Paquito D’Rivera’s Concerto Venezolano, USA premiere with Pacho Flores

Paquito D’Rivera’s Concerto Venezolano, USA premiere with Pacho Flores

Paquito D’Rivera’s Concerto Venezolano will be premiered in the USA on March 28 and 29 with Pacho Flores, Rafael Payare and the San Diego Symphony Orchestra at the Jacob Music Center. This Venezuelan Concerto by Paquito D’Rivera, which is part of the project of shared commissions that Pacho Flores is promoting, had its first premiere in Mexico in September last year with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería under Carlos Miguel Prieto and will be part of Pacho’s next recording for Deutsche Grammophon.

This second premiere of Paquito D’Rivera’s Concerto Venezolano in San Diego is also the seventh within the project of shared commissions of new concerts for trumpet, after the four premieres of Concierto de Otoño by Arturo Márquez (Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México under Carlos Miguel Prieto; Tucson Symphony Orchestra under José Luis Gómez; Hyogo PAC Orchestra of Japan under Michiyoshi Inoue; and Oviedo Filarmonía under Lucas Macías), the first premiere of Danzas Latinas by Efraín Oscher (Real Filharmonía de Galicia under Manuel Hernández-Silva), and the first premiere of Salseando by Roberto Sierra (Royal Liverpool Philharmonic under Domingo Hindoyan).

Concerto Venezolano, Paquito D'Rivera

From L to R: Daniel Freiberg, Arturo Márquez, Paquito D’Rivera, Pacho Flores and Carlos Miguel Prieto

After this premiere of Concerto Venezolano in San Diego, a new premiere of Salseando (Orquestra Simfônica do Estado de São Paulo under Giancarlo Guerrero) and further premieres of these and other composers, such as Christian Lindberg and Daniel Freiberg, will soon take place in the 20/21 and 21/22 seasons in countries such as France, Spain, United Kingdom, Norway, USA or Turkey and will be announced in due course. The result of this project of shared commissions is that in a few years six new trumpet concerts dedicated to Pacho Flores will have been released throughout the world by orchestras from North and South America, Europe and Japan.

Concerto Venezolano, Paquito D'Rivera

Pacho Flores with Vicente Honorato, STOMVI’s CEO, and some of the four valves instruments that Pacho uses in his concerts

These new concerts represent an expansion of the repertoire for solo trumpet unknown in the history of music. And another particularity of the concerts resulting from this project of commissions is that they are written for a wide variety of instruments of the trumpet family such as flugelhorns, cornets and trumpets, not only in different keys but with a special characteristic: they all have four valves and have been developed by Pacho Flores together with its manufacturer STOMVI. This means that, as well as the expansion of the repertoire that this project entails, technical advances in the instruments similar to the appearance of the valves in the 19th century are also being made.

 

 

 

Hernández-Silva conducts the Tucson Symphony

Hernández-Silva conducts the Tucson Symphony

Manuel Hernández-Silva will make his debut with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra next 13 and 15 March 2020 at the Tucson Music Hall. Hernández-Silva will conduct Barber’s Adagio for strings and the Violin concerto, with rising violinist Paul Huang as soloist, and Shostakovich’s Symphony nº 12 in D minor, ‘The Year 1917’

Hernández-Silva visits Tucson at the end of a busy winter where he has conducted two programs with the Real Filharmonía de Galicia -the premiere with Pacho Flores of Danzas Latinas, last trumpet concerto by Efraín Oscher, in November, and the complete Beethoven piano concertos with Javier Perianes in January- and the Spanish Radio and Television Orchestra, conducting Martinu’s 4th Symphony. He now faces a no less busy spring where he will premiere Manuel Moreno Buendía’s Stabat Mater with the Murcia Symphony Orchestra, as well as come back to the Spanish Radio and Television Orchestra for an appearance at the Week of Religious Music of Cuenca, together with concerts with the Malaga Philharmonic and the Navarra Symphony, both orchestras where Hernández-Silva is Music & Artistic Director.

