NI 6122 Clara Rodríguez Clara Rodríguez VENEZUELA VENEZUELA Clara Rodríguez, piano NI 6122

LUISA ELENA PAESANO JUAN CARLOS NUÑEZ 1. Pajarillo (joropo) 3.02 14. Retrato de Ramón Delgado Palacios EVENCIO CASTELLANOS (waltz) 4.03 2. Mañanita caraqueña (waltz) 2.26 MODESTA BOR FEDERICO VOLLMER 15. Fuga 2.21 3. Jarro mocho (joropo) 2.47 MODESTA BOR “Clara Rodriguez is a poet of the piano” RAMON DELGADO PALACIOS 16. Juangriego (waltz) 2.44 Antonio Estévez, Composer 4. La Dulzura de tu rostro (waltz) 2.33 ANTONIO LAURO LUISA ELENA PAESANO 17. por derecho (joropo) 2.58 5. El porfiao (joropo) 1.29 RICARDO TERUEL “Clara Rodriguez plays the music from South FEDERICO VOLLMER 18. Destilado de vals 2.58 America like no other pianist, with a marvellous 6. El atravesado (waltz) 1.55 FRANCISCO DELFÍN PACHECO FEDERICO RUIZ 19. El cumaco de San Juan (merengue) 2.55 sense of phrasing, poetry and sparkling dynamism. 7. Aliseo (joropo) 3.04 LUIS LAGUNA This music belongs to her” MARIA LUISA ESCOBAR 20. Creo que te quiero (waltz) 5.38 8. Noche de luna en Altamira PEDRO ELIAS GUTIERREZ Arioso International, France (nocturne-waltz) 3.40 21. Alma llanera (joropo) 2.47 FEDERICO RUIZ PABLO CAMACARO 9. Zumba que zumba (joropo) 3.04 22. Don Luis (merengue) 2.26 “ There is not a single item on this well-filled MIGUEL ASTOR SIMON DIAZ disc that is less than captivating, and most are 10. Adriana (waltz) 3.19 23. Caballo viejo (pasaje llanero) 3.22 PABLO CAMACARO MANUEL YANEZ beautiful precious gems.” 11. Diversión (ritmo orquídea) 2.31 24. Viajera del río (waltz) 3.48 Jerry Dubins Fanfare Magazine ANTONIO LAURO HERACLIO FERNANDEZ 12. Canción 3.34 25. El Diablo suelto (waltz-joropo) 1.57 ANTONIO LAURO 13. Vals criollo 2.57 Total time 74:24 Recorded at: Wyastone Concert Hall, Monmouth, UK on 1 & 2 February 2010 Engineer: Michael Ponder • General production: Clara Rodríguez Design: www.doubletakedesign.co.uk • Cover: Carlos David • Photography: Antolín Sánchez © & P 2010 Wyastone Estate Limited 2 www.wyastone.co.uk 15 won a scholarship to come to he Royal College of Music of London and I spent a year at the Junior The reasons an artist might have to record a CD may obey to a number of circumstances, in this case Department (where I now teach) and six at the senior. There I met a fairy of the piano, she had met it causes me great joy and it also seems to be the natural sequence to my previous CDs of Venezuelan Ravel when she was in her teens, she had also had Rachmaninov amongst her close acquaintances, she composers Moisés Moleiro, Teresa Carreño and Federico Ruiz was sweet, very intelligent and had the highest standards in piano playing I have ever come across. Her Dilemmas occur though when the repertoire is so vast, beautiful, interesting and close to my heart. name: Phyllis Sellick. Paul Badura-Skoda, Regina Smendzianka and Niel Immelman have also inspired There is an intimate connection with the music chosen for this recording for instance, most of the pieces me with their knowledge of piano playing. by living composers and arrangers, have been handed down to me by the creators themselves and if I Travelling to play concerts is a fantastic experience but it can also be a bit daunting; the music you play delve into those personal childhood connections, my mother studied the piano with Moisés Moleiro, and love in your house might not be what people of different cultures might like, or so I used to think. at home there was an LP of Teresa Carreño playing Liszt and Chopin that we used