Berlin / Leipzig   07-06-2010

Robert Schumann - www.foto-face.com

Robert Schumann – www.foto-face.com

On the 8th of June 2010 the Classical musical world will raise their glasses and celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great German composer , pianist, and influential music critic Robert Schumann!

Several events showcasing Schumann’s work in original places and settings will take place in Saxony -  a week long Schumann Festival will be held in Leipzig this September, the anniversary concert in the Leipziger Gewandhaus on June 3^rd  and 4^th – and several concerts at the Dresdner Philharmonie and the Staatskapelle Dresden are also planned.

Other German cities such as Dusseldorf, Bonn, Heidelberg and Frankfurt will also host concerts throughout this ‘Schumann year 2010’.

Even though he was one of the most influential and important of the late19th century romantic composers Robert Schumann did not become one of its most famous. He was eclipsed by his protege Johannes Brahms and even Felix Mendelsohn.

While not an iconoclast he is never the less often referred to as ‘a composers-composer’ – which if anything should be considered a complement.

Schumann had hoped to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist, having been assured by his teacher, Friedrich Wieck, that he could become the finest pianist in Europe after only a few years of study with him.

However  a hand injury prevented those hopes from being realized – he then decided to focus his musical energies on composition.

Schumann’s personal life was tumultuous and he became engaged to a 16 yr old but broke things off to pursue his relationship with the even younger 15 yr old daughter of his own piano master Wieck, namely Clara Wieck, later to be known to the world as the famous Clara Schumann. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Schumann]

This very same Clara -a great concert pianist in her own right – would as his wife produce many premieres of many of her husband’s works and later as his widow work her entire life to promote her late husband’s great musical legacy which was still not openly recognized.

Schumann’s published compositions were written exclusively for the piano until 1840; he later composed works for piano and orchestra; many lieder (songs for voice and piano); four symphonies; an opera; and other orchestral, choral, and chamber works.

His writings about music appeared mostly in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (“The New Journal for Music”), a Leipzig-based publication that he jointly founded.

Like other famous romantic cultural contemporaries, Robert Schumann died in early middle age; for the last two years of his life, after an attempted suicide, he was confined to a mental institution at his own request.

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For more information about Schumann festivities in Leipzig -

http://www.leipzig.de/int/en/kultur_gastonomie/veranstaltungen/

Berlin    25-04-2010

Paco de lucia www.foto-face.com

Paco de Lucía, born Francisco Sánchez Gómez (in Algeciras, Cádiz on December 21, 1947), is a Spanish composer and guitarist. Recognized as a virtuoso flamenco guitarist all over the world, he is a leading proponent of the Modern Flamenco style, and is one of the very few flamenco guitarists who has also successfully crossed over into other genres of music. He enjoys, and has been a successful musician in, many styles such as classical, jazz and world music. He is the winner of the 2004 Prince of Asturias Awards in Arts. 

Paco de Lucía was born Francisco Sánchez Gómez in Algeciras, a city in the province of Cádiz, at the southernmost tip of Spain directly in front of the Rock of Gibraltar. The youngest of the five children of flamenco guitarist Antonio Sánchez, and brother of flamenco singer Pepe de Lucía and flamenco guitarist Ramón de Algeciras, he adopted the stage name Paco de Lucía in honor of his Portuguese mother, Lucía Gomes. In Algeciras, and generally in Andalusia, it is a custom to name boys (especially if they have the same first name) by adding the mother’s name in order to properly identify them, such as “Paco de (la) Carmen,” “Paco de (la) María,” and so on.

In 1958, at age 11, he made his first public appearance on Radio Algeciras, and a year later was awarded a special prize in the Jerez flamenco competition. In 1961, he toured with the flamenco troupe of dancer José Greco. In 1964, he met Madrileño guitarist Ricardo Modrego with whom he recorded three albums: Dos guitarras flamencas, Dos guitarras flamencas en stereo, and Doce canciones de Federico García Lorca para guitarra. Between 1968 and 1977, he enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with fellow New Flamenco cantaor (Flamenco singer) Camarón de la Isla. The two recorded 10 albums together. His 1976 album Almoraima was a success and featured notable tracks such as Almoraima and Río Ancho, the latter track of which has been covered by other guitarists such as Al Di Meola.

