entreQuatre | Primavera de Praga 2017
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Primavera de Praga 2017

Flores Chaviano (Caibarién, 1946) es el guitarrista-compositor cubano más universal de su generación. Establecido en España desde 1981, Chaviano ha actuado en medio mundo y ha impulsado y participado en numerosos cursos de guitarra contemporánea. La música popular cubana ha estado presente en su obra desde sus comienzos, mezclándose con toda suerte de técnicas experimentales en relación con su instrumento. En 1984 escribió su primera obra para EntreQuatre cuando el grupo ni siquiera tenía nombre, su título: Entrequatre. Quiso el autor que esa obra primeriza se sumergiera en ese mundo sonoro, a la vez primitivo y lúdico, de la música afrocubana que tanto le cautiva. Ése es terreno musical en el que Chaviano, pertrechado de escalas pentatónicas y sonoridades rituales, se mueve como pocos. En esta obra llega a convertir al cuarteto de guitarras en un ensamble de tambores Batá con un intermedio lento y atmosférico rodeado de dos pasajes rítmicos, lúdicos y vertiginosos.

Javier Blanco (Langreo, 1977) es un compositor autodidacta cuya formación musical se ha basado en la práctica de músicas de todo tipo, desde el Heavy Metal hasta la de verbenas de fiesta de pueblo, pasando por el jazz, el folk o el rock. La síntesis creativa de este autor con esta mezcla tan singular no podía ser anodina: su música se mueve en todos los ámbitos, también el sinfónico en el que maneja con enorme destreza el lenguaje cinematográfico. Sin embargo, en Medina Fi Assahab se queda en la sonoridad camerística para utiliza con enorme eficacia la técnica minimalista. Con esos mimbres concibe una música efectista y descriptiva de una ciudad imposible, flotante, inundada de ecos también imposibles que consiguen materializar lo etéreo.

Leonardo Sánchez nació en Argentina en 1966 donde realiza la primera parte de sus estudios hasta obtener el título de Profesor de Guitarra. Lleva a cabo la segunda en París donde se asienta definitivamente. Obtiene allí la licenciatura en Musicología, y en 1990 obtiene el Primer Premio de Guitarra nivel de «Excelencia» en Hauts-de-Seine. Intérprete, compositor y arreglista, ha colaborado en diversos proyectos musicales en Argentina y en Europa junto a grandes figuras latinoamericanas como Orlando Trípodi, Osvaldo Piro, o Mercedes Sosa. Como compositor escribe para formaciones diversas, como banda sinfónica, conjunto de acordeones y mandolinas, bandoneón solista y, en este caso, cuarteto de guitarras. En Itinerario, y con cuatro danzas, desgrana los cuatro puntos cardinales de Argentina; se presentan aquí dos de ellos, opuestos, Norte, un huayno próximo a las sonoridades andinas, y Sur, una milonga impresionante que retrata su condición de antecesora del tango.

Miguel Matamoros (Santiago de Cuba 1894-1971) es una de las figuras más importantes de ese movimiento popular tan significativo de Latinoamérica como es la Trova Santiaguera. Su influencia en las músicas y los músicos populares de todo el continente es indudable, pero también en otros muchos ámbitos de la creación musical, tanto del jazz como de la música culta. Flores Chaviano llegó a conocer a Miguel Matamoros en Santiago en el que fue su primer destino como profesor de guitarra; allí se imbuyó de aquella música que marcaría desde entonces toda su obra. Lágrimas Negras es todo un monumento, una obra maestra de la creación popular, tanto en la letra como en la música, era cuestión de tiempo que Chaviano pensara una versión para EntreQuatre en la que desgrana todo su conocimiento del instrumento y sin desperdiciar ninguna de sus posibilidades sonoras. Un homenaje a uno de los grandes de la música popular que han propiciado que esas sonoridades entren por la puerta grande en las grandes salas de conciertos.

Federico Moreno Torroba (Madrid 1891-1982) es uno de los últimos grandes compositores de zarzuela. En sus comienzos respondió con presteza a los requerimientos de Andrés Segovia y escribió un buen número de obras que enriquecieron el repertorio moderno de la guitarra. En la década de los 70 del siglo pasado dedicó especial atención a la música para cuarteto de guitarras, en este caso por encargo de los Hermanos Romero. A parte del tan interesante como poco programado Concierto Ibérico para cuatro guitarras y orquesta, Torroba compuso 4 obras, todas interesantes, pero la más emblemática es sin duda Estampas, ocho pequeñas páginas que recorren diversos paisajes españoles; en este concierto se presenta una selección de cuatro que demuestran la eficacia descriptiva del autor, no exenta de sentido del humor.

