Monday 30 April 2012

Michael Jones recital next Saturday, May 5

Michael Jones
Jimena's music society, CODA has organized a recital by cellist Michael Jones on Saturday, May 5, at the 'middle' church, Iglesia de la Victoria. It is scheduled to start at 8pm. Tickets at the door: €10 (€5 for CODA members). Here is lots more information: The Programme:
J.S .Bach to Joaquín Rodrigo ... a musical fantasy .
J.S Bach medley (mixture, especially of heterogeneous elements; hodgepodge)
Joaquín Rodrigo Como una Fantasía (European premier ) LOTS MORE INFO BELOW>>>

Joaquín Rodrigo's Como una Fantasía for cello was written in 1979 for the distinguished Mexican cellist Carlos Prieto. Prieto spent most of his life performing the Bach cello suites all over the world and Rodrigo dedicated his new piece for cello to him. It was commissioned by a music festival in America, and was premiered by the Mexican cellist during the summer of 1979.

Joaquín Rodrigo (1901-1999) became world famous with his Concierto de Aranjuez written in 1939.
He became blind at the age of 3 after an illness and wrote all his music in Braille. Rodrigo's musical language is unique and unmistakable. He studied under Paul Dukas (author of  The Sorcerer's Apprentice).

Como una Fantasía was forgotten after it's first performance in 1979 and had to wait until 1989 to be finally published by Schott. After the great Spanish composer's death in 1999 his solo cello music remained lost, unknown and unplayed in the country of its author's origin. Today the rights to the composer's music belong to his daughter Cecilia Rodrigo.

Thanks to a collaboration with EMEC Discos in Madrid, Michael has been given the chance to make the first commercial recording of this piece during 2013. On Saturday he will be playing the work for the first time for his friends and colleagues in Jimena .

An adagio prelude in D minor explores all the different registers of the cello, from the lowest to the highest harmonics. After reaching the ceiling of the cello an Allegro Vivace is announced in the major. Buried within these staccato fragments and clashing chords is a lilting Asturisches Lied, something akin to a waltz. Rodrigo
developes this in a whirl of harmony which could only belong to the author of the Concierto de Aranjuez.

Michael Kevin Jones studied cello at the Royal College of Music in London and later at the Kolner Hochschule thanks to a scholarship from the German government. He has recorded the complete Bach cello suites in New York for the Metropolitan Museum of Art using a Stradivarius cello dated 1667 .
Together with classical guitarist Agustin Maruri, Michael forms part of the Jones Maruri Duo.
A free ancient Chinese music CD will be given to anyone able to identify the Alien Baroque composer in the Bach medley.

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