In 1979, de Lucía, John McLaughlin, and Larry Coryell formed “The Guitar Trio” and together made a brief tour of Europe and released a video recorded at London’s Royal Albert Hall entitled Meeting of Spirits. Coryell was later replaced by Al Di Meola, and since 1981, the trio has recorded three albums. De Lucía’s own band, the Paco de Lucía Sextet (which includes his brothers Ramón and Pepe) released the first of its three albums that same year. He has released several albums encompassing both traditional and modern flamenco styles.

In 1995, he recorded with Bryan Adams the hit song and video “Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman” on the soundtrack for the movie Don Juan DeMarco. Through his wide discography he has advanced the technical and musical boundaries of his instrument. The University of Cadiz recognized de Lucía’s musical and cultural contributions by conferring on him the title of Doctor Honoris Causa on March 23, 2007.

Until asked to perform and interpret Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez in 1991, de Lucía was not proficient at reading musical notation. As a flamenco guitarist, he claimed in Paco de Lucía-Light and Shade: A Portrait that he gave greater emphasis to rhythmical accuracy in his interpretation of the Concierto at the expense of the perfect tone preferred by classical guitarists – which became a great success.

Since de Lucía was not able to read music, he worked on his interpretation of the concerto with Narciso Yepes.

[Biography from WIKIPEDIA]

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Biography  Series’ we present the twelth of the Spanish Composers for the new OTA-Berlin serviced apartments building opening in beginning of May 2010 at Metzer Strasse 8 in Berlin Mitte.

Berlin   24-04-2010

Victoria de los Ángeles www.foto-face.com

Victoria de los Ángeles (in Catalan, Victòria dels Àngels) (November 1, 1923 – January 15, 2005) was a Spanish Catalan   soprano and recitalist of the highest rank whose career began in the early 1940s and reached its height in the years from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s.

While she is not a ‘Spanish Composer’ as such - we felt that her importance to Spanish musical life in general and her unique place as a Spanish classical artist without equal in the repertoire she sang – makes her a member of this other august grouping of Spanish composers, whose works she often sang and promoted.

Therefore we felt it only fitting to including her in the OTA-Berlin new apartment building as a ‘Spanish Composer’ or ‘Spanish Musical Personality’ would perhaps be a more accurate description.

Victoria de los Ángeles must be counted among the finest singers of the past last century – with an astoundingly pure and beautiful voice that at  the height of her career in the 1950s and early 1960s had no equal –[ please don’t even think of mentioning Maria Callas – who could act better than she could sing].

Her voice was flexible as a full lyric soprano should be along with having enough weight [we are not referring to ‘weight’ as in kilos – Victoria de los Angeles remained an attractive and slim woman all of her life] and volume to sing both lyric and dramatic roles.

She also sang some roles more commonly associated with the mezzo-soprano repertoire. In her early years in particular she also sang a good deal of florid music. While she later made fewer appearances in opera, she continued to give recitals, focusing on mostly French and Spanish art songs, into the 1990s.

Born Victoria de los Ángeles López García into a humble family in Barcelona, she studied at the Barcelona Conservatory, graduating in just three years in 1941 at age 18. That year, she made her operatic debut as Mimì at the Liceu, but then resumed her musical studies.

In 1945, she returned to the Liceu to make her professional debut as the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro. After winning first prize in the Geneva International Competition in 1947, she sang Salud in Falla’s La vida breve with the BBC in London in 1948.

In 1949 she made her first appearance in the Paris Opéra as Marguerite. The following year, she debuted in Salzburg and Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Mimi, and the United States with a recital at Carnegie Hall. In March 1951, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in New York as Marguerite, singing with the company for ten years. In 1952 she became an instant favorite in Buenos Aires at the Teatro Colón as Madama Butterfly. She returned many times until 1979.

