ILAMS articles and reviews

An interview with Argentinean pianist and conductor Alfredo Corral by Javier A. Garavaglia

Last October (2007), Argentinean pianist and conductor Alfredo Corral visited London for the second time since 2006 for a series of concerts and master-classes organised by the ILAMS. Corral was born in Buenos Aires in 1961. He studied piano at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música "Carlos López Buchardo" in Buenos Aires and got his degree of Professor in Music with the best results in his promotion year. His mentors were Juan Carlos Arabián and Perla Brúgola. Since then, he has toured as soloist, soloist with orchestra and chamber music mainly in South America and Europe. He is currently Professor at the same institution he graduated from and also at the Conservatorio de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. He is also conductor of both the Opera de Cámara de Buenos Aires and the Camerata Juvenil FM100.3 "Cultura Musical" orchestras. During an informal meeting at the home of ILAMS' chair Alberto Portugheis, Alfredo and I had the opportunity to have a long, quite informal but utterly cordial conversation, which I resume and reconstruct in its highlights below. "Music is a way of listening" and " .... the music phenomenon is established by the triple relationship Last October, Argentinean pianist and conductor Alfredo Corral visited London for the second time since 2006 for a series of concerts and master-classes organised b ILAMS. Corral was born in Buenos Aires in 1961. He studied piano at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música "Carlos López Buchardo" in Buenos Aires and graduated as Professor in Music with the best results in his promotion year. Among his mentors were Juan Carlos Arabián y Perla Brúgola. Since then, he has toured as soloist, soloist with orchestra and chamber music mainly in South America and Europe. He is currently Professor at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música "Carlos López Buchardo" in Buenos Aires (the same institution he graduated from) and also at the Conservatorio de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. He also conducts both the Opera de Cámara de Buenos Aires and the Camerata Juvenil FM100.3 "Cultura Musical" orchestras. During an informal meeting at the home of ILAMS' chair Alberto Portugheis, Alfredo and I had the opportunity to have a long, quite informal but cordial conversation, which I’ll try to resume and reconstruct in its highlights below. "Music is a way of listening" and " .... the music phenomenon is established by the triple relationship Composer-Interpret-Audience” ...... “…..there are different kind of interprets to different music styles, who can mobilise the audience in several different ways". These were some of his most remarkable phrases during our meeting. Apart from his traditional music education, he is especially passionate about Argentinean music. He admits, that this passion is even greater than his interest in Latin-American music. He explains this with the fact, that Argentinean music has been one of his main influences since he was a teenager (his years as a piano student), as it was during this time that his teachers and mentors introduced him to most of the significant works within this repertoire. Among these pieces (which he plays quite frequently since then) count: the Sonata C sharp minor by Celestino Piaggio, the Sonata C sharp minor by José Torre Bertucci, Carlos Guastavino's Sonata and Romance del Plata (the latter for orchestra and piano). He also is very fond of Spanish Music, mostly through the influence of his teacher Manuel Carrá. This interest can be seen in his repertoire, which includes composers like Falla, Granados, Toldra, Halfter and of course, Albéniz. He also attended twice the Curso información de la música española in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Among his vast CD recordings, he chose three, all including Argentinean music. The first one contains works by Piazzola, Guastavino, Ginastera y Aguirre; the second includes the Sonatas by Piaggio and Torre Bertucci mentioned above, with the addition of yet another work by Piaggio: "Homenaje a Julián Aguirre". The composers on this second CD have in common, that they all studied in Paris in the first half of the 20th Century Thus, they all relate in some degree to the French Scola Cantorum adopting a post-Frankian style, typical for the Argentinean music of their time. Alfredo added that he is quite sure to be the first pianist who recorded the Sonata by Torre Bertucci. The third CD however, is not completely dedicated to Argentinean music; it was the result of the Congress for Codification (referring to civil law) in America and its European origins. The Congress was organised by the Law Faculty of the Argentinean Catholic University (UCA). Politicians from the 19th Century like Esnaola, Alberdi and Alcorta were also musicians and composers. Therefore, the CD was compiled balancing the tension and analogies between waltzes and minuets by all of them with similar works by European composers from the same time including Schubert, Chopin and Beethoven. Because Alfredo is both, Conductor and Pianist, I was curious to know which of both roles he would consider to be the most important for his career, and moreover, which would be spiritually more rewarding. He answered the following: ".. this is quite difficult to tell. There is an interchange among both and both activities combine in a very harmonious way. To be able to play professionally the piano generates a kind of 'baton' inside me, where the pianist in me plays the orchestra and vice-versa. Also, from my perspective as a pianist, I am able to understand the mentality of the players in the orchestra from a different point of view, much more than as if I were merely a conductor". However, the solo piano-concert situation satisfies him the most, because he can materialize musically his ideas while playing, without the need of any intermediates. But he added, that on the other side, the orchestra offers him the possibility of doing the wonderful task of preparing the musicians for the concert who ultimately are the ones 'making' the music, not him. Thus, spiritually he finds more satisfaction during the rehearsals rather than during the concert situation itself, as during the latter, his job is merely reduced to remind the musicians what was agreed during the rehearsals. Towards the end of the conversation, I asked him, which composers/works were among his favourites. Here is the list he proposed: • Bach: Goldberg Variationen, Das wohltemperiertes Klavier. • Mozart: All his Piano concertos (as an integral, unified work) • Beethoven: All 32 Piano Sonatas (again, as an integral, unified work) • Puccini: Turandot and La Boheme • Wagner: Tristan und Isolde • Mahler: 5th Symphony, Rueckert Lieder. • Berg: Wozzeck He added, that he is also deeply interested in contemporary music, with works like, i.e. Argentinean (living in Germany) composer Juan María Solare with his works Pasaje de Seaver (piano) or Ipsofacto (string orchestra). He enjoys immensely working with living composers; one of the things he finds most exciting about this, is the fact that he can discover things in the works, which the composer has not contemplated or seen before. To this last sentence, which finished the informal 'interview-chat', I added (because I am a composer myself, as well as a viola player), that we should discuss this more profoundly next time, as this issue might be more complicated than that. A day after this chat, Alfredo gave a superb master-class at the Studio of Anda Anastasescu in London W14. Some very talented London-based young pianists prepared works by composers like Chopin, Liszt, Guastavino and Ginastera. Alfredo taught and gave advice to these young talents with his usual professionalism and charm, making that Saturday's afternoon activity a memorable event. We cannot wait for his next visit!!! Javier A. Garavaglia - October 2007

Alfredo Corral

Camargo Guarnieri: Ray Picot talks with Brazilian pianist Vanya Elias Jose

When we think of Brazilian music the name Heitor Villa-Lobos slips off the tongue, but in the generation that followed other composers of great importance emerged. Perhaps the most important of these was Mozart Camargo Guarnieri. In this current year (2007) we celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth and with increased recognition of Guarnieri's music by international concert artists and recording companies, we now have a fresh opportunity to appreciate his genius. Vanya has been a committed advocate of Guarnieri's music for most of her life, and for those who have been fortunate enough to hear her play will know that she brings a unique touch of authenticity to her performances. She first met the composer when she was 9 years old, having been taken to his studio in Sao Paulo by her aunt and played some of his piano pieces. This had a lasting effect on Vanya who went on to win three awards at Camargo Guarnieri Festivals in Sao Paulo, and she continues to treasure the photographs taken with the composer. Vanya maintained a regular contact with Guarnieri and learned more of his music, which she played to him. Although Vanya did not attend his (composition) classes, a relationship of mutual respect grew between them both, with Guarnieri as the encouraging mentor. She recalls that the composer would send her batches of scores of piano pieces written for children as well as other works. She also broadened her circle as she got to know the pupils who attended Guarnieri's classes; she is not embarrassed to admit that he became an idol to her. He was a constant source of encouragement: by taking time to listen to how she played the music, through open admiration for her interpretations and a belief in her special "gift", increased the certainty in her mind that she wanted to become a concert pianist. Vanya felt this was a unique relationship and one which she continues to treasure. One of the fruits of this "special relationship" was that Guarnieri dedicated his 2nd Sonatina and 17th Study to Vanya. She recalls two concerts of great importance to her career where she was the piano soloist. The first was when she played Shostakovitch's 1st Piano Concerto with Guarnieri himself conducting the University of Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra. The second was a performance of Guarnieri's own 2nd Piano Concerto, with the State of Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Diogo Pacheco, with the composer seated in the audience. From what I have heard of a recording made of the Guarnieri concerto, Vanya gave a commanding performance that justifiably brought her great acclaim, and between composer and pianist, a deep mutual appreciation of their respective talents. Over the years Vanya continued to widely play his music, and now, since his death, when perhaps Guarnieri's music has become unjustifiably neglected, she believes it the wonderful qualities of his music will speak for itself. She talks of a modest man who had such profundity of feelings, was so emotional and so nostalgic. Each phrase is full of sentiment, and carries the very essence of his being. Yes, he was a modern composer but one who was not afraid to plumb emotional depths; this deep authenticity is as relevant now as it was when he was alive. As a person Guarnieri was (like all of us) not always happy and he felt a degree of nostalgia. In his formative years (musically) he had a helping hand from Mario Andrade, which helped him discover his true self and encourage his own self-belief. Though Guarnieri did not follow a singularly formal academic route in his musical education he wanted to be recognised by the musical establishment. This was not always very consistent in his own country and a source of anxiety, and perhaps insecurity. In fact he was more widely appreciated by musicians and the musical establishment in the USA. He nonetheless felt after his death, that he would be recognised for his work. I asked Vanya what works were his most important contribution to piano literature: "The (50) Ponteios "was her unequivocal response. She feels that pieces have strong song-like characteristics, for all the modern harmonies and pianistic challenges: they are almost like songs-without-words! She conceded that they benefited from an interpreter who had a Brazilian soul. Ponteio number 50, she recalls, was composed in memory of a friend, and is particular pungent and modern in its character. Musically, Vanya compared Guarnieri to Chopin, but with a more modern side to him. Listening to how she plays his music, it is not so difficult to believe this. Vanya is without doubt a distinguished ambassador of Brazilian music, and one of the few pianists today who maintains the presence of Camargo Guarnieri in their repertoire. So do not miss an opportunity to see her perform, and perhaps try some of her excellent recordings. Vanya's website address is www.vanyaeliasjose.com Ray Picot, October 2007

