Recent and Upcoming Literes Events Antonio Literes was one of the most popular composers of the Baroque period in Spain. His name waned with the passage of time, but fortunately, he is enjoying something of a revival in the 21st century. As we previously announced, the New York City Opera performed Literes’s opera Los Elementos this year. The production was advised by the Foundation for Iberian Music’s director, Antoni Pizà, who is the author of the only monograph available on Literes. Los Elementos was also performed this spring at Paschaliskerk in the Hague (Netherlands), by La Academia de los Nocturnos. In 2018, the Fundación Juan March will sponsor a production of Los Elementos at Madrid’s Teatro de la Zarzuela. Performances will be held the 9th–16th of April. (And don’t forget, Fundación Juan March will unveil its 2017-2018 season on September 19th, with a live stream on their website.) More than just Los Elementos has received attention. Two other works were performed at the Festival de Música Renacentista y Barroca de Vélez Blanco, on July 25: Miserere, recently edited and published by Antoni Pons, and the villancico Mortales, gozad. This villancico (a Spanish form of cantata) was unearthed in Guatemala Cathedral by none other than Antoni Pizà. It was performed at Iglesia Parroquial de Santiago by El Parnaso Español with coro Tomás Luis de Victoria. The ensemble Forma Antiqua recently performanced another cantata, Déjame, tirano dios, twice in Spain, first in Oviedo (on April 4) and then in Leon (May 5). An edition of all of Literes’s cantatas will soon be available. Further performances of these cantatas are expected in Australia, with additional performances TBD. Stay posted for details.
Granados Piano Sheet Music Now Available on Mobile There is some exciting news from Barcelona’s Editorial Boileau, which publishes Douglas Riva’s Granados editions. This past spring, they finally released their long-awaited Granados sheet music app, available for iPad, which makes available the complete piano works of Enrique Granados. Users may purchase individual pieces or the entire collection in-app. It’s a great app that allows you to make annotations directly on the digital scores and is compatible with Bluetooth devices for hands-free page turning. Every piece includes editorial notes, indicates a difficulty level, and has an audio preview available. Have a look at Editorial Boileau’s short video guide, which is available in English, Spanish, or Catalan.
Granados Conference Papers Published in Diagonal In a special issue dedicated to the Granados centennial celebration, Diagonal, the journal of the Center for Iberian and Latin American Music at the University of California, Riverside, has published selected papers from last year’s Granados conference (held March 10, 2016, at the Graduate Center). The issue (Vol. 2, no. 1, 2016) includes: “A la cubana: Enrique Granados’s Cuban Connection” de la Torre, Ricardo “Un Manuscrito Inédito con Cinco Marchas Militares de Enrique Granados” Curbelo González, Óliver; Martín Sanz, Cristina “Granados’s Piano Trio: Harbinger of Masterworks to Come” Kent, Adam “¿Granados no es un gran maestro? Análisis del discurso historiográfico sobre el compositor y el canon nacionalista español” Perandones, Miriam “Enrique Granados y el drama rural de Feliú y Codina en dos obras para escena en castellano: Miel de la Alcarria (1897) y María del Carmen (1898)” Quijano Axle, Mario Roger “New Approaches to Enrique Granados’ Pedagogical Methods and Pianistic Tradition: A Case Study of Valses poéticos op.43” Estrada Bascuñana, Carolina “Innovaciones pedagógicas en los métodos para el uso del pedal de Enrique Granados” Curbelo González, Óliver
Upcoming Gig from Resident Artist This Sunday, the 20th—the day before the solar eclipse!—Samuel Torjman Thomas will perform with Alon Nechustan at the City Winery, for their Klezmer Brunch. Their duo is called Traveling in Pairs. Brunch begins at 11 am; admission is $10. Samuel Torjman Thomas is the artistic director of our resident New York Andalus Ensemble. Asefa Music represents Thomas’s work apart from the full Andalus Ensemble, encompassing his lectures, publications, and other performances.
Angel Gil-Ordóñez in the Washington Post Angel Gil-Ordóñez was featured recently in both The Washington Post‘s daily and its magazine. Gil-Ordóñez is a long-time collaborator with the Foundation for Iberian Music, through his work as principal guest conductor of our resident Perspectives Ensemble, with artistic director Sato Moughalian. Gil-Ordóñez’s primary position is in Washington DC with the PostClassical Ensemble, which he directs and co-founded. Both ensembles have received numerous accolades. The May 25th edition of WaPo’s online magazine published an interview with Gil-Ordóñez, entitled, “What makes a good conductor? Harmony — and ‘authority through knowledge.’” In it, Gil-Ordóñez discusses some of his training and experience as a conductor. He was also featured in a June 29th article on activism in the arts, “Why artists become activists: it’s not only the election.” The article showcases numerous artists around the country and the ways in which they have used their art as activism. Gil-Ordóñez discusses PostClassical ensemble’s musical diplomacy, with the group’s executive director, Joe Horowitz.
Fundacion Juan March Live Stream, Sep 19 September 19th, Fundación Juan March Madrid will unveil its new season of events. This presentation will be live streamed on the Fundación website at 12 pm (Madrid time). One of the new events to be announced is the premiere of a re-discovered musical work by Tomás Bretón (Salamanca, 29 December 1850–Madrid, 2 December 1923), the Quinteto en sol mayor. It will be performed by Cuarteto Breton at Fundación March Madrid on February 21, 2018. The critical edition of this magnificent chamber piece is by María Luisa Martínez, a researcher at the Foundation for Iberian Music, and Antoni Pizà, the Foundation director.
Review of “La música invisible” in Madrid’s ABC Antoni Pizà has a new book review in Madrid’s nationally distributed newspaper, ABC. In the June 23 , issue, he gives a glowing review of La música invisible (Fórcola, 2017), by musicologist and ABC contributor, Stefano Russomanno. Subtitled “en busca de la armonía de las esferas,” La música invisible investigates 20 milestones in music history that exemplify Pythagoras’s music of the spheres, the invisible music that governs the universe. In his praise for the book, Pizà writes that Russomanno is “without pedantry” and writes “with elegance.” Read the full review here. You can get the book directly from Fórcola for €19,50 here. North American customers may also purchase it through Amazon.com. Want a preview? Read the foreword to La música invisible here!
Pollença Festival, August 2017 Mallorca’s Pollença Festival will soon begin is 56th year! The festival occurs each August in the town of Pollença and features a wide variety of classical performances at the beautiful cloister of the Convent of Santo Domingo. This international festival features symphonies, chamber ensembles, and early music consorts throughout the month of August. The Foundation for Iberian Music’s director, Antoni Pizà, has written program notes for many of this year’s concerts. You can view the program and purchase tickets at the festival website. Tickets range from 20-35 euros. (Photo credit: Festival Pollença)
Music Featured in 1935 Jazz Lecture In 1935, Spanish composer and musicologist Baltasar Samper presented a series of groundbreaking lectures on jazz at l’Ateneu Polytechnicum de Barcelona and Discòfils at Associacio Pro-Música. Antoni Pizà is preparing a print edition of these lectures from Samper’s own notes. As a teaser, we have prepared a YouTube playlist of all of the recordings referenced in Samper’s talks. Jazz recording began in 1917, but it did not become widespread until the late ’20s and early ’30s. The Hot Club of France was founded in 1931 and immediately helped to introduce a European audience to these North American records. The Hot Club of Barcelona was founded in 1935 and smaller local clubs spread throughout surrounding towns, in spite of the nascent Franco regime’s view that jazz was dangerous. You can learn a little more about the spread of jazz and blues through Catalonia in Jazz and Totalitarianism, ed. Bruce Johnson.