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drplaceboIt's Forgotten Masterpiece Friday!
Mexican art music flourished in the decades after the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920, with a whole group of nationalist composers led by Carlos Chavez and Silvestre Revueltas achieving widespread fame. But while the first half of the 20th century is the era that first comes to mind when Mexican composers are mentioned, Western music has a long history in Mexico, going all the way back to the beginning of Spanish colonization. And while recent years have seen a revival of interest in the Mexican Baroque, composers in between the Baroque and modern eras remain obscure even to those relatively familiar with the country's music history.
Before Chavez, there was Ricardo Castro (1864-1907). Castro was the son of a politician; born in the state of Durango, he moved to Mexico City with his family at 15 when his father was elected to the Mexican Senate. He was soon identified as a promising pianist, and began his studies at the National Conservatory of Music the same year he arrived in Mexico City. By the time he was 19, had also begun to develop a reputation as a composer: in that year he completed his first symphony, and some of his shorter pieces were chosen as Mexico's contribution to a Simon Bolivar centenary celebration in Venezuela.
Over the next two decades Castro was mainly active as a concert pianist, while composing in compulsive bursts. As a pianist, he gave the Mexican premieres of numerous works, including the Grieg piano concerto and Schumann piano quintet. As a composer, his output consists mainly of piano pieces, with some larger works including a second symphony, his opera Atzimba (now lost), and a cello concerto. Castro spent the years 1903-06 in Europe, on a commission from the Mexican government to promote the work of Mexican composers; while there he gave masterclasses at a number of European conservatories. For much of this time he was based in Paris, where he composed his own piano concerto (the first ever by a Latin American composer) in 1904 and completed his second opera La Légende de Rudel in 1906. He was appointed director of the National Conservatory of Music upon his return to Mexico, but contracted pneumonia and died less than a year into his tenure, cutting short what was in many ways a groundbreaking career. Though still regarded as the leading Mexican Romantic composer, Castro was overshadowed soon after his death by a whole generation of nationalist and modernist composers.
Castro's cello concerto was completed in 1895, the same year as Dvořák's much better known concerto. It was one of a trio of significant cello concerti composed in the New World within the space of a year. In the mid-1890s, the cello concerto repertoire was still rather sparse; the only well-known Romantic composers to compose cello concerti up to that point were Schumann, Saint-Saëns, and Lalo. Dvořák, notably, demurred for years when asked by a cellist friend to compose a cello concerto, calling the cello a fine orchestral instrument but unsuitable for a solo role. In March 1894, while living in New York City, Dvořák had a change of heart after hearing a newly composed cello concerto by Irish-American composer Victor Herbert, and began work on his own, which he completed in February 1895. Meanwhile, Castro was independently at work on his concerto in Mexico City; he completed it in early January 1895, a month before Dvořák's. The cello concerto that Dvořák heard was Herbert's second, but his first composed after moving to the United States; thus Castro's cello concerto was the first to be composed in Latin America and the second composed in the Americas. Castro's concerto did not premiere in the New World, though -- its first performance was in Paris, and it was not heard in the Americas until Mexican cellist Carlos Prieto revived the piece in 1981.
The concerto opens strikingly, with the cello playing heavy quadruple-stop chords with the timpani to punctuate an anxious, urgent-sounding woodwind melody, perhaps echoing the similarly unusual opening of Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto. The short, stormy first movement leads without interruption into an extended solo cadenza that serves as a bridge between the first two movements. The second movement, almost half of the length of the entire piece, begins calmly but builds steadily in intensity and drama to the end of the movement. In the third movement, a sprightly rondo theme alternates with more lyrical episodes, before a long coda that recalls the urgent first-movement theme.
Mexican art music flourished in the decades after the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920, with a whole group of nationalist composers led by Carlos Chavez and Silvestre Revueltas achieving widespread fame. But while the first half of the 20th century is the era that first comes to mind when Mexican composers are mentioned, Western music has a long history in Mexico, going all the way back to the beginning of Spanish colonization. And while recent years have seen a revival of interest in the Mexican Baroque, composers in between the Baroque and modern eras remain obscure even to those relatively familiar with the country's music history.
Before Chavez, there was Ricardo Castro (1864-1907). Castro was the son of a politician; born in the state of Durango, he moved to Mexico City with his family at 15 when his father was elected to the Mexican Senate. He was soon identified as a promising pianist, and began his studies at the National Conservatory of Music the same year he arrived in Mexico City. By the time he was 19, had also begun to develop a reputation as a composer: in that year he completed his first symphony, and some of his shorter pieces were chosen as Mexico's contribution to a Simon Bolivar centenary celebration in Venezuela.
Over the next two decades Castro was mainly active as a concert pianist, while composing in compulsive bursts. As a pianist, he gave the Mexican premieres of numerous works, including the Grieg piano concerto and Schumann piano quintet. As a composer, his output consists mainly of piano pieces, with some larger works including a second symphony, his opera Atzimba (now lost), and a cello concerto. Castro spent the years 1903-06 in Europe, on a commission from the Mexican government to promote the work of Mexican composers; while there he gave masterclasses at a number of European conservatories. For much of this time he was based in Paris, where he composed his own piano concerto (the first ever by a Latin American composer) in 1904 and completed his second opera La Légende de Rudel in 1906. He was appointed director of the National Conservatory of Music upon his return to Mexico, but contracted pneumonia and died less than a year into his tenure, cutting short what was in many ways a groundbreaking career. Though still regarded as the leading Mexican Romantic composer, Castro was overshadowed soon after his death by a whole generation of nationalist and modernist composers.
Castro's cello concerto was completed in 1895, the same year as Dvořák's much better known concerto. It was one of a trio of significant cello concerti composed in the New World within the space of a year. In the mid-1890s, the cello concerto repertoire was still rather sparse; the only well-known Romantic composers to compose cello concerti up to that point were Schumann, Saint-Saëns, and Lalo. Dvořák, notably, demurred for years when asked by a cellist friend to compose a cello concerto, calling the cello a fine orchestral instrument but unsuitable for a solo role. In March 1894, while living in New York City, Dvořák had a change of heart after hearing a newly composed cello concerto by Irish-American composer Victor Herbert, and began work on his own, which he completed in February 1895. Meanwhile, Castro was independently at work on his concerto in Mexico City; he completed it in early January 1895, a month before Dvořák's. The cello concerto that Dvořák heard was Herbert's second, but his first composed after moving to the United States; thus Castro's cello concerto was the first to be composed in Latin America and the second composed in the Americas. Castro's concerto did not premiere in the New World, though -- its first performance was in Paris, and it was not heard in the Americas until Mexican cellist Carlos Prieto revived the piece in 1981.
The concerto opens strikingly, with the cello playing heavy quadruple-stop chords with the timpani to punctuate an anxious, urgent-sounding woodwind melody, perhaps echoing the similarly unusual opening of Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto. The short, stormy first movement leads without interruption into an extended solo cadenza that serves as a bridge between the first two movements. The second movement, almost half of the length of the entire piece, begins calmly but builds steadily in intensity and drama to the end of the movement. In the third movement, a sprightly rondo theme alternates with more lyrical episodes, before a long coda that recalls the urgent first-movement theme.