El uruguayo Miguel del Águila (Montevideo, 1957), estudió en los tres conservatorios de su ciudad natal, trasladándose posteriormente en 1978 a Los Angeles y completando su formación el el Conservatorio Superior de Viena antes de regresar definitivamente a Estados Unidos, donde inició una exitosa carrera como pianista, compositor y director de su propia música. Presto es, originalmente, el movimiento final de un cuarteto de cuerda escrito en sus años de estudio académico en la capital del Prater, transcrito luego para cuarteto de guitarras. Basada sobre un módulo rítmico-armónico constante que se repite casi sin variación del primer compás al último como una especie de perpetuum mobile, las fuertes síncopas y la frecuente presencia de la métrica irregular construyen un discurso sin fisuras en que la motricidad y la isocronía se manifiestan como el elemento esencial: de una energía contagiosa, la pieza sugiere constantemente tanto el jazz como diversos ritmos latinoamericanos, explorando con pertinencia múltiples formas de ataque guitarrístico.

Alejandro Cardona (San José, 1959) es guitarrista, instrumento al que ha destinado obras importantes de su catálogo, en el que hay música de orquesta y de cámara. Alumno en Harvard, se estableció en México en 1982, regresando a Costa Rica tres años más tarde. Desdeñoso, tanto de las vanguardias europeas como del pseudouniversalismo de la globalización ideológica, Cardona —que confiesa su devoción por la figura y la obra de Silvestre Revueltas— ha estudiado ampliamente la música afrocaribeña, mexicana y centroamericana. La música de los indios y la de los rituales de santería (pero también las diferentes tradiciones criollas) están presentes en su obra. Cabalgando vientos arranca sobre ingrávidas pedales de armónicos de las que surge un desfile de girones melódico-rítmicos de músicas diversas, del blues al funky: se trata de evocaciones minúsculas no desarrolladas (pero perfectamente identificables), no de citas literales ni de la menor complacencia neo-folclorista. Si te rindes al viento puedes cabalgar en él: la frase de Toni Morrison que sirve de exordio a la partitura explica perfectamente la intención de esta pieza magistral que, al margen de todo anclaje tonal, atraviesa múltiples paisajes sin dejarse atrapar por ninguno de ellos, en una especie de viaje sobre un torbellino de incesante fuerza polirrítmica.

El madrileño Luis Barroso (1960) estudió en el conservatorio superior de su ciudad. Profesionalmente, forma parte como guitarrista de la prestigiosa Orquesta de laúdes Roberto Grandío y ha acompañado a afamados cantantes ligeros. El Concierto de Tierra Alta es un encargo del Grupo Entrequatre. Se trata de una obra de planteamiento tripartito tradicional compuesta en un estilo tonal que recrea numerosos elementos del flamenco, pero sin condescender con ninguna cita literal. Se trata, más bien, de una evocación que utiliza ritmos y escalas modales con gran libertad muy bien integrados. Los acordes por cuartas y los rasgueos guitarrísticos característicos están empleados con gran discrección, dentro de una concepción compositiva muy cuidadosa en que se resalta y explota, sobre todo, el valor cantable de los solistas: de ahí la ocasional importancia del contrapunto. El melodismo está especialmente desarrollado en el movimiento lento, de estructura ternaria, cuya sección central se basa en un juego de hemiolias que anticipa la fuerte componente rítmica del movimiento de cierre. De una escritura extremadamente diáfana y precisa, la mayor virtud de la obra es su total ausencia de pretenciosidad y su expresividad directa.

La sombra de la tierra, de Flores Chaviano, es el segundo encargo escrito para el grupo Entrequatre para este programa. Se trata de una especie de toccata que funciona por transformación constante de un motivo único: una célula de cuatro notas que contiene una cuarta, una segunda y una tercera menores que se permuta, invierte y transforma de todas las formas posibles con un rigor casi serial para, manteniendo el ostinato de una pulsación única sobre un pié rítmico de un compás (una célula y su inversión libre), extraer de tan parco material toda suerte de consecuencias que se despliegan entre ambos cuartetos tanto por duplicaciones e imitaciones como de manera antifonal o por ocasionales hoquetus: el ritmo inicialmente cuadrado se desnaturaliza paulatinamente por la irrupción de síncopas y hemiolias para, tras una vertiginosa sección en seisillos y con una incisividad rítmica mantenida y subyugante, transformarse de modo progresivo para evocar de manera fugaz tanto el jazz o el son como una suerte de tumbao en que la pieza desemboca en una conclusión jadeante.