to listen to as well Going to European countries, India, Tunisia, Morocco, Syria, Egypt to play mixtures of the traditional as one by Evencio Castellanos playing Venezuelan waltzes that would fill the air of the sunny house in European and Venezuelan music used to worry me a little but now I know that people everywhere are . Later on I met Federico Ruiz who has written for me some of the most beautiful pieces in eager and happy to receive it. I enjoy performing recitals on my own, as well as a soloist with orchestra, the world, including a Piano Concerto, and with whom I have had for many years a permanent and with the incredibly musical El ensemble, with actors Karin Fernald and Alberto Rowinski in fluid communication. productions of our own: “Liszt in petticoats” (dedicated to Teresa Carreño) and “Con-cierto humor”. I have infinite respect and admiration for the humility, ethics and real passionate work thatthe I have enjoyed recording my five Venezuelan music CDs, but also it was very fulfilling recording a CD generations of musicians here represented have had; they of course, have created the Venezuelan music- of late piano music by Chopin and the piano music by Ernesto Lecuona. There are CDs of music by idiom. A friend was telling me that we always seem to be in a party mood; it is true that Venezuelans are Rachmaninov, Liszt and Mediterranean music on the pipeline. perhaps the happiest people I have met; perhaps it is in the genes; perhaps it is due to the lovely whether or not going through terrible world wars; I cannot explain it. I can only say that the music represented Another of the activities I have got used to doing now is participating in interviews on the radio; the here can paint a picture of the country but it is only a detail of it. programme In Tune on BBC 3 is one of the more nerve racking ones to do because one plays and talks live on it. The last one I did was particularly beautiful because the other person invited was the lovely There are many topics to write about in relation to this CD, all to do with Venezuelan tradition: the style mezzo-soprano Sophie Van Otter. of piano playing, history of the different genres here present: the waltz, the joropo and the merengue; how this music has evolved in the course of time and interestingly how it is still very much present in Between 1993 and 1998 I founded and directed a Music Festival in Caracas at the Teatro San Martín the today’s generations. which was very rewarding because it was wonderful to see a project come to life in an area of Caracas where before there had not been any music. Since I am a pianist I would like to say that there have been some fantastic and important Venezuelan pianists that have trained to the highest standards in different European and Venezuelan styles. I have to In London I have played a dozen solo recitals at Southbank Centre, a few others at the Wigmore and a start with Evencio Castellanos because he was probably the first person to put in one disc a collection of number of concertos at St. John’s Smith Square, including Ravel in G, Rach 3, Nights in the Gardens of the most memorable Venezuelan waltzes from the 19th century, in such an elegant way that the collectivity Spain and Federico Ruiz’s Second piano concerto which you can hear on youtube. grew accustomed to listening to this music played beautifully. Unfortunately I do not think that there are any recordings of other great piano personalities such as Ramón Delgado Palacios, Federico Vollmer,

