Release Date: 01 August 2005
Label: Naxos / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313263424
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: ANTONIO JOSE
Description
Antonio Jose Martinez Palacios (1902-1936)Sinfonia castellana Evocaciones Suite ingenua El mozo de mulas SuiteA tragic prelude to the Second World War, the SpanishCivil War brought hundreds of thousands of personaltragedies, many of which touched the Spanish culturalworld. The execution of the poet Federico Garcia Lorcais well known, but among the victims of the conflict wasa promising young composer called Antonio JoseMartinez Palacios, known in musical circles simply asAntonio Jose.Martinez Palacios was born on 12th December1902 in Burgos, then a small city far removed from thecultural concerns of Madrid or Barcelona. Despite this,the young musician made a name for himself and beforehe was twenty was awarded a grant to continue hisstudies in Madrid. In 1920, at the age of eighteen,Martinez was appointed orchestral conductor of theTeatro de la Latina, although his work there was fairlylimited given that the theatre's repertoire consistedmainly of revues and other such light entertainment.Very little is known even today about his years inMadrid. As yet no light has been shed on his teachers orthe people or music that influenced him, but we do knowthat he began to write more ambitious works, such as theSonata castellana (Castilian Sonata, 1922), followed ayear later by the Sinfonia castellana (CastilianSymphony), his most formally advanced orchestralwork. Other piano works dating from these years includethe Danza de los bufones (Dance of the Jesters, 1920),the Poema de la juventud (Poem of Youth, 1924), thetitle by which his Fourth Sonata is known, and the Tresdanzas burgalesas (Three Dances from Burgos, 1924).He also began to direct a number of choral ensembles, avery popular form of music-making in 1920s Spain,choral singing frequently being linked to thedevelopment of workers' movements from the 1880sonwards.In 1925 and 1926, Antonio Jose travelled to Paris,and this was to have a definitive influence on his style.While his use of Castilian folk-music put him somewhatin the rearguard in comparison with some of the otherSpanish composers of his generation who wereexperimenting with neo-classicism, as exemplified byErnesto Halffter's Sinfonietta (1925), his affection forFrench music in general and impressionism in particularled him to follow Falla's example and stay closer toFrance than to the modernism of fin-de-si?¿cle Vienna.In 1925 Antonio Jose moved to Malaga to take upthe post of music teacher in a school whose pupils weredrawn from local high society. This was a period ofintense compositional work during which he produced afourth Danza burgalesa (1928) and the Sonata gallega(Galician Sonata, 1929). The key work of these yearswas, however, Evocaciones (Cuadros de danzacampesina) (Evocations: Country Dance Sketches,1926), the composition that brought him a certain degreeof national renown. Originally for piano, when it wasorchestrated in 1928 the work was made known by theMadrid Symphony Orchestra and its conductor EnriqueFernandez Arbos,
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Yaqi Yang; Margarita Parsamyan; Robynne Redmon; Minghao Liu; Frank Ragsdale; Kim Josephson; Kevin S
Vilmos Csikos; Olivier Lechardeur; Manon Lamaison
Tomas Cotik; Martingale Ensemble; Ken Selden