A Conductor with panache: José Serebrier speaks to Anne Ozorio

With more than two hundred and fifty recordings to his name, and thirty Grammy nominations, José Serebrier is one of the busiest conductors around. His career has been cosmopolitan, even by the colourful standards of his profession. "When I was 14, and still in short pants," José Serebrier says, "I took it into my head that I would create a Festival of American Music". This would be ambitious by any standards, but in 1949, and in Uruguay, where he was born, it almost defies imagination. To this day, the music of Edgard Varèse and Charles Ruggles is fairly avant-garde. But in his innocence, Serebrier didn't know what he was "supposed" to do. He didn't follow conventional wisdom and play safe. Undaunted, he conducted premieres of music that intrigued him, simply because he was fascinated by them as music. If only all conductors had such freedom! He was so inexperienced then, that he thought orchestras played from memory. Because his orchestra - the first youth orchestra in South America - also didn't have preconceptions, they went along with his enthusiasm. Photographs taken at the time, however, show the oboist surreptitiously following a score tucked in behind the chair of the cellist. Serebrier only realised his mistake when the President of Uruguay, a cultivated man, closely connected to the Serkin string-playing clan, congratulated them, and said "Amazing! And you all play by ear!" Serebrier's first real teacher was Antal Dorati, then conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra. "That was a wonderful relationship", says Serebrier, "because every Monday night we'd meet in his home and go through the programme that we had to rehearse during the week." Dorati's meticulous approach to preparation shaped the young apprentice conductor. "It was a fantastic learning experience because his conducting technique was most unorthodox. He was left-handed, yet conducted with his right hand. He taught himself to be ambidextrous, and could sign his name with both hands at the same time. But he was instinctively left-handed so, when he used his right hand, his gestures were awkward and could not be understood by an orchestra which was not first class. Yet what he communicated was his incredible musicianship." He was a pupil of Kodály and of Bartók. He studied violin with Fritz Busch, so many of the bowings he knew were very unusual, dating from traditions long past. "My next conducting teacher was Pierre Monteux, with whom I studied in the summertime. He had a conducting school in Hancock, in Maine. With Monteux, I was one of a hundred other conducting students. We all played in an orchestra - made up exclusively of budding conductors. Every 30 minutes one of us would stand up and face the rest, while Monteux would sit in the middle. Eventually, we managed to convince him to conduct, so we could criticise him like he'd criticised us. But his conducting was so revelatory, there was nothing to fault." What was Monteux's secret as a conductor? "First, he knew his scores exceptionally well." Then, he had something indefinable, which Serebrier describes as "pure simplicity, created by sheer experience, something which we young conductors hadn't accumulated". Monteux honoured his young student by inviting him home, introducing him to music such as Chausson's Symphony in E flat major, which remains to this day one of his favourites. Then Serebrier went to work with Leopold Stokowski. "I never studied with him, because he never taught anyone, but I learned more from him than any of my teachers. Just by being there, and watching his rehearsal technique and the way he prepared the concerts." Stokowski was also one of the earliest champions of the music of Charles Ives. Ives was still alive in those days, but his music wasn't at all well known. As a boy, Serebrier had avidly studied other composers associated with Ives, such as Ruggles, but not Ives himself. Serebrier's first substantive contact with Ives's music came at the age of 17 when he was at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. One day, he received a message from Houston: Stokowski said he urgently needed to speak to him. "I thought it was a joke from one of my student colleagues, because we were constantly giving each other funny messages and playing tricks, so I didn't pay any attention. Then my violin teacher, Efrem Zimbalist, called me and in his thick Russian accent said "What are you doing? You don't reply to Maestro Stokowski's messages? He just called me!" And I said "I didn't know it was serious!" So I called him immediately and he said in his clipped accent, 'Cannot play Ives Four, Impossible! So instead will you permit me to play your First Symphony?' I couldn't believe my ears! In place of the Ives symphony! So I said "of course!" And then he said, 'Can you come next week? And bring music!' So I said "yes, thank you", and hung up. I didn't have parts for it because I wrote it only a few months before. "And the way he found it was just as incredible! A week or so before I'd literally bumped into a cello player. I was crossing the street and he was crossing the other way and he was in a hurry. His cello was safe because he had it on a strap, but my score fell to the ground. He said, "I'm so sorry! what is it?" and opened it. "It's my first symphony," I said. 'Oh,' said he, 'I'm on my way to catch a plane to Houston. It's my first job and I'm playing for Stokowski. Can I take it with me?' I said, "Sure, I have another copy", and off he went. But the last thing I expected was to hear from him again! But that's another thing I learned from Stokowski. The man I met was the newest member of the orchestra and it was his first day on the job, yet when he showed the conductor my score, he actually paid attention and looked at it. What a fantastic lesson in working with an orchestra! Stokowski listened to people, to the last violinist, the last brass player, to anyone who came to him and said "Maestro I don't understand your beat" or "Would you look at this?" He paid attention to anyone and respected his colleagues. "Now this was 1957. Nearly 50 years after Ives wrote the Fourth Symphony, it was still too unusual and difficult for orchestras to play. So, after trying to rehearse the piece, at the last moment Stokowski realised he needed another world premiere to replace it with. I was just the lucky bystander! When Stokowski found out that I was only 17 that appealed even more to him. Another conductor might have been prejudiced and simply said no. But not him! He was thrilled! There were of course no orchestral parts to my symphony, so all my young colleagues at the Curtis stayed up all night copying - there were no photocopiers in those days. A few days later, the Institute bought me a plane ticket and I was off to Houston. When I got there I had a look at the Ives Symphony - that was my first glance at it. Stokowski said, "Ah! we tried to play it but the orchestra could never get past the first few bars. We tried again and again!" A few years later, he formed the American Symphony Orchestra. He was 80, I was 19, yet he invited me to be his Associate. He also attempted once more to do the Ives Fourth. He knew he would need many more than the usual four rehearsals per concert. So he got a large grant from one of the big foundations in America. For a whole month, the orchestra rehearsed it, one bar at a time. Everyone hated it because it was very difficult. So that's when I became really interested in Ives." The score called for four conductors because there are so many different rhythms and speeds all at the same time. "He thought there was at least one conductor too many", says Serebrier, "and he asked someone to reduce it to three. So the two of us, Stokowski and myself, were on podiums in front of the orchestra, while the third conductor was at the side conducting the percussion in the last movement, which is unrelated. We did a film for television which was lost for a long time. After all, this was 50 years ago. But just a few months ago, the Library of Congress found it and digitalised it. When I was conducting in Washington, DC, they were able to screen it." Clips can be seen on Warner Classics or Gaudete. The film covers the whole symphony, and there are interviews with Stokowski and the Ives family. "It's an incredible first", says Serebrier, recalling events that occurred half a century ago. "Remember, Ives never heard that symphony performed. He'd only died three years before and never knew what would become of it". Later, Stokowski found a financial sponsor to convince Columbia to record it, and a few years after that RCA approached him for a new version. "The piece is so involved that it really requires dubbed recording. But Stokowski refused and recommended me, because he'd worked with me on the first, and I knew his approach. When they came to me, I refused, too, because I had such bad memories of the months of rehearsing bar by bar. Stokowski was the pioneer, and without him having done it first, probably no one else could have done it. But studying the score again, I realised that there might be other perspectives through which to interpret the symphony. For example, although Stokowski had a fantastic sense of humour as a person, constantly making quips and doing practical jokes, as a conductor he was very solemn. Music was a serious experience! So he did Ives solemnly. So I thought that if I recorded it, I could have some fun and also introduce some of the metre changes that Ives had indicated, which Stokowski had left out. It was exciting to approach the score with ten years' extra experience. Moreover, technology had changed. This 1974 recording was the first time that 16 tracks were used for classical music and we could get more detail." The recording was made in London, where costs were lower. Worried by the lack of rehearsal time, Serebrier hit upon a pragmatic solution: to rehearse the symphony in sections. The orchestra agreed to a plan where each section had three hours with the conductor. On Monday from 9 to noon, the flutes went through their parts. From noon to 3pm, the oboes rehearsed, then from 3pm to 6pm the clarinets, and so on, from nine in the morning until midnight for a week, without a break. But because each sections was rehearsed in such detail, it was possible for them to learn their parts thoroughly. Serebrier did all the conducting himself but was helped by a very young British composer - no less than Simon Bainbridge! Their relationship goes back a long way. Serebrier also worked closely with George Szell. Szell had been on the jury of the Ford Foundation American Conductors competition when James Levine and Serebrier won. Szell had about six associate conductors at the Cleveland Orchestra, so Szell hired Serebrier as composer-in-residence. "Szell was like a cold shower after Stokowski. They had completely opposite methods of working but both were equally incredible. I was lucky to be in America at a time when music-making was so vibrant. I captured the tail end of an era of giants, and my only regret is that I was too young to really learn more. When I first met Stokowski, I asked him what I should do to be a good conductor. And he said, "Go around the world and observe the bad conductors and learn what not to do!" It's true, one learns from others' mistakes, but I learned much more from good conductors, and from sitting in thousands of rehearsals, watching what they did. Szell's rehearsal technique was fantastic and I studied how he got results by understanding orchestra psychology. Plus, sheer force of personality, and a tremendous amount of preparation. He even knew my own compositions as well as I knew them myself. Any piece he took on, he came completely prepared for, and rehearsals were totally planned. He would rehearse a piece, and we all wondered why because we didn't see it in the programmes for the season. Yet months later it appeared. Instead of having just that one week to rehearse, he would do things over again until they were absorbed, with chamber-like devotion"."Szell was a wonderful pianist, but he insisted on putting his own bowings for the orchestra strings. They were unorthodox, not the traditional sort of bowings a violinist would use, but they worked for the music. He didn't do what was easiest for a violinist. Even the greatest string players tend to do bowings that come naturally to the right arm, down bowings, and up bow sometimes, but Szell didn't. He did bowings purely from a musical standpoint. The members of the orchestra had a joke, that, when Szell was conducting, they used the 'favourite bowings of nine out of every ten pianists'." "I remember going to the library in Cleveland and copying out many of his bowings, especially of the Dvo&345;ák symphonies, because he got such amazing effects. He made the type of points that a violinist would not do because they're not logical ones - but they work because they are so musical. So much of this tradition is lost now. Orchestral conducting is a very special art, which involves understanding what makes the music work as a whole. I think the conductor's most important and first task is to make music but in some places what's more valued is becoming a member of the community, pleasing patrons and so on." Serebrier has never been one for convention or for compromise. He has long-standing relationships with a number of different orchestras. It means he can focus with each in different aspects of the repertoire. It's an approach that allows idiomatic specialisation. Conformity and compromise might seem to dominate the music business these days, but Serebrier's spirit links to a more individualist tradition. It has made it possible to take on ambitious projects like Festival Miami, which he founded in 1984. His current plans are extensive. In the pipeline is a re-release of Serebrier's own Second Symphony with his fantasia and a piece ambitiously titled Winterreise. Also ready for release is a third collection of works by Ned Rorem, a composer whom he has worked closely with and has great regard for. Sereberier has a particular affinity for Slavic music and has spent much time studying the works of Janá&269;ek, Prokofiev and Shostakovich in detail. The conductors he learned from all subscribed to the importance of knowing a composer's work thoroughly and in great depth. Being a composer himself also means he has insights into the process of composition, although time constraints limit what he does these days. Writing orchestral suites is a long and respected tradition - Bach was transcribed by no less than Mahler - and Serebrier has Stokowski's transcriptions of Bach as a speciality. He has written a symphonic synthesis of Janáček's The Makropulos Case, available on the audiophile label, Reference Recordings. Shostakovich's opera, film and ballet work fascinate him. Serebrier sees the potential for increasing appreciation of Shostakovich's commercial work as music: he wants to complete an orchestral suite based on Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and to revise the current suite of The Nose. This sensitivity to Shostakovich's idiom was what made his recent recording of The Golden Age so remarkable. Shostakovich was, in his time, constrained by the specific needs of ballet, and, moreover, by political pressure. Serebrier went straight back to the original score, approaching it on its own merits as music. The result is revelatory. The centenary year may be over, but this remarkable new interpretation fixes The Golden Age enduringly as part of the Shostakovich heritage. Anne Ozorio Shostakovich : The Golden Age Glazunov: Symphony No 5 and The Seasons Janacek: Sinfonietta, Lachian Dances, Taras Bulba etc Rorem: Three Symphonies Pilgrims (1958) Flute and Violin Concertos Serebrier: Partita, Fantasia for String Orchestra etc Stokowski: Bach Transcriptions (This article originally appeared on the Musicweb International website)