Flores Chaviano (Caibarién, 1946) is the most universal Cuban guitarist-composer of his generation. Established in Spain since 1981, Chaviano has acted in half the world and has promoted and participated in numerous contemporary guitar courses. Cuban popular music has been present in his work since its inception, mixing with all sorts of experimental techniques in relation to his instrument. In 1984 he wrote his first work for EntreQuatre when the group did not even have name, its title: Entrequatre. The author wanted that first work to be immersed in that sonic world, at the same time primitive and playful, of the Afro-Cuban music that captivates him so much. This is musical terrain in which Chaviano, equipped with pentatonic scales and ritual sonorities, moves like few others. In this work he comes to convert the quartet of guitars into an ensemble of Batá drums with a slow and atmospheric intermission surrounded by two rhythmic passages, playful and vertiginous.

Javier Blanco (Langreo, 1977) is a self-taught composer whose musical training has been based on the practice of music of all kinds, from Heavy Metal to the party festivals, jazz, folk or rock. The creative synthesis of this author with this singular mixture could not be anodyne: his music moves in all fields, also the symphonic one in which he manages with enormous skill the cinematographic language. However, in Medina Fi Assahab stays in the camerística sonority to use with enormous efficiency the minimalist technique. With these mimbres he conceives an effective and descriptive music of an impossible city, floating, flooded with echoes also impossible that manage to materialize the ethereal.

Leonardo Sánchez was born in Argentina in 1966 where he performs the first part of his studies until obtaining the title of Professor of Guitar. It carries out the second one in Paris where it sits definitively. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Musicology, and in 1990 he obtained the First Guitar Award level of «Excellence» in Hauts-de-Seine. Interpreter, composer and arranger, he has collaborated in several musical projects in Argentina and in Europe with great Latin American figures like Orlando Trípodi, Osvaldo Piro, or Mercedes Sosa. As a composer he writes for various formations, such as symphonic band, ensemble of accordions and mandolins, solo bandoneon and, in this case, quartet of guitars. In Itinerary, and with four dances, it reveals the four cardinal points of Argentina; Are presented here two of them, opposite, North, a huayno near to the Andean sonorities, and South, an impressive milonga that portrays its condition of ancestor of the tango.

Miguel Matamoros (Santiago de Cuba 1894-1971) is one of the most important figures of this movement so significant of Latin America as is the Trova Santiaguera. His influence on popular music and musicians throughout the continent is undeniable, but also in many other areas of musical creation, both jazz and cultured music. Flores Chaviano came to know Miguel Matamoros in Santiago where he was his first destination as a guitar teacher; There he imbued himself with that music that would mark his entire work ever since. Lágrimas Negras is a monument, a masterpiece of popular creation, both in lyrics and in music, it was a matter of time before Chaviano thought of a version for EntreQuatre in which he used all his knowledge of the instrument and without wasting any of his Possibilities. A tribute to one of the greats of the popular music that have propitiated that those sonorities enter by the great door in the great concert halls.

Federico Moreno Torroba (Madrid 1891-1982) is one of the last great composers of zarzuela. In its beginnings it responded quickly to the requirements of Andrés Segovia and wrote a good number of works that enriched the modern repertoire of the guitar. In the 70’s of the last century dedicated special attention to music for quartet of guitars, in this case by order of Brothers Romero. As part of the interesting as a little programmed Concerto Ibérico for four guitars and orchestra, Torroba composed 4 works, all interesting, but the most emblematic is undoubtedly Estampas, eight small pages that cover different Spanish landscapes; In this concert is presented a selection of four that demonstrate the descriptive effectiveness of the author, not without a sense of humor.

