Spain Through Strings [Arriaga, Turina, Toldrá, Castelnuovo-Tedesco]

Featuring

František Souček
Petr Střížek
Petr Holman
Vladimír Fortin
Miriam Rodriguez Brüllová
Zemlinsky Quartet

Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga y Balzola
Joaquín Turina
Eduard Toldrà
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco

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Composition History

Joaquín Turina's "La Oración del Torero" (The Toreador's Prayer) was inspired by a bullfighting afternoon in Madrid, where he observed toreadors praying before facing death.

Composer Biography

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, an Italian composer, emigrated to the United States in 1939 due to the worsening political situation for Jews in Italy, and later composed film scores for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Composer Biography

Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga, a Spanish composer, died at the age of twenty, leaving behind his String Quartets, which are considered his masterpieces.

Critical Reception

Arriaga's String Quartets met with immediate approval, with critic Fetis writing that it was 'impossible to imagine anything more original, more elegant, or more purely written'.

Composition History

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Quintet for guitar and string quartet, Op.143, was composed in 1950 and dedicated to Andrés Segovia, a renowned guitarist, who premiered it in 1951.

Composition History

Arriaga's three String Quartets were published in 1824 when he was seventeen, with the title '1er Livre de Quatuors', suggesting he intended to write more.

Compositional Technique

Turina's "La Oración del Torero" was originally composed for a 'laúd' quartet, which refers to Spanish folkloric instruments similar to mandolins, not Renaissance or Baroque lutes.