She made widely acclaimed recordings of La vida breve, La bohème, Pagliacci, and Madama Butterfly. The last three paired her with the outstanding tenor Jussi Björling.

She also sang at La Scala in Milan from 1950 to 1956. In 1957 she sang at the Vienna State Opera.

After making her debut at the Bayreuth Festival as Elisabeth in 1961, she devoted herself principally to a concert career. However, for the next twenty years, she continued to make occasional appearances in one of her favourite operatic roles, Bizet’s Carmen. She was among the first Spanish-born operatic singers to record the complete opera; she recorded it in 1958, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham using the recitatives added by Ernest Guiraud after Bizet’s death.

Though Carmen lay comfortably in her range, she nevertheless sang major soprano roles, best known of which were Donna Anna, Manon, Nedda, Desdemona, Cio-Cio-San, Mimi, Violetta and Mélisande. Like Montserrat Caballé, she was a true exponent of bel canto singing.

De los Ángeles performed regularly in song recitals with pianists Gerald Moore and Geoffrey Parsons, occasionally appearing with other eminent singers, such as Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

She sang at the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992, aged 68.

On January 15, 2005, she died of heart attack in Barcelona at age the age of 81.

[Biography based on information from WIKIPEDIA]

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As a continuation of our’ OTA-Berlin Constituency Blog Mini-Composer-Biography  Series’ we present the eleventh of the Spanish Composers for the new OTA-Berlin serviced apartments building opening in beginning of May 2010 at Metzer Strasse 8 in Berlin Mitte

Berlin   23-04-2010

Antonio Soler www.foto-face.com

Antonio Francisco Javier José Soler Ramos, usually known as Padre Antonio Soler, (3 December 1729 (baptized) – 20 December 1783) was a Spanish composer whose works span the late Baroque and early Classical music eras. He is best known for his keyboard sonatas, an important contribution to the harpsichord, fortepiano and organ repertoire.

Soler was born in Olot in the Catalan province of Girona. In 1736, when he was six, he entered the Escolania of the great Monastery of Montserrat where he studied with the resident maestro Benito Esteve and organist Benito Valls. In 1744 he was appointed organist at the Cathedral of La Seu d’Urgell and appointed as a subdeacon at the same time. Later in life, he held posts as chapel master in Lleida and El Escorial.

 Soler took Holy Orders at the age of 23 and his routine with the Hieronymite order near El Escorial, Madrid was a simple one for the next 31 years. His 20 hour days were filled with prayer, contemplation and farming – a simple and unadorned life. Yet, in these austere surroundings, Soler managed to produce more than 500 musical works. Amongst these were around 150 keyboard sonatas, many believed to have been written as sheet music for his pupil, the Infante Don Gabriel, a son of King Carlos III. Other pieces include Christmas villancicos^[1] and Latin church music including masses. No portraits of Soler are known to exist.

Padre Soler’s most celebrated works are his keyboard sonatas, which are comparable to those composed by Domenico Scarlatti (with whom he may have studied). However, Soler’s works are more varied in form than those of Scarlatti, with some pieces in three or four movements; Scarlatti’s pieces are in one or two movements. Fortunately, Soler’s sonatas were catalogued in the early twentieth century by Fr. Samuel Rubio and so all have ‘R’ numbers assigned.

Soler also composed concertos, quintets for organ and strings, motets,^[2] masses and pieces for solo organ. He also wrote a treatise, Llave de la modulación (“The Key to Modulation”, 1762).

Soler’s “Six Concertos for Two Organs” are still very much in the repertoire and have been often recorded. A fandango once attributed to Soler, and probably more often performed than any other work of his, is now thought by some to be of doubtful authorship.

