Music from Spain: A fall of concerts in Washington, D.C. with PostClassical Ensemble

This concert by PostClassical Ensemble is part of the “Music from Spain: A Fall of Concerts” classical music series organized by the Cultural Office of the Embassy of Spain in Washington, D.C.

The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has prevented Spanish artists and creators from travelling to the United States, but since the return to normal activity here, the priority of the Cultural Office of the Embassy of Spain in Washington, D.C. has been to recover and bring back cultural life with the creation of a classical music series around Spanish music with Spanish musicians.

Music from Spain: A Fall of Concerts is made possible with the support of our Consulates General and Maestro Angel Gil-Ordoñez, artistic director of the series. The program will take place during the following months of 2021, with concert in multiple cities all around the U.S.

Manuel de Falla in context: The Concerto

The concerto as a whole is a kind of condensation of the history of Spanish music. The first movement quotes Spanish Renaissance songs, as collected by the musicologist Felipe Pedrell. The second certainly evokes the sixteenth century church music of Tomas Luis de Victoria –from the time of Don Quixote– but with a simplicity that rigorously negates any sense of grandeur. The last movement is all about the Spanish keyboard school of Scarlatti and Soler, which was the final manifestation of Spanish greatness in music before the twentieth century.

Falla shows, in summary, what Spanish music has been about – the popular music, the religious music, the keyboard school. And –ignoring the nineteenth century and zarzuela, which he found musically less interesting– he transfers it all to a twentieth century idiom.

Program

• De los álamos vengo, madre from “Cuatro madrigales amatorios”, Joaquín Rodrigo (1902-1999)
• Pange lingua gloriosi, Thomas Aquinas (ca. 1264)
• Caligaverunt oculi mei (Mine eyes are dim with weeping), Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611)
• La noche oscura (The dark night), John of the Cross (1542-1591)
• Sonata in D, Mateo Albéniz
• Sonata in D, Padre Antonio Soler
• Concerto for keyboard and five instruments, Manuel de Falla (1876-1946): I. Allegro. II. Lento: giubiloso ed energico. III. Vivace: flessibile, scherzando

Musicians

• PostClassical Ensemble: Netanel Draiblate, violin, Benjamin Capps, cello, Lauren Sileo, flute, Fatma Daglar, oboe, David Jones, clarinet
• Angel Gil-Ordóñez, conductor
• Pedro Carboné, piano
• Genevieve McGahey, soprano
• Biraj Barkakaty, countertenor
• Andrew Brown, tenor
• William Townsend, bass

About PostClassical Ensemble

PostClassical Ensemble (PCE), called “one of the country’s most innovative music groups” by Philip Kennicott in The Washington Post, was founded in 2003 by Angel Gil-Ordóñez and Joseph Horowitz as an experimental orchestral laboratory based in Washington, D.C. All PCE programming is thematic and cross-disciplinary, frequently incorporating art, film, dance, or theater.

About Ángel Gil-Ordóñez

Ángel Gil-Ordóñez is Music Director of PostClassical Ensemble, Principal Guest Conductor of New York’s Perspectives Ensemble, and Music Director of the Georgetown University Orchestra. He also serves as lead advisor for Trinitate Philharmonia, a program in León, Mexico modeled on Venezuela’s El Sistema. Gil-Ordóñez received the Royal Order of Queen Isabella, the country’s highest civilian decoration, for his devotion to sharing Spanish culture with the world.

About Pedro Carboné

Pedró Carboné made his U.S. debut at the Kennedy Center and he has since performed throughout the country to critical and audience acclaim. He first studied in his native in Spain with Pilar Bayona and María Canals and later in the U.S. with Eugene Istomin and Leon Fleisher. A pedagogue himself, Mr. Carboné has given Master classes at major U.S. centers, including the International Keyboard Festival at Mannes College of Music in New York.