Montsalvatge: Partita 1958, Cinco Cancione Negras, Calidoscopi simfònic & Simfonia de Rèquiem Ruby Hughes, Clara Mouriz, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra & Juanjo Mena

• Xavier Montsalvatge (1912 - 2002): Partita 1958:
• 1 Montsalvatge: Partita 1958: I. Fanfare. Avec allegresse et dureté 01:38
• 2 Montsalvatge: Partita 1958: II. Sarabande. Délicat 05:33
• 3 Montsalvatge: Partita 1958: III. Intermezzo. Passioné 05:30
• 4 Montsalvatge: Partita 1958: IV. Final. Entraînant 04:06
• Cinco canciones negras:
• 5 Montsalvatge: Cinco canciones negras: I. Cuba dentro de un piano (Version for Voice and Orchestra) 04:32
• 6 Montsalvatge: Cinco canciones negras: II. Punto de Habanera (Version for Voice and Orchestra) 01:51
• 7 Montsalvatge: Cinco canciones negras: III. Chévere (Version for Voice and Orchestra) 02:01
• 8 Montsalvatge: Cinco canciones negras: IV. Cancion de cuna para dormir a un negrito (Version for Voice and Orchestra) 02:31
• 9 Montsalvatge: Cinco canciones negras: V. Canto negro (Version for Voice and Orchestra) 01:24
• Calidoscopi simfonic, Op. 61:
• 10 Montsalvatge: Calidoscopi simfonic, Op. 61: I. Introducció. Moderato 03:03
• 11 Montsalvatge: Calidoscopi simfonic, Op. 61: II. Ronda i Pantomima. Allegretto mosso 04:55
• 12 Montsalvatge: Calidoscopi simfonic, Op. 61: III. Cànon i Havanera. Allegretto deciso 04:29
• 13 Montsalvatge: Calidoscopi simfonic, Op. 61: IV. Final a la Indiana. Andante ritmico 03:38
• Simfonia de Requiem:
• 14 Montsalvatge: Simfonia de Requiem: I. Introitus. Andante moderato 03:17
• 15 Montsalvatge: Simfonia de Requiem: II. Kyrie. Andante doloroso 03:43
• 16 Montsalvatge: Simfonia de Requiem: III. Dies irae. Allegretto con brio 03:46
• 17 Montsalvatge: Simfonia de Requiem: IV. Agnus Dei. Adagietto 03:34
• 18 Montsalvatge: Simfonia de Requiem: V. Lux æterna. Andante moderato 04:30
• 19 Montsalvatge: Simfonia de Requiem: VI. Libera me. Domine. Moderato solenne, molto tenuto 03:46
• Total Runtime 01:07:47

Info for Montsalvatge: Partita 1958, Cinco Cancione Negras, Calidoscopi simfònic & Simfonia de Rèquiem

This album of orchestral works marks the centenary in 2012 of the birth of the Catalan composer Xavier Montsalvatge.

It is released as part of our Spanish music series, conducted by Juanjo Mena, a fellow Catalan national and Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic. Montsalvatge was one on the most influential musical figures in Catalan music during the latter half of the twentieth century. He explored virtually every musical form, but many of his most significant works, including Cinco Canciones Negras (Five Negro Songs), were written after his discovery of the art of the Antilles. He was fascinated by West Indian music, which, as he wrote, ‘was itself originally Spanish, exported to the Caribbean, and then re-imported’. In Cinco Canciones Negras for mezzo-soprano and orchestra he set a varied collection of poems from the Caribbean and Spain, adopting the captivating rhythms of the West Indies. ‘Canción de Cuna para Dormira a un Negrito’ can only be described as one of the tenderest lullabies in the repertoire, presenting a vivid contrast to the exhilarating display of rumba-like rhythms in ‘Canto Negro’.

Partita 1958, which, in the words of Montsalvatge, is ‘not entirely unrelated to classicism’, is strongly inspired by the works of Darius Milhaud, who had discovered the intoxicating rhythms of Latin-American music during the First World War, and had introduced them into his own compositions to sensational effect in the 1920s.

Calidoscopi simfònic derives from an early, unfinished ballet, El Angel de la Guarda (The Guardian Angel). The impressionistically evocative introduction is irresistible evidence of Montsalvatge’s genius as a ballet composer, while the finale is an uninhibited celebration of primitive rhythms with thudding percussion, snarling trombones, uproarious trumpets, and, in the slower middle section, a characteristically melodious cor anglais.

In spite of his immense creativity, Montsalvatge never wrote a mass or a symphony. In 1985, however, he did combine the two genres in a symphonic version of the Requiem Mass, the Simfonia de Rèquiem, which features no words and no voices until the very end of the last movement. Montsalvatge intended ‘to ignore the orthodox religious aspect and to concentrate on bringing out its profound, forceful message, which is both sad and sublime, by the means of the orchestra’.