[Biography based on information from WIKIPEDIA]

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As a continuation of our’ OTA-Berlin Constituency Blog Mini-Composer-Biography  Series’ we present the tenth of the Spanish Composers for the new OTA-Berlin serviced apartments building opening in beginning of May 2010 at Metzer Strasse 8 in Berlin Mitte

Berlin   23-04- 2010

Joaquín Turina www.foto-face.com

Joaquín Turina (December 9, 1882 – January 14, 1949) was a Spanish composer of classical music.

He was born in Seville Spain but his family origins come from northern Italy.

He studied in Seville as well as in Madrid. He lived in Paris from 1905 to 1914 where he took composition lessons from Vincent d’Indy at his Schola Cantorum, and studied the piano under Moritz Moszkowski.

While there, he got to know the impressionist composers Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy, like his fellow countryman and friend, Manuel de Falla.

Along with de Falla, he returned to Madrid in 1914, working as a composer, teacher and critic. In 1931 he was made professor of composition at the Madrid Royal Conservatory. Among his notable pupils are Vicente Asencio and Celedonio Romero.

His works include the operas Margot (1914) and Jardín de Oriente (1923), the Danzas fantásticas (1920, versions for piano and orchestra), La oración del torero (written first for a lute quartet, then string quartet, then string orchestra), chamber music, piano works, guitar pieces and songs.

 Much of his work shows the influence of traditional Andalusian music.

[Biography based on information from WIKIPEDIA]

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As a continuation of our’ OTA-Berlin Constituency Blog Mini-Composer-Biography  Series’ we present the ninth of the Spanish Composers for the new OTA-Berlin serviced apartments building opening in beginning of May 2010 at Metzer Strasse 8 in Berlin Mitte

Berlin  23-04-2010

Joaquín Rodrigo www.foto-face.com

Joaquín Rodrigo Vidre, Marqués de los Jardines de Aranjuez, (Sagunto (Spain) November 22, 1901 – Madrid (Spain) July 6, 1999), was a composer of classical music and a virtuoso pianist. Despite being nearly blind from an early age, he achieved great success. Rodrigo’s music counts among some of the most popular of the 20th century, particularly his Concierto de Aranjuez,  

He was born in Sagunto, Valencia, and almost completely lost his sight at the age of three after contracting diphtheria. He began to study solfège, piano and violin at the age of eight; harmony and composition from the age of sixteen. Although distinguished by having raised the Spanish guitar to dignity as a universal concert instrument and best known for his guitar music, he never mastered the instrument himself. He wrote his compositions in braille, which was transcribed for publication.

Rodrigo studied music under Francisco Antich in Valencia and under Paul Dukas at the École Normale de Musique in Paris. After briefly returning to Spain, he went to Paris again to study musicology, first under Maurice Emmanuel and then under André Pirro. His first published compositions^[1] date from 1940. In 1943 he received Spain’s National Prize for Orchestra for Cinco piezas infantiles (“Five Children’s Pieces”), based on his earlier composition of the same piece for two pianos, premiered by Ricardo Viñes. From 1947 Rodrigo was a professor of music history, holding the Manuel de Falla Chair of Music in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, at Complutense University of Madrid.

His most famous work, Concierto de Aranjuez, was composed in 1939 in Paris, and in later life he and his wife declared that it was written as a response to the miscarriage of their first child.^[2] It is a concerto for guitar and orchestra. The central adagio movement is one of the most recognizable in 20th century classical music, featuring the interplay of guitar with English horn. This movement was later adapted by the conductor Gil Evans for Miles Davis’ 1960 album Sketches of Spain. The Concerto was adapted by the composer himself for Harp and Orchestra and dedicated to Nicanor Zabaleta.

The success of this concerto led to commissions from a number of prominent soloists, including the flautist James Galway and the cellist Julian Lloyd Webber for whom Rodrigo composed his Concierto como un divertimento and Concierto serenata for Harp and Orchestra dedicated to Nicanor Zabaleta. In 1954 Rodrigo composed Fantasía para un gentilhombre at the request of Andrés Segovia. His Concierto Andaluz, for four guitars and orchestra, was commissioned by Celedonio Romero for himself and his three sons.

