Hear Lost Bretón and Campo Chamber Music Last week, Fundación Juan March Madrid held a concert of previously lost Bretón work and a Campo quartet, performed by Cuarteto Bretón. As we have previously announced, the Bretón work was discovered and edited by María Luisa Martínez, who is a visiting scholar with the Foundation for Iberian Music, and its director, Antoni Pizà. The concert was a great success. It was broadcast on Spain’s national public radio. The full recording can be streamed for free online, here. At the beginning of the broadcast, you may hear a short interview with Martínez about how she discovered the lost Bretón works. The concert program begins with Campo’s “Oriental” quartet, followed by Bretón’s 1905 piano quintet, at 1’28”. There was a touching surprise at the concert: Bretón’s great-grandson attended the concert with his family! They are shown here with Martínez. (From the left: Jose Ignacio Cortés Bretón, grandson of Bretón’s son, Abelardo; María Luisa Martínez; Concha Cortés Zulueta, Jose Ignacio’s daughter; Jose Ignacio’s wife; Concha’s partner.) You can also read a review of the performance on the blog “El Tema 8,” here.
Music Featured in 1935 Jazz Lecture In 1935, Spanish composer and musicologist Baltasar Samper presented a series of groundbreaking lectures on jazz at l’Ateneu Polytechnicum de Barcelona and Discòfils at Associacio Pro-Música. Antoni Pizà is preparing a print edition of these lectures from Samper’s own notes. As a teaser, we have prepared a YouTube playlist of all of the recordings referenced in Samper’s talks. Jazz recording began in 1917, but it did not become widespread until the late ’20s and early ’30s. The Hot Club of France was founded in 1931 and immediately helped to introduce a European audience to these North American records. The Hot Club of Barcelona was founded in 1935 and smaller local clubs spread throughout surrounding towns, in spite of the nascent Franco regime’s view that jazz was dangerous. You can learn a little more about the spread of jazz and blues through Catalonia in Jazz and Totalitarianism, ed. Bruce Johnson.
Recordings from Benet Casablancas’s Birthday Concert Our frequent collaborator, composer Benet Casablancas, recently celebrated his 60th birthday in his hometown of Sabadell, as we previously posted. Casablancas has composed and premiered several new works with the Foundation for Iberian Music and Perspectives Ensemble, and he received a monographic spotlight from the Columbia University’s Miller Theater in 2010. Casablancas has shared with us two recordings from one of the anniversary concerts, on March 3rd, 2017. Please enjoy these solo piano works, performed by the superb David Casanova. Impromptu (2009) Epigramas Cervantinos (2016)
Zapateados Conference Video We are very happy to video of almost the entire Zapateados conference at UC Riverside (April, 2017) available online. The videos are on our YouTube channel (IberianMusic), which you can watch via the handy embedded playlist below.
“The Challenges of Transatlantic Sound Art:” Video Last week’s symposium and exhibition of Spanish sound art is now up in our YouTube channel! Thanks to our presenters and performers for their fascinating talks. The presentations were followed by a brief discussion on some of the issues and difficulties facing sound art and contemporary composition (including academia’s continued failure to promote study of electronic sound production). The concert consisted of portions of many new works (including those of our presenters), featuring Pau Vila, performing “Món per Pau,” and ending with Victor Aguado, performing “Samples from Richard Garet in Frequency Order.” Vila’s work is a provocative and interesting combination of pre-existing electronic works of his own, and by other composers, with his own live performance. He performs on a variety of percussion instruments, including found objects, which are placed throughout the stage area, creating kinetic and spatial components that are not often found in electroacoustic music.
Great Reviews for “Escuchar Con Los Ojos” As we announced last fall, Foundation director Antoni Pizà contributed materials to Fundación Juan March’s recent exhibit, “Escuchar con los Ojos: Arte Sonoro en España (1961-2016),” including an essay in the exhibition catalog. The exhibit has received numerous accolades, but we would like to highlight a couple of radio programs featuring the exhibit. First, Catalunya Ràdio interviewed exhibit curator José Iges last October, and you can listen to the full program here. Second, Miguel Álvarez-Fernández, who has previously collaborated with the Foundation, reviewed the exhibit in the Christmas Special of his show Ars Sonora, on Radio Nacional de España (RNE). Álvarez-Fernández is a sound-artist himself and gave a lecture at the Graduate Center last year, entitled “A Historical Overview of Electroacoustic Music and Sound Art in Spain,” while in town for an exhibit at the Instituto Cervantes.
Video of Taruskin’s 2016 Lloyd Old Lecture Now Online! Good news for all who were unable to attend our sold out 2016 Lloyd Old Lecture, with Richard Taruskin and Prof. Scott Burnham! Taruskin’s thorough and provocative lecture is now online. The lecture featured musical guest Adam Kent, who performs a selection of Russian piano works. Last year’s lecture was a great success, requiring—for the first time in the series’ history—an overflow room to accommodate audience demand. We hope you enjoy this stimulating talk as much as we did.
Enrique Granados in New York: Full Concert Online Full video of the March 10th concert, “From Barcelona with Passion: Enrique Granados in New York”—Perspectives Ensemble, directed by Ángel Gil-Ordoñez and joined by Douglas Riva and Anna de la Paz—is now available online! The concert concluded our daylong international Granados conference and featured the world premiere of esteemed composer Benet Casablancas’ work, Romanza sin palabras: Homage to Granados, which was composed especially for the Granados Celebration. Watch below!
New Granados Features with Pizà, Casablancas on Ràdio Catalunya The Ràdio Catalunya program Notes de Clàssica recently had a feature (click for full audio) on our ongoing Granados Celebration. The broadcast included interviews with the Foundation for Iberian Music’s director (and festival co-organizer) Antoni Pizà and committee member and renowned music journalist Mònica Pagès. Frequent Foundation collaborator Benet Casablancas, who most recently premiered a new work in homage to Granados, also appeared on Notes de Clàssica on March 9th to discuss his recent and upcoming work. (Full audio here.)
Videos of Recent Early Music Workshops Last month, the Foundation for Iberian Music hosted a series of early music workshops, in collaboration with the New York Early Music Celebration. We have video of three of these workshops available online, so if you were unable to attend or you would like to review them, please look at our YouTube channel! Click below for individual videos: Master Class with Tembembe Ensamble Continuo Lecture and Performance with La Fontegara “Rethinking Bach’s Violin Ciaconna:” master class with Raymond Erickson (link goes to Prof. Erickson’s youtube channel, which now features an updated series of videos of the same lecture, given on another date)