Reviews of Ginastera Festival Concerts

Valentín Surif at the Bolivar Hall, 8 December The concluding concert of ILAMS' 2006 Ginastera Festival brought together a diverse, yet inter-connected group of Argentine composers, presented to an enthusiastic Bolivar Hall audience by the distinguished pianist Valentín Surif. Valentín is perhaps better known in the UK through his remarkable ground-breaking recordings on Marco Polo/ Naxos of the piano music of Alberto Williams. Yet familiarity with these recordings did not adequately prepared anyone for his powerful stage persona, as he brought alive this relatively unfamiliar music, not only by his depth of knowledge, but his passion and commitment. This was the second time in the festival that we had the opportunity to appraise Williams' music and though much of it was being given its London première, now with some growing familiarity with his style, one was able to glimpse the man's stature and why he was so widely regarded in Europe and America. Although this music was borne out of the prevailing late 19th Century Central-European romantic style, Williams never sought to merely imitate his illustrious contemporaries. He had an endearing love of pictorially-inspired tone pictures and as a pioneer, brought into the concert-hall characteristic Argentine rhythms and forms. All this and more was brilliantly evoked by Valentín Surif, who blew away the fog of 100 years and the misconception that the absence of nationalistic colour in some of his music does not dim the man's genius. Shady Hill and the episodic, Poem of the Night were full-blooded romantic evocations. The broadly rhapsodic melody of the former piece was a glorious opening to the concert, tinted with pellucid phrases that warmly evoked past summers, fondly recalled. A glorious Lisztian passion imbued the lovely Berceuse, Op 47, No.1, which could also be felt in the Poem of the Night. In this expansive work we were taken on an imaginary landscape: bells sounded in the night before moonlit shadows flitted across Valentín's expressive keyboard, and nocturnal calm gave way to stormy clouds, and the distant tolling bell. Performed with such singular affection and maturity, this music sounded glorious and deserved to be heard more widely. Juan Angel Ciurleo is better known for his choral conducting, but over the years has developed a modest but very well written corpus of his own music. Composed over the last few years, his 3 Tangos, Op 14 were given their London première. The opening piece has a quixotic, querky and unsettling rhythm. Not music to dance to, but very effectively written and expressive, captured perfectly by the effervescent Valentín Surif. The second piece had great power and vigour, conjuring the spirit and ardour of the dance but ended cleverly, teasing the listener. The final tango was as brilliantly written as its predecessors and rounded off the group in style. Afterwards the composer was called to the platform to acknowledge the appreciative applause. The stage in the second half was turned to full advantage as we were given the opportunity to appraise a very effectively conceived musico-dramatic work by the very wonderful Alicia Terzían. A pupil of Ginastera, she is an inspired musician, academic and composer, who embraces the wide diversity of her country's cultures. In "Buenos Aires you are killing me" she brings together the pianist, with 2 narrators (the actors Omar Sánchez Camarena and Frederic Wickert) and taped sound (ably operated by Morgan Szymanski) not forgetting optional props, ie table, chairs, newspapers and bottle of wine! Also heard for the first time in London, this work brilliantly conveys the isolation of modern life, as relevent to Buenos Aires as to London. Using the minimal props and a thoroughly modern musical idiom, the two men are seated next to a table, each reading a newspaper using speech to indicate their separate train of thoughts, on certain topics. This is done to the backdrop of the piano's musical commentary, which employs a wide range of techniques to achieve the required sounds, and the pre-recorded sounds, which included a singer, speakers and the noise of the city. The impact of the performance was very immediate and with so many visual and aural incidents, the effect was mesmeric. The performers were superb and their timing immaculate. The randomn elements of the piece conveyed the craziness that is very true to modern life. Sitting at the table of a pavement café will never be the same! Sanity was restored with the return of the solo piano in 3 pieces by the festival composer, Alberto Ginastera. The attractive Rondo on Argentine Childrens' Folk Tunes was written for the composer's children in 1947 and incorporates some popular nursery tunes. The simplicity of the music was captured to perfection by Valentín. This was succeeded by the earlier Malambo, which is characteristic of the composer's motoric style, brimming with vivacious energy. The rarely heard Piano Sonata No.3 was the last work that the composer completed in 1982. It is quite shocking in its power and intensity, lasting about 5 minutes. Ginastera telescoped everything into this concentrated one-movement sonata, which is redolent in form to the baroque sonatas of Scarlatti. In form it breaks down into two sections, with an extended coda, whilst the music blends the composer's late harmonic style with the driving rhythms encountered in his earlier piano music. Played with great intensity, this versatile pianist demonstrated once more his mastery of a wide range of styles and musics. The evening was rounded off with some encores taking us into a gentler harmonic world. Carlos Guastavino's Sonatina is a particularly delight piece and was given a performance that radiated the music's innate serenity. Ray Picot Fabio Zanon at Canning House, 9 November The internationally renowned guitarist, Fabio Zanon followed up his appearance as soloist at St. Johns' Smith Square and the master-class at the Bolivar Hall, with a solo recital at Canning House. In these rather more intimate surroundings he introduced to an enthusiastic audience a fascinating programme of the familiar with the less well-known, linked to Alberto Ginastera, who's 90th anniversary we are celebrating. Heitor Villa-Lobos, the great Brazilian composer referred to Ginastera as his "spiritual son", and there is no doubt that the latter did benefit from the Brazilian's pioneering efforts abroad, which brought Latin-American music to the world stage. One of Villa-Lobos, great accomplishments was his contribution to guitar music repertoire. His 12 Studies, composed in 1929, were thoroughly forward-looking and changed the history of the instrument. Curiously, although individual pieces were often played, a complete performance of the set did not take place until 1963, after the composer's death. As Fabio Zanon points out in the notes to his landmark recording, Villa-Lobos was the first composer to let the musical material emanate from the guitar's fingerboard. The recital opened with Studies 11 and 10: 11 uses a syncopated rhythm from North East Brazil and also evokes the sounds of the violão caipira, a Brazilian folk guitar, whilst 10 is the most rhythmically complex of the set and makes considerable demands on the performer. Fabio incorporated into his performance (as he does in his recording) 33 unpublished bars from the original manuscript, which round the piece off more satisfactorily. That this music is close to the guitarist's heart is clear from peerless and spontaneous interpretation, so that the musical content was quickly liberated from the concept of these pieces as "studies". Marlos Nobre is one of the foremost composers alive in Brazil today, and studied with Villa-Lobos as a young man. Momentos 1 was written before Ginastera's great guitar sonata, and fascinatingly it shares some of its features, notably the exploitation of sonorities and effects, and as such is typical of the 1970's avant garde. Rememorias No.3 was written in 2005, and given its European Première tonight. Taking its inspiration from the Cabodinhos, a North Eastern Brazil folk dance, Fabio Zanon relished the rhythmic challenges and played the piece with immaculate care and precision. He was equally at home with the earlier piece and gave it a coherence that raised it above the sum of its complexities. The second great set of guitar studies to emerge from Brazil has become something of a feature of Fabio's recitals, since he gave their UK Première several years ago. Francisco Mignone's music has been enjoying something of a renaissance at the hands of record companies in recent years, from his colourful orchestral music to his idiomatically written piano music. The 12 Studies written in 1970, are to quote an article he wrote for ILAMS, "Unlike Villa-Lobos' 12 Studies, Mignone's are not so tightly tied to the technical study format: technical formulae play a role in their conception, but they are knit in a much more complex fabric, where wide thematic ideas frequently predominate over the simple working-out of a limited number of motifs. The result is a collection of studies which are simultaneously a series of character pieces". The four selected from the set, numbers 9,11,6 and 4, amply demonstrated this as the music engaged individual technical challenges, but ranged over a much broader conceptual canvas. Afro-Brazilian rhythms, much beloved by the composer permeate the music, in these wonderfully idiomatic miniatures. Listening to Fabio Zanon's beautifully balanced readings, one realized that in the right hands this was music every bit as inventive and fulfilling as its illustrious pianist precursors. His response to the changing moods and the technical challenges were so well judged and spontaneous that one felt cheated by the prospects of an interval. Carlos Guastavino, the 20th Century Argentine arch-romantic, is best known for his lyrical and melodic solo piano music and songs, yet he wrote some idiomatic works for the solo guitar, including 3 sonatas. Bailecito, is one of his best known works, mainly in its piano incarnation; yet under Fabio Zanon's fingers its simple folk-like nature was caught to perfection. The 10 Cantilenas represent some of his Guastavino's most important piano music; the nostalgia and intimacy of number 4, subtitled "El Ceibo", translated very well to the guitar. The music-making was enhanced by the surroundings, which were particularly congenial to Fabio, who also took time to talk personably about the pieces to a highly appreciative audience. Maria Luísa Anido is particularly remembered as a performer, yet in her guitar recitals she would introduce pieces of her own, so she built up a catalogue of some 30 pieces. The Aire Norteño has a particularly Andean feel to the melody, and the piece as a whole proved to be a delightful discovery. Gerardo Grandini played the piano in Astor Piazzolla's band for many years; he composed his 6 Tientos in 1977, utilizing a similar musical language and harmonic material to Ginastera's Sonata, written a year earlier. Tiento No.2 is a deeply introspective piece and inhabits a very solitary and mysterious world. Its final bars faded into an almost breathless silence to be broken by the distinctive opening of Ginastera iconic piece. The very chord (produced from the open strings) that characterizes the Tiento was heard again but more stridently in the Sonata. Interestingly both this piece and the Mignone Studies were commissioned by the great Brazilian guitarist, Carlos Barbosa-Lima, who also premièred them both. The Sonata was played with absolute mastery by Fabio Zanon, in an interpretation that has grown in stature since his, albeit, magnificent 1996 recording. Every nuance and gesture was precise and an incredible attention to detail was never at the expense of the natural momentum of the music. The kaleidoscope of sound was matched by a hushed intensity from the audience, from which the guitarist fueled his inspired performance, broken only by resounding applause at the end. The audience was brought back down with a delightful encore, yet another rarity in the shape of the first Toccata in Samba Rhythm by the Brazilian, Radamés Gnattali. Fabio reminded us we were also celebrating his 100th anniversary this year and this effectively written virtuoso piece was a good-natured way to end a recital that will live long in the audience members' memories. Ray Picot Daniel Mazza conducts the London Schubert Players String Orchestra at St. John's Smith Square, 2 November London welcomed Daniel Mazza to St. John's Smith Square (a quiet oasis in the centre of London) to conduct a multi-facetted programme, that not only commemorated the 90th Anniversary of Alberto Ginastera, but also celebrated the wide diversity of music written over the last 50 years in Argentina and Brazil. Maestro Mazza is better known for his work abroad, but he is a passionate exponent of this music and created an immediate and positive impact. The London Schubert Players have been garnering critical praise since their founding in 1989. An interesting and adventurous programme meant that they were a natural choice of ensemble in this ILAMS Ginastera Festival concert. Add two renowned soloists, guitarist Fabio Zanon and pianist Alberto Portugheis, and you have the recipe for a fascinating and absorbing evening. We were not disappointed either as Fabio Zanon opened by commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Brazilian, Radamés Gnáttali with the UK Première of his Guitar Concerto No.4, subtitled 'a Brasileira'. Written in 1967 this 15 minute piece was a joy from beginning to end. Perhaps a little like Vivaldi's music, not at all pretentious, but a stream of melodies that flowed effortlessly through Fabio's skilled fingers. The piece was appropriately named as the rhythms propelled the music and even found time to quote a favourite piece of the composer, Gershwin's 'Summertime', in the opening bars of the slow movement. This is not an ostentatious piece, yet guitarist, conductor and orchestra drew the best from the score, and showcased it to perfection. Alicia Terzian was a noted pupil of Alberto Ginastera and is a highly respected and influential composer. She maintains an active role on the international music scene: her contemporary music group, Encuentros, is embarking on its 20th European tour and also this year she was the President of the jury in the French Contemporary Music International Piano Competition. Dating from 1954, Tres Pìezas is based on Armenian folk tunes, and with its rich and effective scoring offered a superb vehicle to the ensemble, which played with great intensity. The wistful folkloric harmonies were edged with microtones, and the effectively written solos were very well characterised. Although this was also a UK Première, Daniel Mazza gave it subtle direction and by the time we reached the final rustic dance the audience responded as if they always had known it! The first part concluded with another great living composer, the Brazilian Marlos Nobre. Written in 1989 the Concertante do Imaginário contrasts quite sharply old and new styles in a testing work for pianist and orchestra. Alberto Portugheis responded to the drama and passion of the first movement with utter authority, partnered equally by