None of Rodrigo’s works, however, achieved the popular and critical success of the Concierto de Aranjuez and the Fantasia para un gentilhombre. These two works are very often paired in recordings.

In 1991, Rodrigo was raised to the nobility by King Juan Carlos; he was given the title Marqués de los Jardines de Aranjuez^[3] He received the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award—Spain’s highest civilian honor—in 1996. He was named Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 1998.

He married Victoria Kamhi, a Turkish-born pianist whom he had met in Paris, on 19 January 1933, in Valencia. Their daughter, Cecilia, was born 27 January 1941. Rodrigo died in 1999 in Madrid at the age of 97. Joaquín Rodrigo and his wife Victoria are buried at the cemetery at Aranjuez.

 [From Wikipedia]

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As a continuation of our’ OTA-Berlin Constituency Blog Mini-Composer-Biography  Series’ we present the fourth of the Spanish Composers for the new OTA-Berlin serviced apartments building opening in beginning of May 2010 at Metzer Strasse 8 in Berlin Mitte

Berlin    23-04-2010

SABICAS - www.Foto-Face.com

Sabicas , born as ‘Agustín Castellón Campos’ was a worldwide reknown  Flamenco guitarist who was born in 1912 in Pamplona, Spain and died in 14 April 1990 in New York.

Sabicas started playing guitar at the age of early age of fourn and made his public debut some years later at the artistic ‘mature’ age of six!

His early playing style was greatly influenced by Ramón Montoya and extensive collaboration with important ‘cantaores’  - Flamenco male singers- of the period helped him develop his unique personal style.

As most patriots who could, Sabicas left Spain in 1936 to avoid the fascist Franco and his ilk -going into exile in South America with the famous flamenco dancer Carmen Amaya.

They both toured together extensively with Sabicas himself later settling in New York City – he finally returned to native Spain until 1967 – but ended up back in New York where he died in 1990.

Sabicas was instrumental in the introduction of Flamenco to audiences outside of Spain and the Spanish-speaking world. He was probably best known for his technical skills: blazingly fast picados (scales), fast arpeggios, quality composition for the many forms of flamenco, and infallible rhythm, which was critical if playing with a dancer. Also, he was considered to have perfect pitch. “The finest technique around has got to be Sabicas, the Flamenco player,” famed guitarist Chet Atkins told Guitar Player Magazine in March 1972.

Sabicas was a tremendous genius of his day, not only with technique, but with major contributions, playing Flamenco previously unimaginable and giving new tools and possibilities for the solo instrument. He brought this art to concert halls and major theaters where all classes can enjoy.

Notable contemporary players such as Paco de Lucía, Tomatito, Serranito, Juan Manuel Cañizares, El Viejín, Vicente Amigo, Gerardo Nuñez and many more claim large influence from Sabicas’ music.

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About Flamenco

Flamenco is a style of music and dance which is considered part of the culture of Spain, although it is actually native to only one region: Andalusia.

Andalusian, Gypsy, Sephardic, Moorish and Byzantine influences have been detected in flamenco, often claimed to have coalesced around the time of the Reconquista in the 15th century. The origins of the term are unclear; the word flamenco itself was not recorded until the 18th century.

Flamenco is the music of the Andalusian gypsies and played in their social community. Andalusian people who grew up around gypsies were also accepted as “flamencos” (Paco de Lucía). Other regions, mainly Extremadura and Murcia, have also contributed to the development of flamenco, and many flamenco artists have been born outside Andalusia. Recently Latin American and especially Cuban influences have also contributed, as evidenced in the dances of “Ida y Vuelta”.

