Spanish And Portuguese Orchestral Music

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Cat No: 8557207

Release Date: 09 January 2003

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 747313220724

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: Spanish and Portuguese Orchestral Music

Description
Spanish and Portuguese Orchestral MusicJuan Crisostomo Arriaga (1806-1826) Carlos Seixas(1704-1742) Jo?úo de Sousa Carvalho (1745-1798) Antonio Leal Moreira(1758-1819) Marcos Portugal (1762-1830)Juan Cristostomo Arriaga (1806-1826) was deserving of someof the most enthusiastic accolades (\The Spanish Mozart) after his prematuredeath, inasmuch as he has been neglected by a musical culture which onlystarted to look after its history and musical heritage at the end of thenineteenth century. The Symphony in D, composed during the last years of hislife, appears to have been performed for the first time in 1888, and its scorewas first published in 1933 with cuts and dubious changes. Such delay, for awork which is undoubtedly the most interesting of the very few orchestral worksof any significance by a Spanish composer of the first half of the nineteenthcentury, is astonishing, especially if we remember that Arriaga was unanimouslyacclaimed as a precocious genius during his lifetime. His premature deathcertainly gave rise to a myth which transformed him, as well as many others,into a cult figure, more as a result of the expectations which he took to hisgrave than by the works he created during his lifetime. Indeed, important worksby Arriaga are scant: three String Quartets (a rarity in the IberianPeninsula), the opera Los esclavos felices and the Symphony in D. Indeed, wecan apply to the Spanish musician the epitaph written for Schubert: "Here areburied great treasures and even larger expectations".Arriaga appears to us, today, as a talent of great promise,an excellent and intuitive musician who mastered his art even before he startedto study harmony and counterpoint with great teachers. His more importantworks, the Symphony in D and the Quartets, appear to be hesitating betweenMozart and the early Romanticism of Beethoven or Schubert, or even of Rossini.Arriaga studied in Paris (where he also died), showing an unusual talent for instrumentalmusic and for the serious learning of his trade (Arriaga was an excellentviolinist as well as an assistant to Fetis in counterpoint at the ParisConservatoire). The first works of the Spanish composer, such as his opera Losesclavos felices written when he was 13 years old, still show the influence ofthe Italian operatic style of his time. Los esclavos felices is a mixture ofthe Italian style, Mozart and Haydn, the late Baroque, the pure Classical styleand Rossini, notable in the staccato theme that opens the fast section of theoverture and its irresistible coda.The Symphony in D is a work of different dimensions andscope. If previous models still prevail (although less of Rossini and more ofBeethoven and Schubert), and if the orchestra is kept within the boundaries ofthe classical models (double winds and brass, timpani and strings),notwithstanding the title of Symphony for large orchestra, the form is stilltraditional. There is no doubt, however, that the emotional pathos, use of major/minorkeys and some details
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