Daniel Mazza who whipped up a breathtaking performance from the orchestra. The lyrical second movement was a joy, with the ghost Villa-Lobos flitting through the assured writing. The virtuoso finale is of more modern character and once more soloist, conductor and ensemble responded as one. This was a barnstorming performance that really captured the audience's imagination! The second part was devoted to a single work, and a monumental one in string orchestra repertoire, Ginastera's Concerto per corde. It's genesis goes back to 1958, and the astonishing five movement second string quartet which, has joined the ranks of the great 20th Century quartets. In 1965 the composer transfigured the quartet into a four movement concerto, and an appropriate vehicle for the Philadelphia Orchestra strings, which he strongly admired. The opening movement was newly composed: a brilliantly effective set of variations for soloists, and yet treacherously scored as the conductor has to keeping the momentum going between soloists and ensemble and balance the sound. This Daniel Mazza did with great skill as he also inspired very well characterised individual performances. A brilliant and fantastic scherzo gave way to the expansive Adagio angoscioso which was redolent of the Argentine pampas. The driving rhythmic finale was performed with tremendous élan and drew an enthusiastic and appreciative response from the audience. Ray Picot Emilio Peroni at the Steinway Hall, 26 October Emilio Peroni is a bright new talent to visit the UK having already achieved notable successes in his native Argentina, Spain and Germany, where he currently studies. He is nevertheless a musician of considerable maturity and presence and had no qualms in presenting an adventurous programme , much of which was new to the audience. He showed an uncanny ability to effortlessly blend modern and romantic repertoire convincingly into a single recital and in so doing offered a fascinating snapshot of Argentine music over the last 100 years. One of the foremost pioneers of the nationalist school, was Alberto Williams (who's paternal grandfather was English) and his Opus 32 the Suite, En la Sierra is representative of his style. It is a romantic piece, with strong European influences, and takes its inspiration from the images suggested by the pictorial titles of the movements and with that there emerges something of a distinctive Argentine personality, particularly in 'Insects and lizards' and the better known 'The forlorn hut'. The music was played with just the right amount of restrained romanticism and created a very positive impact on an appreciative audience. The next three pieces were distinctly more modern in style. Pedro Saenz (b 1915) has graced a previous recital, and once more demonstrated he wrote with a relative economy, and had a fertile imagination. The curiously titled Policromías was given its British Premiere tonight, with its dodecaphonic opening, contrasted the Williams suite quite sharply. In variation form, it demands much from performer and listener, but was very well received. Taken from Ginastera's perennially popular ballet Estancia, Emilio Peroni played the delightful transcription of the 'Pequeña danza' as an interlude before ending the first part with Juan José Castro's Toccata of 1941. This brilliant work, full of incident, with an occasional hint of Prokofiev was played with great élan demonstrating the pianist's intelligent use of virtuosity. We returned to Castro in the second part with a fascinating series of concert tangos: the composer wove several popular tunes with his own so that the process of exploration was touched by familiarity, without abandoning its modern style. Emilio Peroni proved to be a master of this illusive rhythm and it was evident from talking with him afterwards, tango also runs in his veins! During the mid-1930's German expressionist methods were promulgated by Juan Carlos Paz, and though he never achieved the international popularity of Ginastera, he had a considerable following and added to Buenos Aires’ cultural richness. His 3 Movimentos de Jazz is a relatively early work and show the composer strikingly mixing dodecaphonic methods and jazz. This was another British Premiere and the music was played with a glint of humour and rhythmic tautness. Switching back to the romantic vein, this time mid 20th Century, we were submerged in the glorious harmonies of Carlos Guastavino's Sonatina in G minor. This was the first of a series the composer wrote and showed him moving away from his early salon-orientated music to a more structured style. The performance emphasised the transparent textures and lyricism which are the hallmarks of Guastavino, and though this may not be great music, Emilio Peroni certainly conveyed its qualities. We returned to Ginastera for the finale with another Toccata, in which he recreated the grand baroque style of Domenico Zipoli on the solo piano. Zipoli was a 17th Century Italian composer who made his home in the New World, and was renowned for his choral music. Emilio opened the piece with great solemnity and the bell-like sonorities were stunningly captured, yet he never indulged himself and kept the music moving towards its glorious climax. And if that was not enough he encored the delighted audience with Piazzolla's classic tango, Adios Nonino. Ray Picot Riccardo Sciammarella and Eva Pareda at St. James's, Piccadilly, 20 October The quasi-improvisatory opening of Alberto Ginastera's Pampeana No.2 was arresting in its impact and set the tone for a memorable concert in ILAMS' Ginastera Festival. As the music developed rhapsodically, the piano was drawn into the piece in an accompanying role to the cello's glorious portrayal of the Argentine pampas. The husband and wife team Riccardo Sciammarella, cello and Eva Pareda, piano, are natural musical partners who have a strong empathy with each other and for this colourful and demanding music. Moments of drama were superbly contrasted with more reflective and introspective passages before breaking into the composer's exuberant malambo-style finale. This piece, written in 1950, marks the maturing of the composer from the warmer, romantic style of the first Pampeana (played earlier in the festival) for violin and piano, and was riveting, when given such a fine reading. Continuing these artists' survey of all of Ginastera's chamber music for cello, they next played the Sonata, Op.49, written in 1979 for his wife Aurora. The composer created a characteristically intense work that drew the two instruments closer together in a more equal role. The vivacious opening was brilliantly captured, with dissonances on the cello set against a rhythmic accompaniment on the piano, before subsiding into nocturnal chords, to be interspersed with reflections on the dance-like characteristics of the first part. Riccardo Sciammarella's solo cello superbly intoned the mood of prevailing sadness in the opening part of the second movement, with welcome relief as Eva Pareda's piano chimed in, before she in her turn echoed the opening passage of the cello. The alternating solo passages were naturally delivered, and together the duo uncovered the nocturnal melancholy at the heart of this movement. The Scherzo has an unusual structure and stutters uncertainly before developing mercurially, overshadowed by unearthly skittering sounds which maintain an unsettling mood. The finale opened with a strong sense of drama and moved into a frenetic Karnavalito (dance), which was played with untiring panache. Puneña is an astonishing two movement work for solo cello, composed in 1976 at the request of the great Russian cellist, Rostropovich. The deeply sorrowful quality of Harawi was realised with profound eloquence by Riccardo Sciammarella. In this he created an astonishingly vivid canvas that powerfully evoked the Puna (in north-west of Argentina) with its flat wide open spaces where he finds this almost unearthly sounding love song. It was sharply contrasted in the second part, Wayno Carnavelita, which evokes a popular Peruvian song.The piece has a decidedly Bartokian folk-like quality as Riccardo Sciammarella's cello described rhythms and songlines in a scene that he lit with flickering lights and shadows. The powerful intensity of Ginastera's music was brilliantly contrasted as the duo returned to play Piazzolla's masterwork for cello and piano, Le Grand Tango. This wonderful piece, episodic structurally, underplays the piano part so that the cello can sings out its glorious lines. The performance was inspirational, with melody and rhythm given equal treatment and the audience responded as it should, with great enthusiasm, for such spontaneous music-making. Ray Picot Maria Redman at St. James's Piccadilly, 25 September That Maria Redman is a breath of fresh air: a lively and accomplished young talent to which the audience at St.James's Church, Piccadilly would readily testify. Having stepped in at short notice, Ms Redman was a complete unknown to most of the audience, but with her quiet and confident manner she quickly endeared herself, giving each piece a brief and personable introduction. The recital was themed round 'landscapes', with music by the Festival composer, Alberto Ginastera, framing rarities by Henri Dutilleux and John Ireland. Ginastera's evergreen Opus 2, the Argentine Dances was given an immediate and authorititive performance. Her strong technique made light of the work's technical difficulties, yet she played the three dances with a light touch, effectively contrasting the lyrical interludes with the more vigorous dance elements, characterised by the use of insistent base rhythms. Dutilleux like Ginastera, was born in 1916, and has a formidable international reputation. His Piano Sonata was written in 1947 for his wife, and marks a turning point, in the composer's search for stylistic individuality. The Sonata's monumental finale celebrates the post-war freedom of the French people. Maria Redman handled the difficult writing effortlessly as the widely spaced chords conjured up a vision of grandeur as the great cathedral bells of Paris rang out. The music was played with clear tones and a supple rhythm and whetted the appetite for more of this distinctive piece. French impressionism caste it's spell over John Ireland's Decorations, a work full of light and beauty, inspired by the Channel Islands. The opening piece is a lively refrain, followed by moonlit reflections and a finale brimming with energy. This was wonderful uplifting music that was performed with great artistic sensitivity. Ginastera's astonishing Second Piano Sonata was written in response to a commission, towards the end of his life in 1981. Although not as immediate as its illustrious predecessor, this is music of a strong personality, that inspite of its virtuoso demands, communicates directly with the listener. The folkloric elements remain, but the voice is that of one of one the 20th Centuries great avant garde composers. It is also music that will only work in live performance in the hands of an artist who understands what the composer was trying to say, and gets beyond the physical demands of the piece, whilst being the master of those difficulties. Maria Redman is one such person and her performance was mesmeric. It is difficult to comment on particular aspects of her playing, but I was very taken with the way she handled the pauses and the extraordinary moments of rapt calm. The audience responded with great enthusiasm and I have no doubt that Maria Redman is a name to watch out for in the years to come. Ray Picot Luis Parés at the Bolivar Hall, 15 September Luis Parés is a remarkable young Venezuelan pianist, who at present is based in London. As a prize winner of many competitions, he has increasingly attracted public attention. His recent performances have also garnered critical praise, so it was with great expectation he was received by a responsive audience at the Bolivar Hall, London on Friday evening 15 September. Playing a mostly Latin American music programme, including some rarities, Luis Parés opened and closed with the Festival composer, Alberto Ginastera. Written in 1946, The Creole Dance Suite is a work of the composer's early maturity, when his music had a strongly nationalist flavour; the five dances with their wide ranging tonal and rhythmic palette, are a challenge to the unwary. Luis Parés created a superb dynamic between moments of tenderness and subtlety, with those of brash gaucho-inspired vigour. His tone was warm and with a responsive approach to the ever-changing moods of the piece, he gave a satisfying and envigorating performance. Modesta Bor is a highly respected Venezuelan composer, who is now in her nineties. She writes in a broadly tonal idiom and some of her stylistic traits are evidence that she received some of her teaching in Moscow. The Four Fugues were written 1973-4 and are no mere academic exercises, but vigorous studies, with folk-like resonances. Luis Parés' realisation of them was superb. His playing had great character and physically, tremendous agility, yet he never overstated the music, so that the themes and their development could be clearly followed. We should hear more of this interesting composer. The first part ended with music of grace and lyric charm by Carlos Guastavino. The Ten Argentine Cantilenas of 1956-8, is arguably the composer's most important work, in which he blends folk rhythms and folk-inspired melodies on a gorgeous romantic canvass. Luis Parés selected four well contrasted pieces from the set and was utterly responsive to the grace and charm of these delightful miniatures. His performance lost none of the the innate intimacy of the pieces to which the audience responded with warm applause. The second part opened with Los requiebros, from Enrique Granados' monumental cycle, Goyescas. Inspired by Goya's fifth 'caprichos' 'Two of a kind', the piece captures the moment when a maja flirts with a penniless sword-wearing man. Although pianists frequently play extracts from Goyescas it is very easy to miss the individuality and character of these compositions. Luis Parés quickly warmed to the work's charm and with an easy going light touch ably caught the quintessentially playful nature of the piece, with its frequent stopping, starting, and tempo changes. Antonio Estévez was a Venezuelan composer, conductor and teacher of great repute. Many of his most attractive works were written during the period 1948-63, but later he also experimented with electronic music. He wrote some very important folk-inspired choral-symphonic music, but today we heard the opposite, the delightful 17 Childhood Pieces. These miniatures are based on Venezuelan children's songs, and bear the influence of French impressionism. Despite being childhood-inspired, most of them are technically demanding. Once more Luis Parés displayed the confident mastery of his art as he avoided exaggeration and played the music as it was intended; he was clearly enjoying the occasion. Infact several of the individual pieces were quite mesmeric and I suppressed a strong urge to call out for the pianist to play them again! Performed so persuasively, the cycle deserves to be heard more often. For the finale Luis Parés returned to Ginastera with his Argentine Dances. These