[Biographical details and Flamenco desciption from Wikipedia]

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As a continuation of our’ OTA-Berlin Constituency Blog Mini-Composer-Biography  Series’ we present the fourth of the Spanish Composers for the new OTA-Berlin serviced apartments building opening in beginning of May 2010 at Metzer Strasse 8 in Berlin Mitte

Pablo Sarasate www.foto-face.com

Pablo Sarasate was born in Pamplona, Spain, the son of an artillery bandmaster. He began studying the violin with his father at the age of five and later took lessons from a local teacher but his musical talent became evident early on and he appeared in his first public concert in La Coruña at the age of eight. His performance was well-received, and caught the attention of a wealthy patron who provided the funding for Sarasate to study under Manuel Rodríguez Saez in Madrid where he gained the favor of Queen Isabel II. Later, as his abilities developed, he was sent to study under Jean-Delphin Alard at the Paris Conservatoire at the age of twelve. There, at seventeen, Sarasate entered a competition for the Premier Prix and won his first prize, the Conservatoire’s highest honour.

Sarasate, who had been playing in public since childhood, made his Paris debut as a concert violinist in 1860, and played in London the following year. Over the course of his career, he toured many parts of the world, performing in Europe, North America, and South America. His artistic pre-eminence was due principally to the purity of his tone, which was free from any tendency towards the sentimental or rhapsodic, and to that impressive facility of execution that made him a virtuoso. In his early career, Sarasate performed mainly opera fantasies, most notably the Carmen Fantasy, and various other pieces that he had composed. The popularity of Sarasate’s Spanish flavor in his compositions is reflected in the work of his contemporaries. For example, the influences of Spanish music can be heard in such notable works as Édouard Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole which was dedicated to Sarasate, Georges Bizet’s Carmen, and Camille Saint-Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, written expressly for Sarasate and dedicated to him.

Of Sarasate’s idiomatic writing for his instrument, the playwright and music critic George Bernard Shaw once declared that though there were many composers of music for the violin, there were but few composers of violin music. Of Sarasate’s talents as performer and composer, Shaw said that he “left criticism gasping miles behind him.” Sarasate’s own compositions are mainly flashy show-pieces designed to demonstrate his exemplary technique (bias shown, needs reference). Perhaps the best known of his works is Zigeunerweisen (1878), a work for violin and orchestra. Another piece, the Carmen Fantasy (1883), also for violin and orchestra, makes use of themes from Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen. Probably his most performed encores are his two books of Spanish dances, brief pieces designed to please the listener’s ear and show off the performer’s talent. He also made arrangements of a number of other composers’ work for violin, and composed sets of variations on “potpourris” drawn from operas familiar to his audiences, such as his Fantasia on La forza del destino (his Opus 1), his “Souvenirs of Faust“, or his variations on themes from Die Zauberflöte. In 1904 he made a small number of recordings. In all his travels Sarasate returned to Pamplona each year for the San Fermín festival.[1]

Sarasate died in Biarritz, France on September 20, 1908 from chronic bronchitis. He bequeathed his violin, made by Antonio Stradivari in 1724, to the Musée de la Musique. The violin now bears his name as the Sarasate Stradivarius in his memory. His second Stradivari violin, the Boissier of 1713, is now owned by Real Conservatorio Superior de Música, Madrid. The Pablo Sarasate International Violin Competition is held in Madrid.

A number of works for violin were dedicated to Sarasate, including Henryk Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto No. 2, Édouard Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole, Camille Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3 and his Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy, and Alexander Mackenzie’s Pibroch Suite. Also inspired by Sarasate is William Potstock’s Souvenir de Sarasate

[Wikipedia]

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As a continuation of our’ OTA-Berlin Constituency Blog Mini-Composer-Biography  Series’ we present the fourth of the Spanish Composers for the new OTA-Berlin serviced apartments building opening in beginning of May 2010 at Metzer Strasse 8 in Berlin Mitte

PABLO CASALS - www.foto-face.com

‘Pau Casals i Defilló’ –better known throughout the world as ‘Pablo Casals’, was a Spanish Catalan cellist and conductor born on the 29^th December 1876 in Tarragona, Catalonia Spain.

Casals was initially taught by his stern father, a local parish organist and choirmaster who taught him in piano, song, violin, and organ – this he had in common with JS Bach.