Hernández-Silva Tucson Symphony

Hernández-Silva is facing more new debuts in the USA as well as in Norway and France, and has other engagements in Switzerland, Germany, Argentina, México, Puerto Rico, etc. He si also improving his career as an opera conductor with upcoming engagements to conduct Beethoven’s Fidelio or Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, after receiving excellent reviews for his last opera performances, Fidelio and Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte, both at Teatro Cervantes in Málaga. Hernández-Silva is the conductor of Cantos y Revueltas, Pacho Flores’ last recording for Deutsche Grammophon.

 

 

 

Arturo Márquez, French premiere of Concierto de Otoño by Pacho Flores

Arturo Márquez, French premiere of Concierto de Otoño by Pacho Flores

Arturo Márquez’s Concierto de Otoño will be premiered in France by Pacho Flores and the Orchestre National de Lille under conductor Josep Vicent. Concerts will take place at the Auditorium du Nouveau Siècle, in Lille, on Thursday, 5, Boulogne-sur-Mer Théâtre on Friday, 6 and at L’Imaginaire in Douchy-les-Mines on Saturday, 7, December 2019. The program, entitled Eldorado, contains also works by Revueltas, Falla and Ravel. This Concierto de Otoño by Arturo Márquez was co-commissioned by four orchestras: National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Hyogo PAC Orchestra of Japan and Oviedo Philharmonia in Spain. 

It was premiered along the 2018/19 season with conductors Carlos Miguel Prieto, José Luis Gómez, Michiyoshi Inoue and Lucas Macías respectively, and since then it was played by the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería (Mexico) and the Opening Night Gala of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, both with C. M. Prieto; Filarmónica de Bogotá (Colombian premiere), Christian Vásquez; Colorado Springs Philharmonic, Josep Caballé Doménech; and Real Filharmonía de Galicia, with Manuel Hernández-Silva, together with the absolute premiere of Efraín Oscher’s Danzas Latinas; after Lille, the Concierto de Otoño is already programmed by the Winnipeg Symphony (Canadian premiere), José Luis Gómez; Liverpool Philharmonic (UK premiere), Domingo Hindoyan, together with the concerto Salseando by Roberto Sierra, UK premiere as well; Orquesta de Córdoba, Carlos Domínguez-Nieto, together with the absolute premiere of Concierto Mambí by Igmar Alderete; and some other orchestras to be announced.

Arturo Márquez, Concierto de Otoño, Pacho Flores

D. Freiberg, A. Márquez, P. D’Rivera, P. Flores and C. M. Prieto during the recording of Mestizo for Deutsche Grammophon

Arturo Márquez’s Concierto de Otoño is the very first of a large and ambitious project of co-commissions of new trumpet concertos to outstanding composers as Paquito D’Rivera, Roberto Sierra, Efraín Oscher, Christian Lindberg and Daniel Freiberg involving orchestras form all around the world. Paquito D’Rivera’s Concerto Venezolano was premiered by the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería with Carlos Miguel Prieto and is going to be premiered soon by the San Diego Symphony Orchestra with Rafael Payare and Orquesta of Valencia in Spain with Vicent Alberola; and Roberto Sierras’ Salseando will be premiered on next January by the Royal Liverpool Symphony Orchestra and Domingo Hindoyan and about the summer by the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra and Giancarlo Guerrero.

Arturo Márquez, CXoncierto de Otoño, Pacho Flores

Pacho Flores has just premiered Danzas Latinas by Efraín Oscher with the Real Filharmonía de Galicia and Manuel Hernández-Silva in a concert that also included Arturo Márquez’s Concierto de Otoño, the same week he launched his newest recording for Deutsche Grammophon, Cantos y Revueltas, with the same partners, Real Filharmonía and conductor Hernández-Silva. Cantos y Revueltas is also the title of the main work of the recording, a Fantasía Concertante for trumpet and Venezuelan cuatro, played in the premiere and the recording by the Venezuelan virtuoso Leo Rondón.