three pieces evocatively picture an old cow-herd, a graceful maiden and a clever cowboy or gaucho. Despite being written in the composer's student years they are wholly characteristic of him and have maintained their deserved popularity. Rather than being given an outright virtuoso performance, they were played with great feeling and restraint, reserving the final burst to the end, creating a fitting climax to the piece and the occasion. Encore! The audience responded with raptuous applause. This thoughtful and focussed pianist then rounded the evening off with a delicious Cuban dance. Ray Picot Patrice Jegou and Anna Rutowska-Schock song recital at the Regent Hall, 6 September Shostakovich's centenary year has enabled us to re-evaluate the work of this iconic composer. There have been some surprises too, not least the opening set of songs in Patrice Jegou's London debut, the Spanish Songs, Op.100, of 1956. There can be no doubt who wrote this music, but the Spanish phrasing comes as a surprise, then perhaps not; Spanish music has been a magnetic force for Russian composers from Glinka onwards. From the opening bars of the slow moving opening song "Farewell Granada" it was evident that we were in the company of not only a rising star, but a well-matched musical partnership. They gave equal musical weight to the fine vocal lines and demanding piano accompaniment, with plenty of light and shade, bringing out the songs' Andaluzian atmosphere. The final piece, "Son", a beautiful barcarolle, was a real highlight, infused with subtle phrasing and lyrical charm. The quality of this musical partnership was reaffirmed in the fast-moving and virtuosic "Chacarera", the opening song in Ginastera's Cinco Canciones Populares Argentinas, Op.10, as they effortlessly swung into Argentinian folk mode. "Triste" the gem of the set, was given a performance by Patrice of radiant power, underpinned by understated phrases by Anna on the piano. "Lullaby" was rendered with childlike simplicity. "Gato" thundered with the life-embracing malambo rhythm, thrilling us all to the end, as voice and piano took it in turns in the limelight. Patrice was the charming guide through North East Brazil, as she gave subtle voice to the delightful songs of Francisco Braga in the Cinco Canções Nordestinas do Folclore Brasileiro. Their simple folkloric expression was effectively handled without resort to extravagant gestures, acting as a perfect foil between more dynamic sets of songs. Nevertheless, these rarely heard songs, written in 1944 are not without interest, and the use of the African rhythms was realised most evocatively. The Catalan composer Xavier Montsalvatge was strongly drawn to the rhythmss and poems of the Antilles, and in the Cinco Canciones Negras, he produced a masterpiece that has become a staple of the Latin American repertoire. The music is full of humour and expression, which can be quite hard to achieve without the songs sounding forced, but this was never a problem with this performance. After the opening strains of the habanera, Anna swept us by the creole girl in white crinoline, with unaffected joy. Patrice contrasted the sinister overtones of "Chévere" with the gentle rocking refrain of the "Cradle Song", sung with melting charm. Ending on the "Negro Song" with its exotic Cuban rhythms, Patrice and Anna gave us an exultant finale to remember and with tapping feet to join the crowds of Oxford Street! The audience gave an unreserved enthusiastic applause for this magnificent recital by two consummate artists, and rising stars in the artistic firmament. Ray Picot Germán Torre organ recital, St Martin's-in-the-Fields, 4 September On the 4th September, music lovers were treated to a feast of organ music, a recital given by the well-known Argentine organist, hapsichordist and composer Germán Torre. He started the programme with four works by the inspired Baroque Italian composer Domenico Zipoli. We heard three of his many organ pieces - The Emperor's Retreat, Birthday of Archduke Joseph Bededicto and Toccata in A minor, al played with great control and attention to detail, colours and rhythms clearly taking us to 18th Century Italy. The Toccata, which was given the British Premiere, reminded me of another Organ Toccata by Zipoli, in D minor, written in Rome and dated 1st of January 1716, just over a year before the composer's move to Argentina, a work given, in 1970, a formidable piano version by Alberto Ginastera. The programme continued with another British Premiere, one of prolific German Torre's own compositions, the Suite Comasca, in several movements (Introduzzione Corale, Preludio, Scherzo-Intermezzo, Area and Toccata). A vivid and contrasting work, with many changing moods, tempi and rhythms, all depicting and describing Torre's experience of Lake Como in Italy, where he now resides. We were then taken to the imaginary, magic world of Alberto Ginastera, with his 'Toccata, Villancico y Fuga' Op.18 , a complex work, delivered by Germán Torre with generous quantities of sound, understanding and imagination, thus paying a sincere tribute to the composer whose 90th birthday we are celebrating with our Ginastera Festival 2006. The programme came to its conclusion with Astor Piazzolla's ever welcomed 'Adios Nonino', performed with the passion and feeling of someone who is really saying his final 'goodbye' to his beloved grandfather. All in all, a very rewarding concert. Piazzolla Adios Nonino Norma López and Alberto Portugheis song recital at St. James's, Piccadilly, 16 August This lunchtime concert was yet another example of bold programming as the Uruguayan soprano Norma López, accompanied by Alberto Portugheis on the piano, presented an almost all-Ginastera song recital. Alberto Portugheis is a familiar and commanding musical presence at many of these ILAMS festival programmes. Setting aside his usual role as soloist, and with chameleon-like ability he slipped on the mantel of accompanist with consummate ease. Norma López proved to be a superb partner, displaying great understanding of the songs' poetry and moods, and a real flair for the dramatic. They opened with Two Songs Without Title and Without Words by the eminent conductor and composer José Serebrier. These charming little vocalises were written whilst the composer was a teenager, and display his fascination with the human voice without the need to use words. The performers captured the songs' simplicity and the sense of Latin nostalgia perfectly. Interestingly these are the only songs José Serebrier has written so far, though the use of wordless voice reappears in his mature works like the 3rd Symphony. Alberto Ginastera wrote all his songs during the early phase of his career, between 1838 and 1943, when he was writing in a tonal, strongly nationalist vein that absorbed folk influences, and the rhythms of his country. Today we heard all 12 songs he wrote for voice and piano, in chronological order leaving out only one set, the Cantos del Tucamán for voice and chamber ensemble. The delightful Two Songs of 1938 is more frequently performed and recorded, and the first, entitled The Tree of Oblivion, can also be heard in an attractive arrangement for solo piano. These songs convey the simple charm, found in the poems by Fernán Silva Valdés, combined with a subtle blend of romanticism and rhythmic colour that was memorably captured in this performance. Written in 1943, the Five Argentine Folk Songs unabashedly explore folk idioms and rhythms. Although the texts are taken from traditional cancionero, as ever with Ginastera, the music is original. Norma López clearly relished these effective settings as she responded spontaneously to Alberto Portugheis' buoyant rhythms. The second song, Triste, has also developed a life of its own as an instrumental piece, and its lyrical bitter-sweet moments were effectively conveyed. Texts taken from a book of poems by Silvina Ocampo inspired Ginastera to write the song cycle, Times of Day on the Estancia. Though composed in the same year as Five Argentine Folk Songs, these five songs, inhabitant a different world; more complex and harmonically advanced, they trace rural scenes from dawn till dusk through the eyes of the sun. Responding to the considerably more demanding writing, these two artists gave a well judged and atmospheric performance that captured the ever changing moods and tempi of these memorable songs. The large audience responded with great enthusiasm and relished the charming encore, The Rose and the Willow, one of Carlos Guastavino's best-loved songs. Ray Picot Alfredo Corral plays at the Steinway Hall, 13 July Alfredo Corral may not be a particularly well known pianist and conductor in the UK, but he made many new friends during the evening of 13 July, when he presented a fascinating recital of all-Argentine piano music, as part of ILAMS' Ginastera Festival at London's Steinway Hall. His easy charm and unassuming, self-effacing manner belied the intensity and depth of knowledge he brought to his performances: a window into the soul of Argentine music. His focus this evening was on music mainly written over five decades with interesting cross-connections, opening with works from the 1890's, written in what could be broadly described as a 'rioplatense' style. One of the greatest exponents of this and composer who is considered to be the father of Argentine nationalist music, was Julian Aquirre. Like Grieg, he was better suited stylistically to miniature forms, and he wrote many songs and solo piano works, in which the chromatism of Chopin is never far away. The lively dance, Huella, opened which lead naturally to perhaps the composer's best known and most characteristic works, the Five Tristes. In Alfredo Corral's subtle hands these pieces evoked, through their simple charm and gentle melancholy, a timeless lost world. Another unfamiliar name followed, Celastine Piaggio, who studied composition with Aquirre and spent many years in Europe, which perhaps shows in the French inflected Rondo in c sharp minor. A quirky, unpredictable piece, it offered a perfect foil to his deeply felt Homage to Julian Aquirre. The Malambo by Alberto Ginastera ended the first part: a short piece with obsessive motoric rhythms, so typical of this composer. It was performed with controlled power and panache. Pedro Saenz was a respected composer and academic, born in 1915, the year before Ginastera, and who like many of his compatriots, studied first at home and later in Europe. His Variations on an Original Theme encompassed a subtle range of moods within its reflective subject and through its controlled virtuosity it is a strikingly effective work, with Rachmaninov occasionally hovering in the background. Antonio Tauriello, was a notable conductor and composer and dedicated the Toccata to his 'master', Ginastera. Alfredo Corral perfectly caught quixotic mood of the piece, and with the use of a repeated phrase, it was brought to an effective climactic conclusion. The advertised programme ended appropriately with Ginastera, and from 1944, the 12 American Preludes. The pieces each have descriptive titles, and the composer created a sequence of inventive originals that reflected diverse moods and rhythms, with several dedicated to important composers or musicians of that time, including his friend Aaron Copland and the Brazilian musical pioneer, Heitor Villa-Lobos. Alfredo Corral created a cohesive whole from this cycle of preludes despite the individual short duration of the pieces, and effortlessly contrasted their varied moods. His momentous performance was enthusiastically appreciated by the audience, and as if this work was not sufficiently climactic, Alfredo tantalisingly expanded this Argentine kaleidoscope with Astor Piazzolla's The Death of the Angel and Carlos Guastavino's Bailecito. Afterwards it was pleasure to see the pianist's excellently performed CDs reach this responsive audience. Ray Picot Nancy Lee Harper plays at St. James's, Piccadilly, 30 June Nancy Lee Harper is an extraordinarily multi-talented American musician and scholar who works and lives in Portugal. An expert on Hispanic music, her recent book on Manual de Falla, is a landmark biography and study of the composer. Her visits to London are always well-received, and in her piano recitals, usually sprinkled with Portuguese works, she contrasts the familiar with less well known pieces. Her recital at St James's opened and closed with music by the festival composer, Alberto Ginastera. The five movement Suite of Criolle Dances was written during 1946 in New York and is note worthy for its wide ranging tonal and rhythmic palette. This more mature work contains the hallmarks of a composer who had a growing international reputation. The Argentine Dances are by contrast student works, despite which they have retained a firm place in the repertoire. These vivacious open-air pieces were given authoritative performances which were clearly appreciated by the audience. The mood was changed with Heitor Villa-Lobos' Valsa da Dor (Waltz of Pain), composed in 1932, as a bitter-sweet recollection of the earlier more sentimental waltzes that were popular three decades before. Nancy gave it an understated interpretation which suited this little gem perfectly, as it lead naturally into the lovely Nocturne in D flat by Antonio Fragoso. Written suberbly with a good contrasting colour and rhythm, with shades of Rachmaninov,it is hard to see why this composer is not better known outside his native Portugal. French influence was detectable in both these pieces, so following them with Ravel's masterful Sonatine worked perfectly. This three movement work was given a fluid performance that showed the pianist's empathy with this music. The concert also included Falla's piano masterpiece, Fantasia Baetica, which was composed at the request of the great Artur Rubinstein and dedicated to him. It is a work of great drama that seems to go to the core of Spanish music, with all its instrumental amd coloristic echoes. Nancy gave a fine and memorable performance which echoed in the minds of this appreciative audience long after the recital. Ray Picot Coro Cervantes 10th Anniversary Concert at the Wigmore Hall, 1 June Coro Cervantes proved in their triumphant 10th Anniversary concert, that modern audiences will respond positively to bold programming. The event took place at the Wigmore Hall, on 1 June and also featured the pianist Alberto Portugheis and the guitarist, Morgan Szymanski, all under the inspirational direction of the conductor, Carlos Fernández Aransay. Coro Cervantes have specialised in the classical music of the Iberian and Latin American countries, and are unique as the only professional choir in the UK dedicated to the performance of this music. Their international reputation has steadily grown under the sure hand of their director Carlos Fernández Aransay, and with two successful solo CDs to their credit and a third just issued in Spain they are reaching a wider audience. Critical plaudits have followed them so this concert was eagerly awaited by a near capacity audience. The Argentine composer Carlos Guastavino wrote in a neo-romantic style, and his finest inspiration can be found in his solo piano music and songs. The evening opened with his Indianas song cycle, composed in 1967/68 for piano