When he was 4 he could already play the violin, piano and flute and at age 6 was giving a solo performances in public – this propensity for precociousness as the child prodigy he had in common with WA Mozart.

We are not completely sure when he had his first encounter with the cello but we do know that his father built him a crude home-made ‘cello’, using a gourd as a sounding box!

When Casals was 11, we do know for sure that he did hear a real cello which formed part of a performing group of traveling musicians – it was apparently love at first hearing – and it is said that from this point onwards to have decided to dedicate himself to completely to this instrument.

In 1888 he enrolled in the Escola Municipal de Música in Barcelona where he studied cello, theory, and piano.

At age 13, he discovered in a 2^nd hand shop some old music scores of Bach’s six suites for solo Cello. In the typical assiduous and professional style that would mark his further career, Casals spent the next thirteen years practising the score every day before daring to perform them in public for the first time.

He made prodigious progress as a cellist; on February 23, 1891 he gave a solo recital in Barcelona at the age of fourteen. He graduated from the Escola with honours five years later.

In 1893, another Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz heard him playing in a trio in a café and gave him a letter of introduction to the private secretary to María Cristina, the Queen Regent. Casals was asked to play at informal concerts in the palace, and was granted a royal stipend to study composition at the Conservatorio de Música y Declamación in Madrid with Víctor Mirecki. He also played in the newly organized Quartet Society.

In 1895 he went to Paris, where, having lost his stipend from Catalonia, he earned a living by playing second cello in the theater orchestra of the Folies Marigny. In 1896, he returned to Catalonia and received an appointment to the faculty of the Escola Municipal de Música in Barcelona. He was also appointed principal cellist in the orchestra of Barcelona’s opera house, the Liceu. In 1897 he appeared as soloist with the Madrid Symphony Orchestra, and was awarded the Order of Carlos III from the Queen. Who said royalty never did anything useful in the 19^th century!!

In 1899, Casals played at The Crystal Palace in London, and later for Queen Victoria at Osborne House, her summer residence, accompanied by Ernest Walker. On November 12 and December 17, 1899, he appeared as a soloist at Lamoureux Concerts in Paris, to great public and critical acclaim. He toured Spain and the Netherlands with the pianist Harold Bauer in 1900-1901; in 1901-1902 he made his first tour of the United States; and in 1903 toured South America.

On January 15, 1904, Casals was invited to play at the White House for President Theodore Roosevelt. On March 9 of that year he made his debut at Carnegie Hall in New York, playing Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote under the baton of the composer.

In 1914 Casals married the American socialite and singer Susan Metcalfe; they were separated in 1928, but did not divorce until 1957.

Back in Paris, Casals organized a trio with the pianist Alfred Cortot and the violinist Jacques Thibaud; they played concerts and made recordings until 1937. Casals also became interested in conducting, and in 1919 he organized, in Barcelona, the Orquesta Pau Casals and led its first concert on October 13, 1920. With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, the Orquesta Pau Casals ceased its activities.

Casals made many recordings during his long career, of solo, chamber, and orchestral music, but musically Casals will most likely be remembered most for his revival of the ‘Bach Suites for solo Cello ’ which he recorded from 1936 to 1939 and almost for ‘legitimizing’ generally the medium of cello-solo for the concert repertoire.

Casals was an ardent supporter of the Spanish Republican government and after the rise of the weakling coward Franco – with active support from Hitler and Mussolini, and silent acquiescence from most European governments with the exception of the left-wing government of France under Leon Blum and the then Soviet Union – in 1939, Casals vowed never to return to Spain until democracy had been restored and this he never did in his lifetime.

He settled in a French village near the Spanish frontier; between 1939 and 1942 he made sporadic appearances as a cellist in the unoccupied zone of southern France and in Switzerland.

