Ginastera 2006

'Alberto Ginastera is the composer who put Latin America on the modern musical map of the 20th century', writes Alberto Portugheis, Chairman of ILAMS, the London-based Iberian and Latin American Music Society, 'consolidating what Heitor Villa-Lobos and Carlos Chávez had started.'

'Ginastera showed that you could move out of a nationalist sphere of writing and develop modern relevant idioms that still spoke with a national accent.'

'This pioneering approach gave the next generation musical hope and encouraged experimentation and the search for individuality. Alberto Ginastera identified himself with his native Argentina to the last cell of his body and soul. It was my privilege to know him and have him as a friend, from whom I learned much of what I know today. I have no words to describe the joy it gives me to present a year-long celebration of Alberto Ginastera's music, during the year in which he would have been 90.'

Ginastera Festival 2006, a series of concerts in London UK, throughout 2006, celebrates the life of Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983), his music and Argentina, and is presented by ILAMS.

The concerts, many at top London music venus - St John's Smith Square, Wigmore Hall, St James' Piccadilly and St Martin-in-the-Fields, feature top names from the Iberian and Latin-American music world.

This extraordinary Festival begins with a piano recital by José Menor, recognised as one of the best of the new generation of Spanish pianists. His programme (7.30pm, Wednesday 11 January at Wigmore Hall) includes the first public performance of Ginastera's 8 Piezas Infantiles.

Rafael Gintoli, 'dean of the Argentine violin world', with Alberto Portugheis at the piano, 1.10pm on Wednesday 15 February at St James, Piccadilly, plays Ginastera's Pampeana No 1 Op 16, and gives British premieres of Alicia Terzián's Elegy and Floro Ugarte's Sonata.

The Southbank Sinfonia, conducted by US-based British conductor Matilda Hofman, 7.30pm on Tuesday 28 March at St John's Smith Square, plays Ginastera's Variaciones Concertantes Op 23 and gives the first performance of Christian Baldini's Latentes Santos Lugares. They're joined by two soloists - violinist Sara Trickey, for Piazzolla's Las Cuatro Estaciones 'Porteñas' ('The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires), and pianist Alberto Portugheis, for Desafío VII Op 31 No 7 by Marlos Nobre.

The Festival also includes the London and Wigmore Hall début of the 'Assai' String Quartet from Madrid (7.30pm, Tuesday 11 April), with some of their vast repertoire from the Iberian and Latin American worlds. Ginastera is represented by his String Quartet No 1 Op 20 and his Piano Quintet Op 29 (with Alberto Portugheis), and there's also music by Piazzolla and Ernesto Halffter, and a pre-concert talk at 6.30pm by pianist and scholar Bryce Morrison, in the Wigmore Hall Bechstein Room.

Coro Cervantes - the only professional British-based choir dedicated to the music of Iberian and Latin American composers, sings Ginastera's Lamentations of Jeremiah (7.30pm, Thursday 1 June, Wigmore Hall). The group's founder and conductor, Carlos Fernandez Aransay, is also establishing himself as a successful orchestral conductor. The concert, which features pianist Alberto Portugheis and guitarist Morgan Szymanski, also includes works by Guastavino, Piazzolla, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Rodolfo Halffter, Ernesto Halffter and Yagüe, and there's a 6.30pm talk by Alberto Ginastera's daughter Georgina.

American pianist and scholar Nancy Lee Harper has dedicated most of her professional life to the study, writing and performance of Hispanic repertoire. Her recital (1.10pm, Friday 30 June at St James, Piccadilly) includes Ginastera's Creole Dances Suite Op 15 and Three Argentine Dances Op 2, plus music by António Fragoso, Fernando Lopes-Graça, Heitor Villa-Lobos and Maurice Ravel.

There are many more concerts and recitals, and two masterclasses - one on Ginastera's piano music (Alberto Portugheis, Steinway Hall, Tuesday 26 September, 9.30am-5.30pm) and one on Ginastera's Guitar Sonata Op 47 (Fabio Zanon, Bolivar Hall, Friday 3 November, 2-5pm).

Information: www.ilams.org.uk

Posted: 6 January 2006

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