Rodrigo: Concierto Serenata / Concierto De Aranjuez

Description

Joaquín Rodrigo (1901-1999)Concierto serenata • Sones en la Giralda (Fantasía sevillana) • Concierto de AranjuezJoaquín Rodrigo was born on St Cecilia's Day, 22 November 1901, in Sagunto in the Spanish province of Valencia. In 1905 an outbreak of diphtheria impaired the young boy's vision and within a few years he lost every vestige of sight. From the age of seven he attended the School for the Blind in the city of Valencia where, his musical gifts becoming increasingly apparent, he played the violin and piano, the latter being his favourite. Later he took composition lessons with Francisco Antich Carbonell, the renowned organist and maestro. Having composed various apprentice pieces, Rodrigo was awarded an Honourable Commendation in 1925 in a national music competition for his orchestral work, Cinco piezas infantiles, first performed by the Valencia Symphony Orchestra two years later.In the autumn of 1927, the young composer, following the precedent of so many Spanish musicians, travelled to Paris to enroll as a student at the Ecole Normale de Musique. His teacher, Paul Dukas, one of the masters of early twentieth-century French music, profoundly influenced Rodrigo, especially in aspects of orchestration. In 1928, the French President awarded Manuel de Falla the National Legion of Honour and Rodrigo was invited to perform his piano pieces at the ceremony, thus extending his growing reputation as composer and virtuoso pianist.Around the same time, Rodrigo met Victoria Kamhi, a young Jewish pianist from Istanbul, the daughter of a businessman. Despite various difficulties, financial and otherwise, they fell in love and were eventually married in January 1933, but a year later hardship enforced months of separation, a dilemma resolved only when Rodrigo was awarded a prestigious Conde de Cartagena Scholarship, enabling him to study abroad and thus be reunited with his wife in Paris. In 1936 disaster struck again when the Spanish Civil War began and the scholarship fund was no longer available.Eventually Rodrigo and his wife were compelled to seek refuge for eighteen months at the Institute for the Blind in Freiburg. In 1938 they were able to make a brief visit to Spain for a summer school in Santander but, failing to secure appropriate employment, were forced to return once more to Paris. In 1939 Victoria suffered a miscarriage brought on by exhaustion and poverty. Yet somehow, despite all these tribulations, Rodrigo found the strength and will to keep on composing and during this time completed the Concierto de Aranjuez, a work which would ensure his international fame.Rodrigo returned to Spain a few days before the start of the Second World War and with the help of colleagues, including Manuel de Falla, was soon offered posts in broadcasting and the university sufficient to earn a living. After years of deprivation, the tide began to turn with the première in Barcelona of t