 

 

 

 

Cantos y Revueltas, Pacho Flores’ new disc for Deutsche Grammophon

Cantos y Revueltas, Pacho Flores’ new disc for Deutsche Grammophon

On November 20 at the Auditorio de Galicia, Pacho Flores and Manuel Hernández-Silva will present, together with the Royal Galician Philharmonia, Cantos y Revueltas, Pacho Flores’ new album for Deutsche Grammophon with the Galician orchestra conducted by Hernández-Silva that includes, among other works and as a centerpiece, the homonymous concert for trumpet and Venezuelan cuatro by Pacho Flores himself.

Cantos y Revueltas

Cantos y Revueltas is a fantasia concertante for trumpet, Venezuelan cuatro and strings, premiered last January 2018 in Santiago, Vigo and A Coruña by the Royal Galician Philharmonia under Hernández-Silva, together with cuatro player Leo Rondón and, of course, Pacho Flores’ trumpets. It is a work rooted in old work songs and popular Venezuelan tunes, but also in modern Caribbean-like rhythms. The album begins with the Concerto para corno da caccia by Johann Baptist Georg Neruda, continues with the Aria from Bachiana Brasileira No. 5 by Villa-Lobos, Cantos y Revueltas, El Diablo suelto by Heraclio Fernández and Piazolla’s Winter in Buenos Aires, and was recorded live at the Palacio de la Ópera in A Coruña on January 13, 2018.

This is a double CD-DVD that includes a video recording of the concert and various extras, including interviews revealing the origin of Pacho’s work as well as curiosities about the process that led to its premiere in Santiago and its recording. Cantos y Revueltas is the fourth recording for Pacho Flores with Deutsche Grammophon after Cantar, with the Konzerthausorchester in Berlin conducted Christian Vásquez, Entropía, with guitar player Jesús ‘Pingüino’ González, and Fractales, with the Arctic Philharmonic conducted by Christian Lindberg. These concerts also counted on Pablo Barreiro for the audio recording and Antonio Cid and Joaquín Calderón for the video recording and production, which allowed to obtain a result that met Deutsche Grammophon’s highest artistic and technical standards.

Pacho Flores

Every so often, sometimes after several generations, some artists appear who are a milestone in their respective disciplines. This is the case with Pacho Flores, the great trumpet player of the 21st century so far, who is improving the performance technique and the expressive possibilities of the instrument to unknown levels. In collaboration with his brand, his STOMVI team, he is carrying out a formidable development and technical improvement of the trumpet, with new instruments in different keys and with four pistons that expand its register and palette. Many of these instruments are prototypes only available to Pacho, and only some, once tested, get produced for the market sale.

Pacho is also actively promoting an unprecedented expansion of the repertoire for solo trumpet and orchestra. After releasing some works dedicated to him by composers such as Efraín Oscher (Concierto Mestizo, 2010; Soledad, 2013, included in the album CANTAR; Barroqueana Venezolana nº 2, 2017; and Apex, double concert for trumpet and clarinet, 2018), Giancarlo Castro (Stunning trumpet, 2017), Alain Trudel (Preach pour trumpet et orchestre), etc., Pacho decided to take over and launch a project of shared commissions to some of the most relevant composers nowadays such as Arturo Márquez, Roberto Sierra, Paquito D’Rivera, Efraín Oscher, Christian Lindberg or Daniel Freiberg, which allows a systematic and scheduled update of new works with technical and musical requirements according to the possibilities offered by the new instruments. This program has already begun to bear fruit: Arturo Márquez and Paquito D’Rivera’s works have already been premiered, and the concerts by Roberto Sierra and Efraín Oscher’s will be presented this season. In addition, and in collaboration with his label, Deutsche Grammophon, Pacho is producing the most complete discography on the trumpet performed by the same artist, recording reference versions of the repertoire classics, as well as the new works that, by his own efforts, are joining the literature for this instrument.