14 3 Rogerio Caraballo, Rafael Saumell, Heraclio Fernández, Salvador Llamozas or Joaquin Silva Díaz to Creo que te quiero (waltz) by Luis Laguna (1926-1984) name but a few, the technology was simply not there in the mid 19th and beginning of the 20th Centuries Self -taught guitarist Luis Laguna composed some of the most memorable and popular songs in the in Venezuela. EL Cojo Ilustrado, El Albúm Lírico and La Lira Venezolana were newspapers and literary Venezuelan repertoire. He created the urban merengue in the 70’s by including harmonies taken from supplements that published the most popular waltzes by the former composers. Bossa Nova. He founded the group Venezuela cuatro, an ensemble that reunited fine musicians such as Eliezer Guzmán, Carlos Laguna and Henry Martínez with whom he performed extensively in the Then I would like to say that Guiomar Narváez who started me on the piano, has been a big influence country. Pieces such as “Un heladero con clase”, “El Saltarín” and “Serenata” have also gained great on my playing and preoccupation with the Venezuelan piano music. Tchek- Venezuelan pianist Gerty popularity and have been performed by popular and classical musicians. He was born in Guacara Hass sculpted her style in Caracas and in Vienna she studied with Richard Hauser but her love for ( State) in 1926 and died in Maracay ( State) in 1984. Venezuelan pianism has always accompanied her. The Venezuelan piano style should have fine pedaling, light-finger work and steely rhythmic sense for the joropos; genuine cantabile for the waltzes and a El cumaco de San Juan (merengue) by Francisco Delfín Pacheco graceful sense of syncopation for the merengues. Francisco Delfín Pacheco was a popular musician from Caracas born at the beginning of the 20th century. He belonged to spontaneous ensembles known as “Ventetú” that used to get together in the Guitarist John Williams who advocates Venezuelan music and who studied with Alirio Díaz talks about Esquina de Gradillas in Caracas from where they would be hired to play in weddings and balls. He was how to interpret this music in a way that beautifully rounds it up: also known as a “cañonero” musician; these were called thus because a “canon” used to be sounded “Listen to it with two rhythms going simultaneously - a six-eight over a three-four. To really play this, at the beginning of performances in parties where merengues would be played. He was the creator you need to do the African thing - move your body with the complex pulse. It’s no good tapping your of another very famous parody waltz called La Ruperta. The piano version I play of this very famous feet like a European. There’s an European influence here, but the guts of it is Indian plus African.’ merengue is by Pablo Camacaro. Venezuela is the result of that mixture of cultures and feelings, as the listener of this CD will discover. With special thanks to the ongoing support of Fundación Luis Bertrand y Nelly Soux, and to Maria The waltz arrived to Venezuela in the 19th century from Paris and Vienna and the composers made it Teresa Novo and Eduardo Lecuna for their help. into a vernacular genre by adding a special and distinctive syncopation in the accompaniment, usually Clara Rodriguez on the left hand. There are two types of Venezuelan waltzes, the salon one, played mainly on the piano About myself to which people danced and for which the composers wrote scores, and the one composed and played I was born in Caracas from art- sensitive parents. My father was a polemic writer who had a not too traditionally in ensembles with violin, cuatro (Venezuelan four stringed guitar), Spanish guitar, and easy a life, sadly he died in the year 2000 at 64. My mother raised my sister Valentina, fashion designer, double bass. The salon waltz usually comprises two sections; the middle section is usually in a faster and I in the best possible way a mother can: with lots of love and sacrificing her time taking me to music tempo. school from when I was 7. I had a great childhood, fantastic and fun training (although strict) at the The contemporary composers I have included here give us their vision of the Venezuelan waltz as Conservatorio Juan José Landaeta, which was located in a beautiful old villa in a posh residential area of a transformed, personal interpretation of the traditional 19th century one, with modern jazz -tinted the city. There were some good old grand pianos and a lovely smell of polished woods and exotic plants. harmonies but still very lyrical and nostalgic. There was a friendly atmosphere and apart from my very elegant piano teacher -Guiomar Narváez- my harmony teacher was composer Angel Sauce who also directed the place. When I was seventeen I

