post for two seasons, from 2011 to 2013.
In February 2011, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra announced the appointment of Frühbeck de Burgos as its principal conductor, as of the 2012–2013 season, with an initial contract of three years through 2015. However, on 4 June 2014, he resigned as chief conductor of the orchestra, with immediate effect. In parallel, Frühbeck de Burgos announced his retirement from conducting and that he had cancer. His final concert as a conductor had been in Washington, DC on 14 March 2014, with the National Symphony Orchestra.
Frühbeck de Burgos died on 11 June 2014 in Pamplona, Spain. He was buried in his home town of Burgos. He was survived by his wife, María del Carmen Martínez de Frühbeck, whom he married in 1959, and his two children, Rafael Frühbeck Martínez and Gema Frühbeck Martínez.
Pepe Romero made his first recording in 1959, featuring traditional flamenco music of his native Andalucia. At 16, he performed for the first time in Los Angeles, playing flamenco with his father and brothers Celin and Angel.
As a soloist Pepe Romero has appeared in the United States, Canada, Europe, China, the Middle-East, Japan, and Australia with, variously, the London, Toronto, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago, Houston, Pittsburgh, Boston, San Francisco and Dallas symphony orchestras, as well as with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the New York, Bogotá and Los Angeles philharmonic orchestras, the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, I Musici, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Philharmonia Hungarica, the Hungarian State Orchestra, the Spanish National Orchestra, the Spanish National Radio/Television Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the New Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, the American Sinfonietta, and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He has been a special guest at the festivals of Salzburg, Israel, Schleswig-Holstein, Menuhin, Osaka, Granada, Istanbul, Ravinia, Garden State, Hollywood Bowl, Blossom, Wolf Trap, Saratoga and Hong Kong.
Romero has recorded over 60 albums, including 20 concerti with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and 30 albums as part of the famed guitar quartet The Romeros. He has played for Presidents Carter and Nixon, the Queen of the Netherlands, the Prince of Wales and Pope John Paul II. He has numerous international recording awards to his credit and has received an Honorary Doctorate in Music from the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
His contributions to the field of classical guitar have inspired a number of distinguished composers to write works specifically for him, including Joaquín Rodrigo, Federico Moreno Torroba, Francisco de Madina, Lorenzo Palomo, Michael Zearott, Paul Chihara, Enrique Diemecke, Ernesto Cordero and Celedonio Romero. He was personally chosen by the legendary Andrés Segovia for the world premiere of Torroba’s Diálogos entre guitarra y orquesta.
Enjoy the concert.