and mixed voice choir. The six songs each explore different characteristic dance rhythms. The choir gave great attention to musical detail supported empathically by the incomparable Alberto Portugheis, and together gave a wonderfully lyrical account of these gems. Such was audiences pleasure, the performers were applauded after each of the six songs. One of Alberto Ginastera's most popular short pieces, The Song of the Tree of Oblivion, followed in an unusual arrangement, opening with wordless phrases, with much grace and perfect intonation. The next pieces demonstrated the humour and artistic diversity of the musicians as Coro Cervantes met The Swingle Singers! Piazzolla's justly famous tangos, Libertango and Verano Porteño (appropriately Summer from his cycle of the Four Seasons in Buenos Aires) were performed with sheer pezzaz in brilliant arrangements by Oscar Escalada. As Alberto Ginastera's daughter Georgina observed afterwards (she had taken part in the pre-concert talk on her father), Alberto Portugheis had rolled up his sleeves and performed like a tango player from Buenos Aires. And Carlos seemed quite light on his toes too! The mood changed dramatically, as the first part ended with one of Ginastera's masterpieces, the Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah, for mixed choir. Written in 1946 this is powerful music that stands shoulder to shoulder with the greatest choral works of the 20th Century. In two parts, the first is sombre and bleak in mood, but hearts are lifted in the concluding section. Under Carlos Fernández Aransay's inspirational direction, the choir gave an electrifying performance, the effect of which was utterly mesmeric. The choir returned recharged, in the second part as they introduced the expectant audience to Rodolfo Halffter's Three Epitaphs, based on the main characters from Cervantes' Don Quixote. The music is written in the composer's accessible neoclassical style (he explored twelve tone music later in his life) and conveys a simple Spanish charm, with the spirit of Manuel de Falla not so far away. The choir left the platform for the guitarist, Morgan Szymanski, who took centre stage, and proceeded to weave a spell on the audience, as he conjured up the atmosphere of Andaluzia with two famous solo pieces by the great 19th Century guitarist-composer, Francisco Tárrega. Caprichio Árabe and Recuerdos de la Alhambra sounded freshly minted and one could sense the white sun bleached buildings and the wonderful filigree architecture of the Moorish palace. He drew a storm of applause from the audience! Remaining on stage Morgan was joined by the choir and conductor in the performance of another rarity, the Gipsy Romance by the Italian, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Much of his music bears witness to his lifelong love of Spain and this piece was no exception, being based on the poems of the great Spanish poet (who was assassinated during the Civil War) Federico Garciá Lorca. This was a challenging piece to perform on stage as the conductor strove to balance the sound of the choir with the quieter solo guitar. However, Carlos achieved this with stunning results, aided by the composer's subtle and effective writing. Morgan played with great authority and delicacy whilst Coro Cervantes performed with superb control and expressive singing that really got to the heart of this wonderful poetry. The audience responded enthusiastically and were rewarded with an encore, bringing to close an unforgettable evening. Ray Picot Aída Dopchiz and Sebastián Beltramini with musicians at St James's, Piccadilly, 24 April In a public lecture at the ILAMS Regent Hall Summer Festival some years ago, the musicologist Simon Wright observed that the fundamental preoccupations of Latin American composers are 'landscape and superstition' he could equally well have used the words 'religion' or 'spirituality' in place of superstition, to describe the human desire to express the non-material dimensions of existence. Our concert at St James's Church, Piccadilly, the scene of so many memorable ILAMS events, underlined again the inclination of Latin American composers to connect with both the physical and the spiritual context of life. Aída Dopchiz is a fine flautist who chose as her first piece a flute solo by the distinguished Argentinian composer, and Honorary Member of ILAMS, Alicia Terzián. The work is inspired by the ashram and university outside Calcutta, called Shantiniketan, or The Abode of Peace, established in 1902 by the Bengali writer, composer and mystic Rabindranath Tagore. The performance is preceded by the reading of a text which describes the spirit of the piece and of the ashram, 'the sweet song of contemplation of the infinite'. The text was read with absolute conviction by Nigel Grant Rogers, and the conviction continued in the mesmerising performance of this mystical piece by Aída Dopchiz. Aída was joined in the second item of the programme by the oboist Lorna John for the Duo Op.13 by Alberto Ginastera. The two wove a fascinating web of sound with the curiously contrasting tonal qualities of their instruments. Carlos Guastavino's Introduction and Allegro performed by Aída with her duo partner, the Argentine pianist Sebastián Beltramini, provided an interesting contrast, written in the composer's wistful romantic style. Sebastián showed his talent to full advantage with the demanding Sonata No.1 Op. 22 by Ginastera. This is surely one of the composer's greatest pieces for piano, and evokes the majesty and grandeur, as well as the desolation, of the Argentine landscape. Evocative also are Ginastera's Impresiones de la Puna, a series of three 'impressions' of Argentina's high Andean plateau, a cold world of the Indian, with his quena or flute, his song, and his dance. For this magical performance Aída Dopchiz was joined by Guillem Calvo Martínez de Albéniz and Oleguer Beltrán, violins, Jonathan Stone, viola, and Oliver Coats, cello, forming the Ginastera Festival Quartet. Gerald Crowson Pre-concert talk and the Cuarteto Assai with Alberto Portugheis at the Wigmore Hall, 11 April Opening the evening in the Bechstein Room an appreciative audience were treated to a fine talk with musical illustrations, on the music of Ginastera by the distinguished scholar, pianist, critic and writer Bryce Morrison. Having played the first Piano Sonata for him at short notice, whilst studying in the USA, Bryce developed a great interest in Ginastera's music. His continuing affection and respect for the composer was self-evident as he talked about the man and mainly his piano music with wit and infectious enthusiasm. With the audience's appetite whetted, the main course of two string quartets and two piano quintets, was served up in the Wigmore Hall by the superlative Spanish string quartet, Cuarteto Assai and the pianist Alberto Portugheis, who has such a commanding understanding of this repertoire. From the very first bars of Ginastera's first String Quartet, Op.20 the Assai's played with a tightly disciplined ensemble and impeccable timing, underpinned by a strong rhythmic sense, bringing out the wonders of this richly imaginative score. When he wrote this piece in 1948, Ginastera's works conveyed a strong sense of musical nationalism, and whilst Bartok hovered benignly in the background the composer's unique voice was always clear. The quartet expanded to a piano quintet, as Alberto Portugheis joined them in the Four Seasons of Buenos Aires by the pupil of Ginastera, Astor Piazzola. The group retained their cohesive ensemble work, as they demonstrated a keen rapport for this visceral music which almost seemed to course through their collective blood (small surprise after the rapturous applause, Autumn reappeared at the end of the evening as an encore). The second part opened with a rare Spanish string quartet by Ernesto Halffter, composed in 1923 when he was eighteen and revised ten years later. This genre is not commonly associated with Spain, but the piece appeared during an explosion of musical activity in the early decades of the 20th Century. Despite glimpses of Stravinsky in neo-classical mode, the fragmentary development of themes was original, though as the work progressed the ghosts of Debussy, Falla and Ravel flickered across the quicksilver textures, in an altogether enjoyable work. Thirty years after Halffter revised his one and only String Quartet, Ginastera had written two and had completed his most radical chamber music project at that time, the Piano Quintet, Op.29. Written in Ginastera's neo-expressionist phase, the work is not easy listening, and yet for all its complexity and avant-garde techniques (including serialism, Poly-tonality and quarter tones) the piece engages all the senses, and its Argentinian roots could be discerned. Structually the work was unusual too, as each of the first three sections was followed by a cadenza, before reaching the finale. The musicians excelled once more and revelled in the solo technical challenges of the cadenzas. The audience warmly applauded this rarely played masterpiece, which was given the performance of a life-time by Cuarteto Assai and Alberto Portugheis. Bravo! Ray Picot Southbank Sinfonia at St. John's Smith Square, 28 March New music presents its own challenges particularly when it is unfamiliar, but that did not deter the Southbank Sinfonia under the confidant direction of its young conductor, Matilda Hofman, from giving the World Première of Christian Baldini's Latentes Santos Lugares. This young award-winning composer (and conductor) has been blazing a trail in his native Argentina and the USA. He has a well developed understanding of orchestral textures and retains a clear spatial sense and structural clarity no matter how complex the writing becomes, as was evident in the new literary-inspired piece. Afterwards the performers and composer were given appreciative applause. Astor Piazzolla's Four Seasons of Buenos Aires has become increasingly familiar on the concert platform, though mostly through individual movements. However, all four present a cohesive work and most effectively in the version for violin and string orchestra. The soloist was Sara Trickey, who performed with a sure sense of rhythm and good tonal variety treating a spell-bound audience to a virtuoso tour-de-force as she explored the multi-facetted tangos, tinged with baroque stylizations. After the interval, the distinguished pianist Alberto Portugheis took centre-stage in a performance of Marlos Nobre's Desafio No.7, accompanied by the strings of the Southbank Sinfonia. This fascinating piece is part of an ongoing series, in which the composer explores in musical terms, the desafio 'challenge', which is a type of poetry contest the where participants attempt to surpass each other in the improvisation of verses. Opening with a cadenza for solo piano, the orchestra then joins in this musical dare, in a whirlwind of imaginative and virtuoso writing, alive with the rhythms of the composer's beloved North East Brazil. It was performed with great verve and drew enthusiastic applause. The concert ended on more familiar territory with Alberto Ginastera's Variaciones Concertantes, Op.23, which is one of the composer's most accessible works. Written in 1956, this piece demonstrates the composer's mature mastery of the variation form and subtle orchestral colour. He contrasts solo or small instrumental groups, against the full ensemble, which gave the musicians an ample opportunity to shine, with well-paced direction from Matilda Hofman. With the finale's closing flourish a memorable concert was brought to a conclusion. Ray Picot Morgan Szymanski at the Wigmore Hall, 13 March ILAMS and YCAT jointly presented the brilliant young Mexican guitarist, Morgan Szymanski, at the Wigmore Hall. Morgan is no stranger to ILAMS audiences and his reputation as a performer has been growing steadily over the last year. His diversity of styles was apparent in the first half as Morgan contrasted a charming baroque Suite (in the style of Weiss), composed by Manual Ponce, for his close friend Segovia and a suite of characteristic Latin American pieces, written by the great Paraguayan guitarist, Mangore Barrios. Both composers demonstrate a penchant for dance rhythms, though baroque sensibilities contracted with Barrios'more florid and lyrical music. Crossing into Argentina, after the interval, with four pieces by Astor Piazzolla, originally written for bandoneon and ensemble, in virtuoso transcriptions for guitar. Without indulging in excessive gestures, Morgan perfectly captured the spirit of Nuevo Tango and with it the flavours and half lights of urban Buenos Aires. The crowning glory was a bravura performance of Ginastera's rhythmically charged Sonata for guitar. Morgan's careful attention to the subtleties of the guitar writing, meant that we heard every note with clarity, and yet this was a performance straight from the heart. The audience responded rapturously and somehow Morgan found the energy for some encores. Ray Picot Rafael Gintoli & Alberto Portugheis at St James's, Piccadilly, 15 February Two distinguished musicians, the pianist, Alberto Portugheis, and fellow-Argentinian, the violinist Rafael Gintoli played to a packed St. James's, Piccadilly, for the second concert. However, we were treated to a fascinating foretaste of the event the previous evening, when both the artists gave live performances of Ginastera's music and talked with Sean Rafferty on BBC Radio 3's evening 'In Tune' programme. Returning to St. James's, the recital was masterly; maintaining the high standard of the first recital, and adding their wealth of experience and mastery of the very different musical styles. To see two artists so utterly (excuse the pun), in tune with each other was absolutely thrilling; and combining the familiar and unknown, they took the audience on an unforgettable journey of discovery. The centrepiece was Floro Ugarte's substantial Sonata, which was given its British première. The two artists gave an impassioned and committed performance, relishing the composer's flowing and richly romantic style, laced with nostalgia. Luis Gianneo's folk-inflected Five Pieces acted as a perfect foil, and before we returned to Argentina, they played Aarvo Pärt's remarkable Fratres. The concert concluded with the Pampeana No.1 by Ginastera, a brilliant and atmospheric evocation of his native pampas. This piece is a whirlwind of violin-virtuosity and spikey piano-generated rhythms, and this peerless performance left the audience breathless. Ray Picot José Menor at the Wigmore Hall, 11 January ILAMS opened the doors to the Ginastera Festival at the Wigmore Hall with a recital sponsored by the Ramon Llull Institute and the Spanish Embassy by the exciting young Spanish pianist José Menor. Geoffrey Norris quite rightly praising the pianist's beguiling mix of finesse and fire in his review for the Daily Telegraph (see link on News page), with masterly interpretations of music by Albéniz, Mompou and Ginastera. This was without doubt an auspicious opening concert for the Festival, and one that received wide critical acclaim. Clearly this artist (he is also a composer and chamber musician) is going places, and the audience's evident appreciation of his talents confirmed this. Ray Picot