4 13 video art, sound poetry as well as works for voluntary audience participation. His creative work has The theories about the origins of the Venezuelan Merengue are as varied and polemic as the metric it received twenty national and three international awards. should be used to write it in. Its name could have derived from an African idiom such as muserengue or tamtam mouringue, and the actual from the Basque zorcico, the tango-merengue from Haiti Destilado de vals is a piece that combines jazzy harmonies with an interesting rhythmic bass under a or the fulía negra, an Afro-Venezuelan dance. In any case it is a typical, traditional, dance of Venezuela lyrical, very expressive melody. It is the second movement of his Sonatina Destilada (2006) and has nothing in common with the merengue from the Dominican Republic. There are recollections Retrato Solemnísimo de Ramón Delgado-Palacios by Juan Carlos Núñez (1947-) of its existence from the second half of the 19th century, including writings by German travelers such This piece belongs to a series of “solemn portraits” of Venezuelan waltz composers by Juan Carlo Núñez; as Carl Sachs and Friederich Gerstäcker who were struck by the interesting rhythm given by the five I gave its première in Caracas in 2004. Originally the score includes an accompaniment of a string beats per bar of the dance and how the accompaniment had to be shared “off the beat” by the left orchestra but this waltz works as well on solo piano. hand, in regular pulses. The merengue has constantly evolved and Venezuelan contemporary composers Juan Carlos talks metaphorically, he said to me something to the effect of him having gone up to the think that it has very interesting possibilities. The first songs all Venezuelan children learn to sing and 19th century Venezuelan loft and encountering in a trunk the diaries of Teresa de la Parra, Delgado- even accompany on the cuatro are the traditional “Compadre Pancho”, “Sancocho’e güesito” and “Los Palacios and other Romantic figures of Venezuelan music and literature to come up with his Anthology chimichimitos” all merengues. of Venezuelan Waltzes. Juan Carlos Núñez, composer, conductor and teacher, was born and trained in The Joropo is the national Venezuelan dance; it has its origins in the ancient Iberian music from the Caracas under Moisés Moleiro, Vicente Emilio Sojo, Inocente Carreño, and in Warsaw, with Stanislaw XVII and XVIII Centuries, such as the , jotas and malagueñas. These developed with the Wislocki. influence of centuries of Arabic occupation and then got transformed in Venezuela by the mixing of Núñez has written numerous symphonic and choral works such as the Misa de los Trópicos, Homenaje African and indigenous elements in the Orinoco Basin and its savannas. Tropical a Arvo Pärt, El de Damasco and Los Albores de la Revolución (dedicated to Francisco It is a vigorous, virtuoso experience involving singers, instrumentalists and dancers; it consists of strongly de ), also the opera Doña Bárbara – original text by Rómulo Gallegos, Seis de Simón accented rhythms and often makes use of but unlike the other Venezuelan , no single Díaz, a number of chamber music pieces and music for the theatre for which he has been awarded the rhythmic pattern is associated with it. Stampa of Milan in Italy. The basic instrumentation of the joropo is the Venezuelan harp, the cuatro and the maracas. Viajera del Río (waltz) by Manuel Yánez (1941-2000) In the case of the piano versions, we can speculate that we can imitate the sound of the harp or the Manuel Yánez was a self-taught mucisian and composer of about 150 Venezuelan pieces: songs, harpsichord, since the Baroque influence is strong. I think that once you discover the richness of the merengues criollos, valses, pasos dobles, , salsas, canciones patrióticas, joropos, . dance you are fascinated by its incredible speed and rhythmic vitality. “Pescador” () and “Viajera del río” have become very popular pieces and are often performed by singers and ensembles. The lyrics of Viajera del río are inspired by the aquatic flowerBora (Eichhornia Pajarillo (joropo) and El Pofíao (joropo) by Luisa Elena Paesano(1946-) crassipes) that travels down the Orinoco River. This song was first performed in 1999. Yánez was born Luisa Elena Paesano is the descendant of a long line of pianists who was born in Caracas in 1946. She in Ciudad Bolívar (Bolívar State) city where he spent all his life. Federico Ruiz wrote the version I play had her training at the Juan Manuel Olivares Music School with Gerty Hass on the piano and with on this recording. Angel Sauce on harmony and composition. Luisa Elena has won numerous composition prizes, amongst them: the Chopin Prize of Vienna of 1974, the 1998 Premio Nacionalista; the 1998 Gran Aguila of