The Uruguayan Miguel del Águila (Montevideo, 1957), studied in the three conservatories of his native city, moving later in 1978 to Los Angeles and completing its formation in the Superior Conservatory of Vienna before returning definitively to the United States, where it initiated a successful Career as a pianist, composer and director of his own music. Presto is, originally, the final movement of a string quartet written in his years of academic study in the capital of the Prater, transcribed later for quartet of guitars. Based on a constant rhythmic-harmonic modus that repeats almost without variation from the first compass to the last as a kind of perpetuum mobile, the strong syncopes and the frequent presence of the irregular metric construct a speech without fissures in which the motor and the isocronía Manifest as the essential element: of a contagious energy, the piece constantly suggests both jazz and various Latin American rhythms, exploring with pertinence multiple forms of guitar attack.

Alejandro Cardona (San José, 1959) is a guitarist, an instrument that has been used for important works in his catalog, in which there is orchestra and chamber music. A student at Harvard, he settled in Mexico in 1982, returning to Costa Rica three years later. Disdainful of both the European vanguards and the pseudouniversalism of ideological globalization, Cardona, who confesses his devotion to the figure and work of Silvestre Revueltas, has extensively studied Afro-Caribbean, Mexican and Central American music. The music of the Indians and the rituals of Santeria (but also the different Creole traditions) are present in his work. Riding the wind, it starts on weightless pedals of harmonics, from which there is a parade of melodic-rhythmic rhythms of diverse music, from the blues to the funky: these are evocations not developed but perfectly identifiable, not literal quotations or the least complacency Neo-folklorist. If you surrender to the wind you can ride on it: the phrase by Toni Morrison that serves as an exordium to the score perfectly explains the intention of this masterpiece that, regardless of any tonal anchorage, crosses multiple landscapes without being trapped by any of them, In a kind of trip on a whirlwind of incessant polyrhythmic force.

Luis Barroso, was born in Madrid (1960) studied in the upper conservatory of his city. Professionally, is part as guitarist of the prestigious Lute Orchestra Roberto Grandío and has accompanied famous light singers. The Tierra Alta Concert is commissioned by the Entrequatre Group. It is a work of traditional tripartite approach composed in a tonal style that recreates numerous elements of flamenco, but without indulging in any literal quotation. Rather, it is an evocation that uses rhythms and modal scales with great freedom very well integrated. The chords by quarters and characteristic guitar strings are used with great discretion, within a very careful composition concept in which the singable value of the soloists is highlighted and exploited: hence the occasional importance of the counterpoint. The melodism is specially developed in the slow movement, of ternary structure, whose central section is based on a game of hemiolias that anticipates the strong rhythmic component of the closing movement. Of an extremely diaphanous and precise writing, the greatest virtue of the work is its total absence of pretentiousness and its direct expressiveness.

The shadow of the land, Flores Chaviano, is the second commission written for the group Entrequatre for this program. It is a kind of toccata that works by constant transformation of a single motif: a four-note cell containing a fourth, a second and a third minor that is exchanged, inverted and transformed in all possible ways with an almost serial rigor To keep the ostinato of a single pulsation on a rhythmic foot of a compass «a cell and its free investment», to extract from so little material all sorts of consequences that unfold between both quartets both by duplications and imitations as an antiphonal or By occasional hoquetus: the initially square rhythm is gradually denaturalized by the irruption of syncopations and hemiolias to, after a vertiginous section in sixillos and with a sustained rhythmic incisiveness and subjugante, to be transformed in a progressive way to evoke in a fleeting way both jazz or son Like a sort of tumbao in which the piece ends in a breathless conclusion.

EntreQuatre celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2004, with two major musical events: a tour of Spain together with the prestigious Mexican string quartet Cuarteto Latinoamericano, a resounding success with audiences and reviewers in which they premièred three works; and their successful appearance at the Carnegie Hall in New York, with an acclaimed program of Spanish and Latin American music specially composed for the quartet.

In 2009, when celebrating their 25th anniversary, EntreQuatre received one of the most important recognition of its history: the nomiation to the Latin Grammys of the song “4 asimetrías” of Orlando Jacinto García, performed by the quartet.

On January 2016 at the time of its 30th anniversary, they performed with huge success the premiere of the Second Concert for 4 guitars and orchestra of Flores Chaviano, together with the Asturias Principality of Asturias Symphony Orchestra (O.S.P.A), conducted by Oliver Diaz.