Fernando Lopes Graça: 17 December 1906 to 27 November 1994

Fernando Lopes-Graça, or Graça as he became known, was born in central Portugal, in Tomar, on 17 December 1906. He became one of Portugal's most important composers and certainly one of its most polemical musical figures. He seemed to swim upstream for most of his life and, in doing so, created some of the most significant Luso music of the 20th century, which, although not mainstream, is recognised for its originality, cultural contribution, and genius. With his innate talent for composition, he naturally championed new music; and as composer of more than 250 works, he logically became a promoter of concerts of the cultural patrimony. Ethnomusicological musings, reminiscent of a Bartók or a Kodály, bore abundant Portuguese fruit in his works, while literary gifts, like those of a Schumann, marked Graça's path as critic, writer, and musicologist. Graça's non-musical parents were the owners of Hotel Nabão, whose in-house piano afforded the young boy an opportunity for musical exploration. Initial musical studies completed in his home town, he went to Lisbon where he furthered his knowledge at the National Conservatory (1924-1931) with Adriano Mereia and José Viana da Mota (Piano), Tomás Borba (Composition) and Luís Freitas Branco (Musical Sciences), as well as at the Lisbon University. He taught at the Coimbra Academy of Music from 1932-1936, after which he went to Paris in 1937 to study Musicology with Paul-Marie Masson at the Sorbonne and Composition and Orchestration with Charles Koechlin. Upon his return to Portugal in 1939, Graça taught Piano, Harmony, and Counterpoint at the Academy of Music Amateurs in Lisbon and became its Artistic Director. In 1942, he founded Sonata, a musical organisation for the promotion of concerts of contemporary music, which was highly successful until 1960. Victim of the time and place in which he lived, Graça resisted any attempt to conform to the ideological and cultural paradigm of the Portuguese New State (headed by the National Secretary of Propaganda, António Ferro), which would have meant artistic death for him. This resistance brought imprisonment more than once; became the reason for refusing a professorship at the National Conservatory (1931); caused him to reject a study grant in Paris (1934); prohibited him from leaving the country to be on the Bartók International Composition Competition in Budapest (1949) and became his interdiction to teach, by ministerial orders (1954). (Peixoto; Bastos, 2) As a composer, Graça passed through three stages: 1) until 1936; objective style with influences of Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Bartók, and Falla, while also using Portuguese elements such as prosody and folk music (Variations on a Portuguese Popular Song, for piano).; 2) 1937-1960; nationalistic style, based on the Portuguese folk music with its rich melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic features (Piano Sonata, nº 2; Piano Quartet); 3) 1961-1994; universality with less clear use of Portuguese folk music and ampler tonal-rhythmic-structural tendencies (Chamber Concerto, commissioned by Rostropovich). Traditional, although transformed, elements - from hymns to Beethoven or Chopin - have their place in Graça's music, described as possessing 'a conspicuous rhythmic and harmonic drive, a clear phrase and sectional structure, a refined thematic manipulation, and a rich and creative timbre palette, resulting from the application of the most varied compositional techniques based on traditional foundations'. (Bastos, 1, Introduction) Graça won many prizes for his works, including first prizes from the Circle of Musical Culture (1st Piano Concerto -1940; História trágico-maritima,1942; Sinfonia per orchestra, 1944; 3rd Piano Sonata, 1952); the Prince Rainier III of Monaco Prize (1st String Quartet, 1965). Possessing a predilection for the piano and for the voice, he composed for every genre, leaving only that of opera unfinished. His abundant vocal and choral arrangements leave an indubitable Portuguese folk-fingerprint. As a pianist, Graça entered the virtuoso class of Viana da Mota. Abdicating the life of a concert pianist, his time was absorbed with composition, research, writing, teaching, administrating, and conducting. Nevertheless, from archived programs, he did perform, often as accompanist. His predilection for the piano is undeniable, as his immense output indicates. As a writer and musicologist, Graça's publications remain an invaluable part of the Portuguese musical heritage. His work with Tomás Borba on the two-volume Dicionário de música (Lisbon, 1956-1958) - a work that integrated general music history figures with those of Portugual - is only today, fifty years later, being supplanted. His compilation, Canção popular portuguesa (Lisbon, 1953), with Michel Giacometti, remains an important and unsurpassed collection of Portuguese folksongs from all regions. His biographical insights - on such subjects as José Viana da Mota (Lisbon, 1949), Chopin (1949), Bartók (1953), Mozart (1956) - are unique, while his writings on theoretical, historical, and esthetical aspects of music (such as Introduction to Modern Music, 1942, and Theoretical Bases of Music, 1944, and the magazine Gazeta musical, begun 1950-1) reveal his high intelligence and profound knowledge. Notable recognition came after the Portuguese democracy (24 April 1976) when Graça was bestowed several awards: Order of the People's Friendship (USSR, 1976); Grande Oficialato da Ordem Militar de Santiago da Espada; Grâ-Cruz da Ordem do Infante D. Henrique; and Ordem de Mérito Cultural. My own city of Aveiro had a place in Graça's life. The University of Aveiro conferred upon him a Doutor Honoris Causa in 1986; supported the recording of his 6th Suite memoriam à B. Bartók (Nancy Lee Harper, Numérica 1086, 1999); and published his piano sonatas and sonatinas in 2006 (UA Press: Patrícia Lopes Bastos, editor; on CD by pianist António Rosado, Numérica, 2004). As well, Aveiro's Gulbenkian Music Conservatory professor, Paulo Amorim, has recorded Graça's entire guitar works (La Mà de Guido, 2005). For more information, the Ministry of Culture of Portugal has a commemorative site: www.lopes-graca.com. Graça died near Lisbon, in Cascais, on 27 November 1994. References 1. Bastos, Patrícia Lopes (2006) As Sonatas e Sonatinas de Fernando Lopes-Graça, 4 vols. Aveiro: Editorial da Universidade de Aveiro. 2. Bastos, Patrícia Lopes (2006) As Sonatas e Sonatinas para piano solo de Fernando Lopes-Graça, 3 vols. PhD Dissertation. Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal. 3. Cascudo, Teresa (1997) Fernando Lopes-Graça: catálogo do espólio musical. Col. Museu da Música Portuguesa, nº 2. Estoril: Casa Verdades de Faria-Museu da Música Portuguesa. 4. Peixoto, Domingos (Outono 2006) 'No centenário de Fernando Lopes-Graça' in Pontes & vírgulas, Revista Municipal de Cultura, Câmara Municipal de Aveiro, 1, nº3, 21. 5. Picoto, José Carlos (1980) 'Fernando Lopes-Graça' in The New Grove, vol. 11. London: Macmillan, 224-225.

Clélia Iruzun and Ernesto Lecuona

Clélia Iruzun and her colleague from Lorelt, Odaline de la Martinez have the happy knack of introducing original programs for their concerts and CDs. They entertained us last year at the La Linea festival on the Southbank, and arising from this released the CD, Lecuona: Ernesto and Ernestina (Lorelt LNT119), featuring some of Clélia's most inspired interpretations to date. The disc is imaginatively programmed and includes some old favourites, mixed in with some rediscoveries and some songs by Ernesto's sister, which are really worth hearing. The music is played with unfailing charm and the flowing melodies rarely sound better; clearly this is music close to Clélia's heart and she kindly agreed to talk with me about the project. Ray Picot: Were your interpretations influenced by the composer's recordings of his music? Clélia Iruzun: Lecuona was a great pianist and listening to him perform his compositions was very enlightening. The melodies flowing with such naturalness and his pianistic control making everything sound so easy gave me an idea of the style I should aim for. Being Brazilian also made me try to learn as much as possible about Cuban music, its rhythms and characteristics and nobody could be a better guide than Lecuona's playing. RP: It must be a challenge to successfully balance so many sugar-coated pieces on a disc, without it palling? CI: I tried to balance his most structure compositions such as the two cycles Andalucia Suite and the Suite of Afro-Cuban Dances with a selection of Waltzes and Songs so that the CD didn't become a succession of "lovely" tunes lasting two minutes each. The Waltzes are salon pieces of extreme good taste. The songs are so famous that they belong to a special category, I think, of eternal tunes that will always be welcome to any listener. The two Ernestina's Songs again have very strong popular appeal and in my opinion the two I chose sounded good enough on the piano alone to be recorded. RP: How did you select Ernestina's pieces, when they are virtually unknown? CI: When I started researching the repertoire for the CD Odaline de la Martinez, director of Lorelt and the producer of the CD, asked me to see if I could find some songs by Ernestina as well because being Cuban she knew that she had also been a good composer in her own right. I didn't know that I was going to embark on a very long and difficult search.I tried to find her songs everywhere without any success until I contacted Florida University and then the Oficina Cultural in Cuba. In Florida they directed me to Cristobal Diaz, a music collector, in Puerto Rico who very kindly sent me some songs by Ernestina and then I received some more from Oficina Cultural in Cuba. RP: What piece do you return to most often, and why? CI: I love performing Suite Andalucia and I have played it in such diverse places like Europe, Brazil and China with great public enthusiasm. I also play some Dances from the Afro-Cuban Suite such as Danza Lucumi and La Comparsa very often and more recently I tried the arrangement of Always in my heart is some concerts with success. I enjoy playing these pieces because I can relate to them in almost the same way I relate to Brazilian music and my favourite composers such as Mozart and Chopin. RP: Did your view of the composer alter much after researching/recording? CI: The process of studying and recording Lecuona's music has definitely deepened my understanding of Lecuona's musical legacy. He is a unique composer because he coveys the Cuban soul into a musical message with clarity and strength. All the irresistible melodies and rhythms that he created, within a solid structure, keep his music alive. RP: Why do you think that this lighter music, like some of Gershwin's, transcends the time in which it was written? CI: When I go to a concert, to a play or an art gallery I always ask myself if I would like to hear that music or performer, see that play or view that painting again. It must be a very instinctive way of judging the arts but after all the analytic side of our minds work to help us making decisions but cannot make you enjoy a musical piece if it doesn't sound right in our ears. I think that any form of art either classical or popular can have a phase of success and disappear in time but some do stay alive for generations and that is the difference of the "fashion" composer and the great one. Lecuona had of course the mark of greatness and despite not aiming at writing symphonies or sonatas he created art that is genuine and powerful and above all music that people will want to hear again. RP: It must be great to be able to record what you love playing. Something you can only really achieve in a relationship with all the people at Lorelt. CI: Odaline de la Martinez deserves a lot of praise for her work with Lorelt and it is always a great pleasure and honour to work with such a wonderful musician. She guided me in my search for a genuine Cuban style of the music of Lecuona. We both believed that Lecuona's piano music could have a new recording with a carefully selected choice of music from his vast catalogue that showed his diversity and greatness.