12 5 Venezuela; the Sociedad de Autores y Compositores de Venezuela prize; and the 2005 Luis Alfonso Alma llanera (Joropo) by Pedro Elías Gutiérrez (1870-1954) Larrain composition prize. She has a busy concert career playing and recording CDs with her trio of Pedro Elías Gutiérrez was a talented musician who started his musical studies at the age of 15 very much Venezuelan music. against his parent’s wishes. At the age of 19 he premièred his first composition and graduated from the Escuela de Música José Ángel Lamas in Caracas. As a composer he wrote mainly and waltzes Mañanita caraqueña (waltz) by Evencio Castellanos (1915 - 1984) and gained recognition as conductor and a double bass player. His Misa Panamericana was premièred at A pianist, organist, teacher, composer and conductor, received his first lessons from his father, organist, Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. In 1914 he wrote the one act Alma llanera that contains Pablo Castellanos. In 1944 he graduated as teacher-composer, and was part of the first generation of the joropo of the same name. This piece made him one of the most famous composers of Latin America. Vicente Emilio Sojo’s students, whose compositions were oriented by the nationalist tendency. In 1946 The libretto was written by Rafael Bolívar Coronado and was premièred in September of the same year he was designated director of the University Choir of the Central University of Venezuela. Between in the Teatro Municipal de Caracas. This piano version is by Federico Ruiz. August 1947 and September 1949, he received a scholarship to New York City, to study piano with Carlos Buhler. Throughout his musical career, Castellanos obtained several awards and recognitions, Canción, Valse Criollo and Seis por derecho by ANTONIO LAURO (1917-1986) such as the Teresa Carreño Prize, by the Caracas Athenaeum in 1952, the National Prize of Music for When I was a young student at the Conservatorio Juan Jose Landaeta Maestro Lauro used to teach there his symphonic poem Santa Cruz de Pacairigua in 1954, and the National Prize of Music for the oratorio and I am glad to say that I have the loveliest memories of this generous and handsome man. He handed Tirano Aguirre in 1962.Castellanos died in Caracas in 1984 at the age of 68. me then his Suite Venezolana (1960) for piano to which the Song and the Valse Criollo belong. They are La Dulzura de tu Rostro (waltz) by Ramón Delgado-Palacios (1863-1902) the third and fourth movements of the Suite. It is a “Ravelian” piece, he told me. I would like to quote here an excerpt from a diary by Lucila Luciani (1882-1971) a pupil of Ramon Lauro was a pianist at the beginning of his musical career but after listening to Agustin Barrios Mangoré Delgado-Palacios. he decided to become a guitarist. He made of the guitar his medium, writing for it many works, all jewels of the standard guitar repertoire. Alirio Díaz and John Williams have extensively played his works. “Ramón Delgado Palacios was a notable pianist who was moreover a renowned teacher. He had studied in Paris (at the Conservatoire) with a pupil of Chopin. And besides playing the piano, he also played This version for piano of the Seis por derecho is by Clara Marcano. the organ with so much mastery that the Caraqueñas attended in great number the 10 a.m. mass at San Antonio Lauro was born in Ciudad Bolívar in 1917 and died in Caracas in 1986. Francisco Church, just to hear his playing. Destilado de Vals by Ricardo Teruel (1956-) He was also a composer and author of Venezuelan waltzes for two hands imitating four hands… Just Ricardo Teruel was born in Caracas in 1956. He teaches composition, orchestration and electronic after beginning lessons, I found myself studying six hours of piano plus two of violin. A miracle of the music at the UNEARTE University in Caracas. He also gives electronic music courses at the Simón Chopinianne “mechanism”, or a miracle of love? Delgado possessed a unique teaching method... One Bolívar Conservatory since 1983. had to hear him when he felt like playing: he had incredible strength in his small, woman-like hands; and a clearness, and admirable preciseness, in his technique. And he produced excellent effects with the He performs, mainly his own music, on the piano, synthesizers, English concertina and homemade use of the pedal. In short, he was what one called at that time a real artist. He composed for me a waltz instruments of his own design. entitled “Lucila”, each one of its parts was a reproduction of each of the syllables in my name. Extremely His works include symphonic music, a children’s opera, concertos, chamber music, solo piano music, beautiful and equally as difficult. He also dedicated to me a precious dance “Wo bist du?, describing songs, incidental music for dance, films and TV documentaries, electronic and experimental music,

