The Basque Orchestra adss Pedro Sanjuán to its Basque Music Collection

The Basque Orchestra, under the direction of its chief Music Director, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, is this week busy recording the 14th volume of its Basque Music Collection; a monograph dedicated to the composer and conductor from San Sebastián, Pedro Sanjuán.

14th volume in the Basque Music Collection, Pedro Sanjuán (1886-1976). The composer and orchestra conductor born in San Sebastián, Pedro Sanjuán, started studying music theory and violin in Madrid from an early age. He played with the Madrid Symphony Orchestra and very soon became its first violin. He later moved to Paris to continue his studies. Once back in Madrid, he decided to direct his career towards conducting orchestras. He conducted the Madrid Symphony and Philharmonic orchestras, with which he programmed the release of several of his works, therefore making a name for himself as a composer. In 1923, he decided to move to Cuba where, a year later, he founded the Havana Philharmonic Orchestra and became its conductor, a position he was to hold for ten years. He was an advocate of Cuban music, reflecting black rhythms and melodies in his works, and trained a school of brilliant Cuban composers. Cuba therefore considers him to be the creator of the native music movement, with local authors dating the starting point for the contemporary period of Cuban music at the moment the Havana Philharmonic Orchestra was founded by Pedro Sanjuán. In Cuba he composed his major works, including the excellent Liturgia Negra, with which he won the Spanish National Music Prize in 1934. The outbreak of Civil Ward in Spain caught him in Paris, where he decided, given his Republican ideas, to take exile in the US, staying there until his death.

Sanjuán's work will now form part of the Orchestra's Basque Music Collection. The Orchestra is therefore currently recording, under its chief Music Director, Andréa Orozco-Estrada, Rondó fantástico, Castilla, Macumba and Liturgia Negra.

As with all others in the Basque Music Collection, this CD will come out on the Claves label and has the sponsorship of the MONDRAGÓN CORPORATION. Prior to this, this autumn we will present volume 13 in the Collection, dedicated to Valentín Zubiaurre.

Recording
13-17 September 2010, Basque Orchestra Auditorium in Miramón

Programme
Pedro Sanjuán (1886-1976)
Rondó fantástico
Castilla
Macumba
Liturgia negra

Basque National Orchestra
Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Conductor
Released by: Claves