The Basque National Orchestra and Robert Trevino record together for the first time
The recordings will be launched in the record market by the international label Ondine Records and will involve two very different registers: the most symphonic and universally popular Ravel and a compendium of little-known American composers.
The Kursaal Auditorium has become a recording studio for this project in order to capture the most universally popular and symphonic Ravel with a fully deployed Basque National Orchestra. This recently launched recording partnership with the Ondine label began in mid-September with the recording of a series of works by little-known American composers and starts again this week with the great composer from Ziburu, Maurice Ravel.
Maurice Ravel is a composer that the Basque National Orchestra regards as its own, and after achieving prominence conducting his work in numerous performances in the concert season and also at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris last January, Trevino wanted to immerse himself once again in Ravel’s music. This is the first time that the American has recorded Ravel, but it is not the first time for the orchestra, given that its extensive music library includes another recording devoted entirely to Ravel made in the year 2000 with the principal conductor at that time Gilbert Varga and Joaquín Achúcarro. That recording included the two piano concertos by the Bilbao-born pianist and Alborada del gracioso, which is now being recovered together with La Valse, Bolero, Rapsodie Espagnole, Pavane pour une infante défunte and Une barque sur l´océan. It is an important recording for both the orchestra and the chief conductor and which they hope will occupy a prominent place in the record market. The recording is currently taking place in the Kursaal Auditorium, and an extra platform has been added to its large stage so that the ninety or so musicians tackling the grand symphonic work of Ravel maintain the safe distances required today.
This recording, which will be available both as a CD and online, will be released on the prestigious Finnish label Ondine. Trevino has secured an annual recording commitment from this record company that began successfully a few months ago with the recording of the entire Beethoven symphonies with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, of which he is also the chief conductor. And now he is beginning his recording adventure with the Basque National Orchestra with this twin recording of Ravel at his most symphonic and lesser-known American composers. Both recordings will be released during the year 2021 and will be the first made by the Basque National Orchestra under chief conductor Robert Trevino:
“I am very excited to announce that the Basque National Orchestra, Ondine and I have joined together to begin an adventure with several new projects. I have worked with Ondine exclusively for some time while also working with the orchestra, but it is now that we join forces to record together for the first time. For the occasion, we have chosen to make a purely American record focusing on composers who are not at all well known, even in the USA. During this time working with the Basque National Orchestra I have brought a lot of American music with me and it makes sense that we explore this repertoire that is unique to our orchestras. At the same time, we have a special interest in focusing on the music of Basque composers. In these four years here we have spent a lot of time exploring the music of Maurice Ravel, surely the most famous of the Basque composers. That is why we want to share what this orchestra knows about Maurice Ravel and how it understands his language with the world. Ondine will accompany us on this journey. We are very excited about what we are creating and what we are going to do in the future. I hope you join us. Thank you.”
‘American Composers’
This is the provisional title of the compilation of four works composed by a number of the most important American composers from the last century who even today do not receive the recognition they deserve. These are relatively little-known works, a repertoire that moves away from the music of the “big circuit” and that the Basque National Orchestra has recorded under the direction of its American chief conductor Robert Trevino.
The selected composers include Howard Hanson and his work Before the Dawn, whose recording represents a world premiere, and Charles Martin Loeffler, in which the orchestra’s viola soloist, Delphine Dupuy, has employed the viola d’amore to give voice to La Mort de Tintagiles. This American-flavoured recording is completed with Henry Cowell’s Variations for orchestra and Evocations by Carl Ruggles.
Ondine
Ondine, part of the Naxos group, is one of the most prestigious independent record labels in the world and has made numerous recordings with other important conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Hannu Lintu. “Ondine chooses artists with whom we can work in a meticulous way,” stresses the founding director of the label, Reijo Kiilunen. “We try to work with only a few outstanding artists, those who offer visionary and imaginative interpretations of the typical repertoire, and who have an adventurous mind that leads to us presenting fascinating lesser-known musical discoveries to audiences. Robert Trevino perfectly meets those requirements, in that he is a director of great musical power with an original and inquisitive mind.”
Reijo Kiilunen continues, “We were more than delighted with the Beethoven symphonies that Robert has just recorded with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra and we always knew that we also wanted to record his orchestra, the Basque National Orchestra. They have a very characteristic and distinctive approach and a fabulous sound, and I thought this idea of the American conductor leading them in the music of a Basque genius, and then the Basque orchestra playing American music was a great one. I think we are going to have two fantastic new albums by Robert and the Basque National Orchestra.”