6 11 The score of this waltz-joropo by Heraclio Fernández who also wrote a manual on piano techniques the great wittiness of a Creole girl. Finally, he also composed another waltz for a brass band, with my to accompany Venezuelan dances, was located and published by Alirio Diaz. The original composition name, which also was played in Bolivar Square, with big applauses and encores. He was the true artist was conceived as a waltz but with the passing of time and with the popularization of this music it has that was characterized in that romantic era: noble, generous, delicate, of high sentiments, and exquisite become a joropo. The version I play was done by the young pianist Pedro Toro. Fernández died in La sensitivity, almost un-healthy. The days of my lesson were nerve-wracking while waiting for the hour to Guaira in the same year as Franz Liszt, 1886. come. As the minutes approached I felt such a big anguish, fearing that the teacher couldn’t come for whatever inconvenience. And from my room that overlooked the street, I heard his approaching steps, Noche de luna en Altamira (vals-nocturno) by MARIA LUISA ESCOBAR (1903–1985) together with the beatings of my heart. This idyll, if one can call it this, was truncated, firstly from his Maria Luisa Escobar, composer, pianist and soprano was born in Valencia, Carabobo State, where she marriage to Rosario Silva Simonovis (also pianist and composer). Secondly, he was already very sick, received her musical tuition. In 1925 she produced a first album of herself singing her own songs, which through alcoholism and his willpower was too weak to resist it. With much sorrow in my soul, I wrote included “Canción de amor”, “La Golondrina” and “La verdadera española”. Her “Desesperanza” the following necrology: is one of the most beautiful love songs ever written in Latin America. In 1928 Escobar traveled to Paris where she studied with Arthur Honegger and Charles Koechlin. Her output also includes orchestral A crown to my piano teacher and inspired artist Ramon Delgado Palacios. pieces such as “Orquídeas azules”; the “Guaicaipuro” ballet; the “Concierto sentimental” for piano and Unique professor, I would like to knit you a crown, not any more of ephemeral and beautiful roses of orchestra. Maria Luisa Escobar worked tirelessly for the promotion of Venezuelan music and the rights which Febo’s ardent kiss whithers away or Zephyr’s blow would defoliate the leaves...My crown should of its authors; she also founded the Ateneo de Caracas arts complex. She died in Caracas in 1985. be immortal like your genius and undying like your memory, because it is made of tears: tears for the Don Luis (Merengue), Diversión (Ritmo orquídea) by PABLO CAMACARO (1947-) nation, tears for the music, tears for the friendship. Caracas, June 27, 1902. ” Pablo Camacaro was born in Barrio Nuevo in Carora – State – in 1947. He is a cuatro and Delgado Palacios wrote 45 piano pieces and 17 for orchestra, chamber music and vocal works. mandolin player and founder of the Gupo Raíces de Venezuela. He started to compose in 1962 and since then he has written about 500 pieces that comprise most of Venezuela’s popular genres. Diversión El atravesado (waltz) and Jarro mocho (joropo) by Federico Vollmer (1834-1901) is written with the syncopation of the orquídea rhythm – an invention of another popular Venezuelan Self-taught pianist and composer Federico Vollmer, was born in the central region of Venezuela in the musician, Hugo Blanco, whose hugely popular Moliendo café song is the first example of such a rhythm. 19th century. His father was German and his mother was Venezuelan and a cousin of Simón Bolívar, El Don Luis is a merengue dedicated to composer Luis Laguna. Libertador. He lived in the State of Aragua and was very much part of the musical scene of his time His compositions define the Venezuelan idiom of his time where people used to enjoy dancing in soirées. Caballo Viejo (pasaje llanero) by SIMON DIAZ (1928-) He composed many dances, polkas, mazurkas, 44 waltzes and some chamber music pieces. Jarro mocho, Simón Díaz was born in 1928 in Barbacoa, Aragua State. He is one of Venezuela’s most popular published in 1897 is one of the most popular Venezuelan pieces of all time. Miguel Astor wrote the figures as a composer, singer, comedian, TV presenter and theatre and film producer. As a composer versions I play. of the genre llanera he has had an important impact on figures such as Pina Bausch (Nur Du), Pedro Almodóvar (La flor de mi secreto), Mercedes Sosa, Joan Manuel Serrat, Cheo Feliciano, Plácido Aliseo and Zumba que zumba by Federico Ruiz (1948-) Domingo, Atahualpa Yupanqui, and many other classical and popular musicians and artists around the Federico Ruiz was born in Caracas in 1948 where he trained as an accordionist and as a composer at the world. Caballo viejo is a pasaje llanero - a slower kind of joropo that has also been performed by singers