"This is a wise and moving work. Juanjo Mena directs admirable, wholly idiomatic performances. A valuable disc for anyone interested in Catalan music of the 20th century ..." (BBC Music Magazine)

“...The performances are immensely persuasive. Ruby Hughes sounds suitably seraphic in Simfonia de Rèquiem, but the vocal honours go to Clara Mouriz, tremendous in Cinco Canciones.” (Tim Ashley, The Guardian)

Ruby Hughes, soprano
Clara Mouriz, mezzo-soprano
BBC Philharmonic
Juanjo Mena, conductor

Ruby Hughes
began her musical studies as a cellist graduating from the Guildhall School of Music in London. She went on to study voice at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater, Munich and the Royal College of Music, London, graduating in 2009.

Holder of a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, Shortlisted for a 2014 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award, Winner of both First Prize and the Audience Prize at the 2009 London Handel Singing Competition and a former BBC New Generation Artist, Ruby Hughes is the daughter of the celebrated Welsh ceramicist Elizabeth Fritsch.

She made her debut at Theater an der Wein in 2009 as Roggiero in Rossini's Tancredi, returning as Fortuna in L’Incoronazione di Poppea. She has performed Euridice in L'Orfeo at Aix-en-Provence Festival, Sandrina L’infedelta delusa and Narcissa Philemon und Baucis at the Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, The Indian Queen at the Schwetzinger Festival, and Rose Maurrant Street Scene at the Opéra de Toulon.

In the UK she has performed major roles with English National Opera, Garsington Opera, The Opera Group, Music Theatre Wales and Scottish Opera. She also appeared in Sir Jonathan Miller’s acclaimed production of the St Matthew Passion at the National Theatre.

In concert, she has sung under conductors including Rinaldo Allesandrini, Ivor Bolton, Jonathan Cohen, Laurence Cummings, Thierry Fischer, HK Gruber, Pablo Heras Casado, Philippe Herreweghe, Rene Jacobs, Juanjo Mena, Gianandrea Noseda, Marc Minkowski, Hervé Niquet, Thomas Søndergård, John Storgårds, and Osmo Vanska to name a few, and with ensembles such as Les Arts Florissants, all the BBC Orchestras, Britten Sinfonia, Le Concert Spirituel, Concerto Koln, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and Zurich Chamber Orchestra.

Festival appearances have included the Bach Fest Leipzig, BBC Proms, Cheltenham, Edinburgh International, La Folle Journée, Gent Festival OdeGand, Göttingen, Marlboro, Lockenhaus, Manchester International, Spitalfields, and West Cork.

She has broadcast & recorded extensively covering a wide range of repertoire including works by Bach, Barber, Berg, Britten, Crumb, Handel, Haydn, Mahler, Maxwell Davies, Macmillan, Mozart, Schubert & Schumann.

Ruby is a passionate recitalist & works closely with the pianists Julius Drake & Joseph Middleton. In 2016 she released her first solo recital disc 'Nocturnal variations', songs by Schubert, Mahler, Britten and Berg with pianist Joseph Middleton for the Champs Hill label, named BBC Music Magazine’s choice of the month. In the same month she appeared on the critically acclaimed disc ‘Purcell Songs Realised by Britten’ for the same label. A champion of women composers, she recently recorded ‘Heroines of Love and Loss’: a disc dedicated to 17th century women composers for the BIS label, with long-term collaborator Jonas Nordberg, which was Editor's Choice in Gramophone Magazine, and was awarded a Diapason d'or. In 2018 she releases a disc for Chandos Records with the OAE and Laurence Cummings dedicated to Giulia Frasi, Handel’s lyric muse.

She made her US recital debut in 2015 with Julius Drake at The Frick Collection in New York and in 2017 made her Carnegie Hall recital debut with a commissioned song cycle by Huw Watkins. She recently performed and recorded Mahler Symphony No.2 with the Minnesota Symphony under Osmo Vanska for BIS Records.

Recent and future highlights include recitals at Wigmore Hall (including a new commission by Helen Grime), Newbury Spring, International Handel Festispiele Gottingen, Presteigne, West Cork, and 3 Choirs Festivals. In the UK concerts include those with the OAE, BBC Phil, BBC NOW and RLPO and further afield a return to the RIAS Kammerkoor for performances of Purcell’s Fairy Queen, Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder with Garry Walker and Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie and a tour with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century.

Booklet for Montsalvatge: Partita 1958, Cinco Cancione Negras, Calidoscopi simfònic & Simfonia de Rèquiem