Co-presented with the UNM Music from the Americas Concert Series
Ginastera: Suite de Danzas Criollas, Tres Piezas, Doce Preludios Americanos (Alejandro Cremaschi, piano)
Ernesto Nazareth: Brejeiro
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Alma Brasileira, Saudades das Selvas Americanas
Miguel del Águila: Sonata 2 (Fred Sturm, piano)
Ginastera was a quintessentially nationalistic composer, trying to capture the essence of his native Argentina , with its rolling pampas and cultivated cities, its rough and wild folk dances and its sophisticated tangos. His music is written in an exhilarating style, ranging from delicately seductive lyricism, though driving complex cross rhythms, to massive climaxes.
Argentine pianist Alejandro Cremaschi will present a sampling of Ginastera’s masterful writing for piano, including three of his nationalistic piano sets: Suite of Creole Dances, Three Pieces, and Twelve American Preludes. Cremaschi’s new edition of Ginastera's 12 Preludios Americanos, which includes his recording of the set, will be released later this year by Fischer Publishing Company, and he will be presenting them to the College Music Society convention in Santa Fe on Sunday, October 30.
Local pianist Fred Sturm will provide context for Ginastera’s very “Argentine” style of composition, by performing music of predecessors and successors from neighboring countries Brazil and Uruguay. Heitor Villa-Lobos was a pioneer of nationalistic Latin American music, and a close friend of the younger Ginastera, whom Villa-Lobos referred to as his “spiritual heir.” Sturm will play Villa-Lobos’ Alma Brasileira and Saudades das Selvas Brasileiras.
Ginastera in turn inspired later generations of composers, including Miguel del Águila of Uruguay (familiar to many in Albuquerque as the composer of the opera Time and Again Barelas, commissioned for the Albuquerque tricentennial). Sturm will perform Águila’s Sonata #2, inspired by popular Latin American styles.
Pianist Alejandro Cremaschi, a native of Argentina, currently teaches at the University of Colorado at Boulder. His playing has been described as “pristine” and “passionate” by the Washington Post, and “polished” and “exemplary” by the Fanfare magazine. Praised as an intelligent and sensitive pianist, he has played in numerous cities worldwide, including Buenos Aires, Guadalajara, Montreal, Pittsburgh, London, Washington, Kuala Lumpur and New York. Fred Sturm has specialized in Latin American music for the past 25 years, performing and recording a wide repertory, with a particular emphasis on Villa-Lobos and Mexican composer Federico Ibarra. Peter Burwasser wrote of Sturm’s recording of Ibarra’s works for piano solo, "He plays the music of Ibarra as if he were writing it on the spot. It is rare to hear a musician so inhabited by the material."