Escuela Superior de Música. He is a much loved composer with a vast compositional output containing like Julio Iglesias, Oscar D’León and The Gipsy Kings (Bamboleo). This version is by Pablo Camacaro. an interesting eclecticism regarding the techniques, forms and the different media he has used. Its 10 7 scope ranges from electro acoustic music to large orchestral works, taking in on the way numerous Miguel Astor was born in Caracas in 1958. He has taught in many of the conservatories and universities piano pieces, chamber pieces, and the music for many films and plays. Also a trumpet concerto, two and conducts several choirs in Caracas. piano concertos, two operas (Los Martirios de Colón and La mujer de espalda) Ruiz has also been the Fuga and Juangriego (waltz) by Modesta Bor (1926-1998) recipient of many prizes and awards. Composer, pianist, teacher and choir conductor Modesta Bor was born in Juangriego, Margarita Island, Aliseo-This piece was originally written for the film “Aire libre” (1995), by Luis Armando Roche. It in 1926 where she received her first music lessons; in 1942 she traveled to Caracas to continue piano contains elements of diverse types of Venezuelan joropo. In the film, the characterAliseo Carvallo, played and composition studies at the Escuela Superior de Música under Juan Bautista Plaza, Antonio Estévez, by Federico himself, plays it on the harpsichord to welcome scientists Humboldt and Bompland one Elena de Arrarte and Vicente Emilio Sojo. In 1960 she was accepted as a pupil of Aram Katchaturian in day in the 1800’s, as a sample of the new music from the South American land. Federico wrote part of the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire in Moscow. this piece in my house in Caracas. She wrote one violin and piano sonata (which I premiered in London with Claudio González), a Zumba que zumba was written between 2002 and 2003, it is based on folk motives, using as a viola and piano sonata, a great number of songs for soloists and for choirs, two piano suites, a Suite for reference the pattern of the zumba que zumba type of joropo, which has a particular harmonic sequence orchestra. She moved away from the nationalistic type of writing towards the 70s and 80s with works on which variations are created. He kindly dedicated it to me. such as “Imitación serial” for strings, the piano Sarcasmos, the Piano concerto, and amongst other works, “Acuarelas” for orchestra. Conversation with MIGUEL ASTOR (1958-) on his waltz and about himself as a composer “Adriana was composed in 1987, it is dedicated to my wife. About my style of composing, it depends The fugue in C that I have chosen for this CD belongs to a group of four fugues that I also premiered of the medium I happen to be writing for. I was a pupil of Yanis Ioannidis, Modesta Bor and Antonio in Caracas in 1997. Mastrogiovanni in Caracas, which results in a mixture with very diverse influences. The waltz is an early piece, sweet in character, reminiscent of Schumann but with a typical Venezuelan I find that the Venezuelan idiom suits the piano very well and I actually intend to continue along the lilt. lines of the Venezuelan piano tradition that naturally has a certain “neo- Baroque” touch. That does not El Diablo suelto (vals-joropo) by Heraclio Fernández (1851–1886) mean that I do not explore other avenues and languages. For instance I have used Indian rhythms in Heraclio Fernández, an accomplished pianist and composer was born in Maracaibo but from a very other pieces and I do not use directly Venezuelan music in my compositions for choir or chamber music. young age he resided in La Guaira with his father Manuel Maria Fernández, from whom he received I do not consider myself to be a “nationalist” composer because that was a period in music history long his first piano lessons. passed. I belong to the generation of “academically trained Venezuelan musicians” –although I detest that description- There is a love affair with Venezuelan music and we are obviously influenced by groups In Caracas he founded the newspaper El Zancudo, a weekly magazine whose first number circulated in such as El Cuarteto, Quinteto Contrapunto and so many other groups that have stemmed out of the 1876. In 1884 the biweekly magazine El Museo started publication; in each issue it published a piece success of emblematic works such as the Cantata by Antonio Estevez, Antonio Lauro’s Guitar of music of some composer of the day as well as musical literary works of a satirical-humoristic type, Concerto, Inocente Carreño’s Margariteña, and so many others. We did not feel the need of excluding Fernández signed with the name of El Zancudo ( The Mosquito) in that magazine. On Saint Joseph’s day Modernity, on the contrary we feel that it has been enriching, it has created an agreeable fusion between (March 19), 1888, El Diablo Suelto was published. the world of popular and the written classical music.”