 

 

 

 

Pacho Flores with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic

Pacho Flores with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic

Pacho Flores will make his debut with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic in two concerts with its principal conductor, Spanish Josep Caballé-Doménech. The concerts will take place on November 16 and 17 at the Pikes Peak Center with a program entitled “Free Spirit”, consisting of works by Gershwin and Ginastera, Concierto de Otoño by Arturo Márquez, the Aria de the Bachiana No. 5 by Villalobos, Morocota, a Venezuelan waltz by Pacho Flores himself, and Invierno, from the Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas by Astor Piazzolla.

Colorado Springs is already Pacho’s third visit to the US so far since the beginning of this intense season, which started with the premiere in Mexico of Concierto Venezolano by Paquito D’Rivera, with the Orquesta de Minería and Carlos Miguel Prieto, a historic evening during which Pacho played four trumpet concerts in the same program: Márquez’s Concierto de Otoño, which had been premiered a year earlier in the same country and with the same conductor but with the National Orchestra; the afore mentioned concert by D’Rivera; Crónicas Latinoamericanas by Daniel Freiberg; and Efraín Oscher’s Concierto Mestizo, a preamble of the album recorded with this same repertoire the following week.

Pacho Flores Colorado Springs Philharmonic

Arturo Márquez, Paquito D’Rivera, Roberto Sierra, Christian Lindberg, Efraín Oscher and Daniel Freiberg

Pacho traveled afterwards to New Orleans to play with the Louisiana Philharmonic before visiting Poland to perform with the Beethoven Academy Orchestra, then to Switzerland to play with the Strasbourg Philharmonique and Kirill Karabits at the KKL in Lucerne, and then returned to the US to participate in the Latin American Festival of Fort Worth, Texas. After some master classes in Zurich, Pacho will travel to Bogota to perform with the Philharmonic Orchestra led by his friend, maestro Christian Vásquez, and from there he will head to Colorado Springs.

Pacho Flores, Colorado Springs Philharmonic

Pacho Flores and Paquito D’Rivera recording D’Rivera’s Concerto Venezolano

Pacho will after this return to the Royal Galician Philharmonia with Manuel Hernández-Silva for a double event, in which he will present Cantos y Revueltas, his fourth album for Deutsche Grammophon recorded live with this same orchestra and conductor, and also premiere Danzas Latinas, Efraín Oscher’s new concert dedicated to Pacho himself and which is part of the project of shared commissions for new trumpet concerts that Pacho is promoting.

Pacho Flores, Colorado Springs Phhilharmonic

Arturo Sandoval. Foto: Ocesa

From there on await Brazil, France, Spain and the Liverpool Philharmonic for the premiere of Salseando by Roberto Sierra; Spain, a new visit to the United States, Mexico and the San Diego Symphony for a new premiere by Paquito D’Rivera; afterwards Tokyo, again Poland to perform with the National Radio Symphony of Poland and back to the US; then the ADDA orchestra in Spain to play Un Sueño Morisco, double concert for trumpet and trombone that Christian Lindberg wrote for Pacho and Ximo Vicedo, premiered this 2019 with the RTVE Orchestra; Argentina and Chile; a return to Spain for the European premiere of Arturo Sandoval’s Concert No. 1 with the Oquesta Sinfónica de Galicia and the absolute premiere of the Concierto Mambí by Igmar Alderete with the Orchestra of Cordoba; and from there to Canada before returning to Spain again for the European premiere of Concierto venezolano by D’Rivera with the Orchestra of Valencia under Vicent Alberola. Finally, Pacho will premiere next summer in Brazil Roberto Sierra’s Salseando, with the Orquetra Simfònica do Estado de São Paulo and Giancarlo Guerrero.