This musical story starts in 1984, when four Asturian guitarists began working together as a group never suspecting that over the years they would become one of the most original and well established chamber ensembles in the field of contemporary music in Spain. In consequence, during this period, Entrequatre has inspired the creation of new works for four guitars, having premièred more than forty. Their authors are:

Miguel del Águila, Moisés Arnáiz, Imanol Bageneta, José Luis Barroso, Gustavo Becerra-Schmit, Flores Chaviano, Fernando Colás, Carlos Cruz de Castro, Francisco Cuenca, María Escribano, Gabriel Fernández Álvez, Orlando J. García, José Ma García Laborda, Radamés Gnatalli, Agustín González Acilu, Rey Guerra, Fredrick Kaufman, Marisa Manchado, Leonardo Sánchez and Raúl do Valle.

Entrequatre has made tours around Europe, the United Estates, South America, South Africa and India.

It is fitting to point out their presence at the following festivals: I Andrés Segovia In Memoriam, organised by the Sociedad General de Autores y Editores, X Rothemburg Guitar Festival (Germany), Aveiro Guitar Festival (Portugal), VI Salamanca Festival of Contemporary Music, XIII International Festival of Contemporary Music in Alicante, FIU Music Festival in Miami (1999), Santander International Festival and Donostia Music Fortnight.

In November 1989 they performed in the National Museum in Warsaw. In January 1992 they premièred Critalería Barroca by Carlos Cruz de Castro and ¿6×4? 24 by Marisa Manchado in the Reina Sofía National Museum and Art Centre in Madrid. In February 1995 they gave the first performance of Voyage, by María Escribano, in Brussels, and of Aquí lejos y Hace tiempo, by Leonardo Sánchez, in Paris. In January 1997 they oponed a guitar quartet cycle in the Juan March Foundation, with the premières of Sonata de Temple by García Laborda and Quartet no1 by Radamés Gnatalli. In December 1998 they opened the concert season of the Miami Guitar Society with a recital in which they gave the world première of Concierto para cuatro guitarras «A García Lorca in memoriam» by Gabriel Fernández Álvez. In October 1999 they performed 4 Asimetrías by Orlando J. García and Catalan Concertante by Fredrick Kaufman in Auditorio Príncipe Felipe in Oviedo. In November 1999 they made their second tour of the USA, including performances in towns such as Washington, UNO headquarters in New York, Chicago and Miami.

Their collaboration with other groups began in 1989, when together with the Príncipe de Asturias Choir, they gave the first performance of Flores Chaviano’s Son de Negros en Cuba, for choir, narrator, small percussion group and guitar quartet, based on a text by García Lorca, during a tour of Germany and Poland. In February 1994 they premièred, accompanied by the Principality of Asturias Symphony Orchestra (O.S.P.A), another composition by Flores Chaviano, Concierto para Cuatro Guitarras y Orquesta, commissioned by the Centro para la Difusión de la Música Contemporánea. With the same orchestra, in December 1997 they performed Concierto Ibérico for four guitars and orchestra by F. Moreno-Torroba, and recorded Concierto para cuatro guitarras by Rodrigo for NAXOS in 2000.

The Washington Post reviewer Joseph McLellan has said about them: “(…) EntreQuatre, a virtuoso guitar quartet that also opened the program with several instrumental works of Chaviano. These works, ranging in style from folk song imitations to avant-garde experiments using extended performance techniques, were played with panache and effortless technique”.

PROGRAMA

GuitarEtniasMúsica Española E IBEROAMERICANA para 4 guitarras


Flores Chaviano
(Cuba/España 1946)
·Entrequatre (1984) 6’

Javier Blanco (Asturias 1977)
·Medina Fi Assahab (2009) 6’ (La ciudad en las nubes)

Leonardo Sánchez (Argentina 1966)
·Itinerario (suite Argentina) (2003) 10’
·Norte (huayno)
·Sur (milonga)

Miguel Matamoros (Cuba 1894-1971)
·Lágrimas Negras 6’
·Versión de Flores Chaviano (2010)

 F. Moreno-Torroba (Madrid 1891-1982)
4 Estampas (1972) 12’
    ·Bailando un Fandango Charro
    ·Fiesta en el pueblo
    ·La Boda
    ·Juegos Infantiles

Miguel del Águila (Uruguay 1957)
·Presto (2000) 5’

*Todas las obras salvo Estampas escritas para entreQuatre

Tierras JuntasMúsica Española E IBEROAMERICANA para doble cuarteto

Jose Luis Barroso (Madrid 1960)
·Concierto de Tierra Alta 15’

Alejandro Cardona (Costa Rica 1964)
·Cabalgando Vientos 9’

Flores Chaviano (Cuba/España 1946)
·La Sombra de la Tierra 10’

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