After the concert: in conversation with Patrice Jegou

Following the superb London debut by Canadian mezzo-soprano Patrice Jegou, for ILAMS on 6 September, Ray Picot was a able to grab a few moments in the increasingly busy schedule. Ray Picot: What attracted you to the Latin-Hispanic repertoire as this is quite a specialised area from the viewpoint of an English-speaking singer? Patrice Jegou: I am not sure I can pinpoint what attracted me to the Latin-Hispanic repertoire. I think it has something to do with the often earthy, rustic quality of Latin-Hispanic folk songs which have been set by classical composers. The texts are as important as the music for me and my Spanish and Portuguese repertoire certainly covers the gamut of emotions and ideas: everything from charming, frivolous alliteration based songs, to profound, abstract, and even quasi-political poetic settings. My first foray into the Latin-Hispanic art song repertoire was as an undergraduate student in Canada. I was asked to perform some solo pieces with classical guitarist Guillermo Serpas - a fellow student hailing from El Salvador - to augment a European choir tour. These were rather standard folk songs by Fernando Sor and one of his contemporaries, and the pieces were quite well received. As a child I spent nearly three years growing up in Estoril, Portugal. When we returned to Canada I recall listening to one of my mother's Fado recordings over and over again and not being able to get enough of this wonderful music. I loved the power of the Fado singer's voice, and although I was too young to understand the text, and ultimately the context of the songs, they moved me even then. When I did my master's degree in Tennessee I decided that my thesis project would focus on the settings of folk songs by Dvorak, de Falla, and Ravel, and a somewhat obscure aria from an originally unfinished Mussorgsky folk opera. I performed a song cycle by each of the aforementioned composers, and the aria by Mussorgsky. This included the well-known "Siete Canciones Populares Espanolas" by de Falla. I hired an excellent Brazilian classical and flamenco guitarist in Nashville and admit that I particularly enjoyed performing the cycle with the guitar accompaniment. In my former career as a professional figure skater I also had Spanish "in my ear" so to speak. I remember In 1992 when I worked in Mexico, I was a skating showgirl in the traveling ice-show "Hollywood On Ice". Whilst touring Mexico I picked up a fair bit of the Spanish language, and became somewhat acquainted with Mexican and Chicano/a culture. Further, there was a speciality act in the ice show which featured five Argentinian gouchos. They were musicians and acrobats who specialized in juggling and extraordinary lasso dances. Since the cast of the show was quite close, I got to know the gouchos fairly well and gained a glimpse into their unique heritage. They frequently hosted large outdoor bar-b-que's where they sang Argentinian folk songs around the bonfire. RP: These are very vivid recollections. What have you been doing more recently to enhance your Hispanic connectivity? PJ: In May 2005 I was invited to give a recital and master classes at Universidad Veracruzana in Xalapa, Mexico. Working with the students and the wonderful Mexican pianist Aldo Tercero helped refresh my ear, and even my spirit! As you know, in July 2005 I went to Peru to compete in the competition in Trujillo. Part of the mandatory repertoire for those who made it to the final round of competition included performing an art-song by a Peruvian composer. I was sent a somewhat musically sophisticated atonal piece. The poet was a well-known Peruvian symbolist and abstract poet. In the semi-final round I also performed a Spanish art-song by Granados according to competition requirements. Again, this refreshed my ear. After the competition in Peru I travelled to Argentina where I gave several master classes at Universidad Nacional de Cordoba. In July this year I travelled to Spain to record a CD on the Zouma record label with Galician pianist Cristina Pato entitled "Desde Rusa hasta Brasil: Canciones Populares de Espana y Latinoamerica Para Voz y Piano." We followed up the recording sessions with a recital at the Monastario de San Salvador in Celanova. After two and a half weeks in Spain, you can imagine what I must have gleaned from my surroundings! Finally, just last month (August 2006) I was invited back to Mexico where I taught master classes and individual lessons at the I Academia Internacional de Moesica Vocal at the Espacio Cultural Metropolitano in the city of Tampico. Again, all of my Spanish language resources were pushed to the limit! Working with Mexican students, and my wonderful colleagues there, only bolstered my knowledge of Mexican culture and the Spanish language in yet another unique accent. RP: As a Canadian I gather you also speak French. Does this influence you in any way? PJ: Definitely. In an officially bilingual nation, you can no doubt imagine the effects and benefits to a singer's ear of constantly hearing a Romance language. I like to learn things that are "off the beaten track" and difficult - I am somewhat a glutton for punishment in that way! RP: From the view-point of an English-speaker, winning the First Prize last year in Trujillo, must have been a great thrill. PJ: Winning the competition was certainly a thrill. I must admit though that there is nothing quite as intimidating as singing in Spanish to an all Spanish speaking audience! I don't even want to think about the scrutiny. RP: What are your plans for the near future? PJ: As you may know, I have completed the first year of my Doctor of Musical Arts degree. I am currently enrolled as a full-time student at Mason Gross School of the Arts (Rutgers University) in New Jersey, USA. You may know too that this school is in the metro New York area. For me this is an ideal situation. I am able to go into Philadelphia and New York City for auditions quite easily. I have at least another two years (more likely three) left in this degree. As for my immediate plans, on October 11 I am performing with Galician pianist, Cristina Pato, at the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute in New York City. There we will launch our CD and perform works by Shostakovich, Ginastera, Braga, and Montsalvatge: the same recital repertoire I performed with Anna (Rutowska-Schock) in London. On November 18 I travel to Montreal to perform in a gala concert for the laureates of the XIII Audition Lyrique Nationale des Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques, and then in December I perform the role of "Hannigail" in New York area based composer Mark Zuckerman's new chamber opera The Outlaw and the King.

Georgina Ginastera talks about her father, Alberto Ginastera.

My father used to say: 'In my opinion, to compose is to create an architecture. To put certain structures in order, and in value, considering the totality of its components. In music this order is constructed in time. Only when the work has unfolded, only then can one say that the composer has succeeded in creating that architecture'. I was wondering which would be the best way to face Alberto Ginastera's figure, considering that this Latin American composer that has left us all this wonderful music is also my father. Also, that all the different stages of his life and creative processes are also stages of my own life. I know that my first images of him are related to music, because when I was very young, maybe 3 years old, I would wake up in the middle of the night and I'd listen still half asleep, to the sound of his piano. Incessant chords or soft murmers, all of them part of the creative search that would then turn into his masterpieces: the Malambo, the sonatas, the cantatas, the operas... Years later, while I was a young woman living in Buenos Aires, and he was in Geneva, we kept an extensive correspondence, and in one of the letters he said, 'I'm always delayed with my work; I've begun the 2nd Cello Concerto, but I'm very slow to write as I'm a perfectionist. Everyone is waiting: the conductor to study it, the editors to copy it, and even myself here in front of the paper searching for every note'. And I think that each note is a piano note, a cello note, a harp note, the voices note...one of the many notes we listen to in each of his works. His music has been and still is my life's background, and a very strong bond with my father. I recall having been to Geneva for a month, a few days before his death, and finding a music paper on his hospital table, the same paper I had seen so many times before on his piano or his desk during my childhood and youth, I asked him, 'What are you writing?'. I asked him this, because he was very sick, but the passion for writing was still intact. The music paper contained the beginning of his fourth opera, 'Barrabas', which never saw the light. In another letter he said, 'I'm working again. It's a play called 'Popol-Vuh', commissioned by (Eugene) Ormandy. There are pages that take me 3 or 4 days; do you think it's too slow? Maybe not...for being the creation of the Maya world, with land coming out of the sea, the volcanos, the flood, the sounds of nature...' I think both of these letters lead to three central ideas about him. The first one being how difficult and hard the creative process is. Creating is working. It isn't just 'the inspiration that comes from above, a divine gift', even that is also a part of it. But art in general is something that is done with certain effort and also with pain. My father loved Kafka, (let us not forget that he wrote the 'Milena' Cantata using his texts) and he used to say: 'Art is for the artist, a suffering from which he gets free only to head down to a new suffering'. A second idea about me father's personality, was to be free from any political influence as a man, and freedom in terms of creation, as an artist. A very traumatic episode in his life happened to him with his second opera 'Bomarzo'. It had been released in Washington with great success, for both audience and critics. Its premiere should have taken place at the Colon Theatre in Buenos Aires that same year. Argentina's President at the time was also a member of the armed forces, which considered that the opera should not be seen because of its references to sex, magic and hallucination, so it was censored. My father reacted with a lot of determination and removed his whole repertoire from the theatre until his opera was played, which took place five years later. At that time he was not living in Buenos Aires anymore, but Geneva, and even though it was not a self-imposed exile, he did feel misunderstood and not respected in his own country. Nevertheless, his personality as a man was very different from that as a creator. He was not expansive, but he was very sociable. He loved life in general and enjoyed being with his friends. He loved nature. Once he wrote to me from Geneva: 'I woke up today and the day was cloudy, rainy, freezing cold...but it's summer in Argentina! Do you remember Pinamar? The sand and the warm night full of stars?' He really loved nature. Infact a very important part of his work was inspired by the almost desert-like Pampa images. He also enjoyed being at home with his family. My house during the 1960's was an artists' meeting point, the place where foreign visitors would stop by when they were in Buenos Aires. I remember having had Stravinsky at home, and even though I was very young at the time, I remember him as a small man, almost fragile...and I asked myself, how can such a small man create such powerful music? I also remember that I went into my house one day and I saw a strange cube in the hall, and at the same moment a man appeared and asked me, 'What are you looking at kid?' That man was a student my father had, Piazzolla the musician, and the cube was the box in which he kept his bandonean. Many years later we also became friends. Alberto Ginastera's personality as a professor was very different from that of him as a creator, because he enjoyed his students. They would also come home, and they would end their nights around the piano playing jazz or bossa nova. He was the Director of the Intituto di Tella, one ope the most important musical centres during the 1960's, where composers as well known as Messiaen and Dallapicola passed. These are some examples of advice he gave to his students: 'Don't forget that God reflects on nature; man reflects in art'. '...and accept with modesty, but at the same time with happiness, decision and joy, the fact that Art, music in this case, does not begin with us but it's something constant and eternally renewed. And that we take part of it in, just an infinitesimal proportion'. The third and last idea I would like to consider is that art is a transcending subject. My father was constantly thinking about his work and also about the conception of art. He used to say, 'Every work of art must be in the first place transcending. An artist must create for the future, fashion cannot dictate how vital a work of art must be'. He would always use Piccasso's 'Guernica' as an example, saying about it; 'That to really transcend, my aspiration is to compose a musical work that resembles the Guernica'. That desire of remaining in the future was the force that drove him to go to the most essential, the language of universality. People used to ask him; 'Maestro, what is it to succeed?' He answered, 'The moment of triumph, if one could ever speak of triumph, is going to be that day, 100 years after my death, in which my works will still be played. The only thing that the creator has in front of him is eternity'. (Taken from Georgina Ginastera's pre-concert talk at the Bechstein Room on 1st June, and published with her kind permission)

Some musical reflections: Christian Baldini in conversation with Ray Picot

The composer and conductor, Christian Baldini is an important new voice from Argentina. He has achieved considerable success in international competitions as well as receiving critical acclaim, which suggest his star is fast rising. His orchestral piece 'Latentes Santos Lugares' was given its World Première at the ILAMS' Ginastera Festival concert at St. Johns, Smith Square on 28 March. Following this he agreed to discuss a range of music-related topics, on which he holds forthright and interesting views as you will read. Ray Picot: First of all congratulations on the London premiere of 'Latentes Santos Lugares'. Did you get involved in the preparation of the piece or leave it to Matilda (Hofman) to decide on her interpretation? Christian Baldini: Thank you very much, it was indeed a big pleasure to finally hear my music come out of the paper prison into real life. As to the preparation, Matilda did a wonderful job. She is a very efficient and refined conductor and was very sensible during rehearsals, which helped enormously to solve some technical complications in the piece. I like other interpreters to unveil what there is in my music. I don't think there is a one and only possible version of a work. When you listen to different interpretations of a Beethoven symphony you can hopefully reach a point in which you can enjoy Roger Norrington as much as Herbert von Karajan, despite the temporal separation and the extreme stylistic differences. RP: Some say composers are the worst people to conduct their own works. Nevertheless, it can't be easy entrusting a new piece you've written to another, no matter how good they are. CB: I think it is important to point out a difference here: some composers are also conductors. Some others just aren't, and I think that's the point in which there might be troubles...Pierre Boulez is a fantastic conductor and I think no one could ever say he's a disaster conducting his own music...Stravinsky was on the other hand a poor conductor...I personally really enjoy the possibility of listening to my works filtered through the eyes of someone else, when they are conducting them, for example. RP: I understand that as a conductor you prefer to conduct other composer's music. Why is this? CB: There is so much wonderful music in the world! I'd rather spend my time in a rehearsal going into details with a Sibelius symphony than using that time teaching other people about my own music. I guess it is mainly a personal matter. Whenever I conduct my own music, I feel extremely over careful about not giving too much rehearsing time to my music in comparison to the rest of the works in the programme. And my music is hard to play...it needs a considerable amount of time. So I'd rather get rid of that psychological burden and let somebody else conduct my music as 'someone else's music'... RP: What three pieces would you most like to perform, that you haven't already conducted? CB: Three pieces? That is a very hard question! I guess a long list could start with Lontano, by Ligeti, Introduzione all'oscuro, by Sciarrino and Sibelius' Symphony No.2. I can't help it and I must say that I would also love to conduct 'The Magic Flute'... RP: Do you prefer to write music that has an impetus derived from literary or visual arts inspiration rather than being abstract? CB: First of all, I believe that absolute abstraction exists only in theory...every single abstraction is delimited by a person, who will imprint their own subjectivity into something 'pretty abstract', but never completely. It is usual for me to get musical ideas from other arts. That doesn't mean either that what I do with them musically will be something figurative... You can have as a starting point for a piece something figurative and very clear in your mind, or perhaps just a mood, a particular feeling...and then turn that into a much more abstract object..