So fierce was his opposition to the usurper-coward Franco that he even refused to appear in countries that recognized the fascist Spanish regime. One notable exception he did make in 1961 when he played at a special concert of chamber music in the White House   at the personal request of President Kennedy, whom he admired. The admiration was mutual and in 1963, Casals was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Throughout most of his professional career, he played on a cello that was   created by the Venetian luthier, Matteo Goffriller around 1700. It was acquired by Casals in 1913… He also played another cello by Goffriller dated 1710, and a Tononi of 1730.

[Some Biographical information copied directly from English Wikipedia]

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As a continuation of our’ OTA-Berlin Constituency Blog Mini-Composer-Biography  Series’ we present the fourth of the Spanish Composers for the new OTA-Berlin serviced apartments building opening in beginning of May 2010 at Metzer Strasse 8 in Berlin Mitte.

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Federico Mompou [www.foto-face.com

Federico Mompou was born in Barcelona in 1893 and lived a long and successful life as a Spanish Catalan composer and pianist - his best known works are for solo piano and his songs.

Mompou studied piano at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu in Barcelona before going to Paris in 1911 as a student to Ferdinand Motte-Lacroix .

Having a more introverted personality and being rather shy – both attributes not akin for a career in the limelight - he abandoned a solo piano career and chose instead to only compose.

In 1914 he left France and returned to Barcelona because of the ensuing war in Europe.

His pieces ‘Scènes d'enfants’  were so popular that an inspired French critic went so far as to say that Mompou was a rightful successor to Claude Debussy – that coming from a French critic was praise indeed!

France, the French success early on, and his many friends in Paris where the main reasons that saw him return there again in1921, where he remained a good 20 years until 1941.

Then again, as before in 1914, he had to escape the German occupation of Paris and departed for his native Catalunya.

 In 1957 he married the pianist Carmen Bravo; they had no children.

During his career Mompou received numerous awards, amongst them: Chevalier des arts et lettres (France), Premio Nacional de la Música (Spain), Doctor honoris causa, Universitat de Barcelona (1979); and Medalla d'Or de la Generalitat de Catalunya (1980).

In Barcelona he became a member of the ‘Royal Academy of San Jorge’ and as was his wont - lived quietly there until his death at the age of 94,  and is buried in Montjuïc Cemetery, in Barcelona.

Mompou is best known what in painting or in musical parlance passes as a’ miniaturist’, that is, someone who writes short improvisational music which   could best be described as refined or ‘delicate’ .

He preferred a incantatory and meditative sound – as best heard in his great masterpiece ‘Musica Callada’, or in English ‘Voice of Silence’ – which is a bit of a hard sell seeing as how it is in fact music!  It is loosely based on the mystic poetry of St. John of the Cross.

There are similarities in this piece with ‘Vingt regards sur l'enfant Jésus’ by the contemporary French composer Olivier Messiaen [1908 – 1992] – among the most influential figures in the music of the 20th century who was  respected universally for his achievement through a musical language that is intensely personal, emotional and deeply religious.  

His principal influences were French impressionism and Erik Satie, resulting in an intimate musical style in which musical development is minimized, and expression is concentrated into very small forms.

Mompou remained out of the mainstream and the limelight but remained an influence on his contemporaries and on musical Spain and France – his music will survive and has recently enjoyed a revival of sorts in France.

In 1957 he married the pianist Carmen Bravo; they had no children.

During his career Mompou received numerous awards, amongst them: Chevalier des arts et lettres (France), Premio Nacional de la Música (Spain), Doctor honoris causa, Universitat de Barcelona (1979); and Medalla d’Or de la Generalitat de Catalunya (1980).

In Barcelona he became a member of the ‘Royal Academy of San Jorge’ and as was his want – lived quietly there until his death at the age of 94,  and is buried in Montjuïc Cemetery, in Barcelona.

[Biography Sources include information from Wikipedia]

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 As a continuation of our  OTA-Berlin Constituency Blog ‘ Mini-Composer-Biography  Series’  we present the third of the Spanish Composers for the new OTA-Berlin serviced apartments building opening in beginning of May 2010 – Metzer Straße 8 in Berlin Mitte.