8 9 VENEZUELA Clara Rodríguez NI 6122 1.57 2.26 2.47 3.22 3.48 74:24 (waltz-joropo) (waltz) (pasaje llanero) (joropo) (merengue) www.wyastone.co.uk www.wyastone.co.uk Gramophone General production: Clara RodríguezGeneral production: Clara Design: www.doubletakedesign.co.uk Design: on 1 & 2 Feb 2010 • Engineer: Michael Ponder on 1 & 2 Feb Alma llanera Don Luis Caballo viejo río del Viajera El Diablo suelto time Total GUTIERREZ PEDRO ELIAS SIMON DIAZ O CAMACARO PABL MANUEL YANEZ MANUEL HERACLIO FERNANDEZ essential of requisites - CHARM.” essential of requisites - CHARM.” Cover: Carlos David Photography: Antolín Sánchez Antolín Photography: David Carlos Cover: of alluring vivacity allied to that most allied of alluring vivacity Recorded at: Wyastone Concert Hall, Monmouth, Concert UK Hall, Wyastone at: Recorded “Clara Rodriguez“Clara provides performances

21. 22. 23. 24. 25.

5.38 3.34 2.57 2.21 4.03 2.31 2.58 2.58 2.44 2.55 (waltz) (waltz)

(joropo) 2010 Wyastone Estate Limited 2010 Wyastone Estate Limited 2010 Made in the UK by Wyastone EstateWyastone Limited Made in the UK by P © www.wyastone.co.uk (waltz) (ritmo orquídea) ONIO LAURO ONIO LAURO ONIO LAURO Creo que te quiero Vals criollo Vals Retrato de Ramón Delgado Palacios Fuga Juangriego Seis por derecho Destilado de vals El cumaco de San Juan Diversión Canción (merengue) ANT JUAN CARLOS NUÑEZ BOR MODESTA ESTA BOR MODESTA ANT O FRANCISCO DELFÍN PACHEC ANT O CAMACARO PABL LUIS LAGUNA 20. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 11. 12.

TERUEL rICARDO

1.29 3.02 3.04 1.55 2.33 2.47 3.19 3.40 3.04 2.26 VENEZUELA

a (joropo)

(waltz) (joropo) OR (joropo) (joropo) (waltz) (joropo) Piano Zumba que zumba Adriana Noche de luna en Altamira en Noche de luna El atravesado Aliseo La Dulzura de tu rostro La Dulzura de tu rostro Pajarillo Mañanita caraqueñ Jarro mocho (waltz) (nocturne-waltz) FEDERICO VOLLMER OS EVENCIO CASTELLAN IA LUISA ESCOBAR LUISA MARIA O PAESAN ELENA LUISA FEDERICO RUIZ (waltz) O PAESAN ELENA LUISA FEDERICO RUIZ UEL AST MIGUEL FEDERICO VOLLMER Clara Rodríguez Clara

10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. El porfiao 4. 3. 2. 1.

OS rAMON DELGADO PALACI

VENEZUELA Clara Rodríguez NI 6122