Manuel Hernández-Silva has assembled a team of Spanish-Venezuelan musicians along with Pacho Flores and Jesús ‘Pingüino’ González, for his debut with the Cyprus National Symphony Orchestra. The first part of the concert is dedicated to the traditional repertoire with a Symphony No. 6 by Franz Schubert to give rise in the second to a Latin festival around the trumpet in which a good part of the repertoire is by Pacho Flores himself and includes Heteronimos, a brief concertino for trumpet based on the different voices created by the Portuguese Fernando Pessoa for his literary expression; the Aria-cantinela of the Bachiana Brasileira nº 5 by Villalobos; Revirado, by Piazzolla; and Cantos y Revueltas. Fantasia Concertante for trumpet, Venezuelan Cuatro and strings, again by the trumpeter himself.
Cantos y Revueltas is the first work for orchestra composed by Pacho Flores and was premiered with Manuel Hernández-Silva and the cuatrista Leo Rondón together with the Real Filharmonía de Galicia in January 2018 on a mini-tour through Vigo, Santiago and A Coruña. Those concerts were recorded and gave rise to Pacho’s fourth album for Deutsche Grammophon with the same title as the work. Since then, Cantos y Revueltas has been performed by various orchestras around the world, such as the Murcia Region Symphony, the Miami Bolívar Philharmonic, the Texas Christian University Latin American Festival, the Malaga Philharmonic, the Navarra Symphony, the Jalisco Philharmonic, the Orquesta of Extremadura, Bogotá Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Valencia Orchestra, Castilla y León Symphony, Gran Canaria Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony and Minería Orchestra in Mexico, most of them conducted by Manuel Hernández-Silva but also by Carlos Miguel Prieto, Rafael Payare or Domingo Hindoyan. Heterónimos premiered with the Murcia Region Symphony last April 2022 at the Víctor Villegas Auditorium with Pacho himself conducting.
Jesús González Brito, alias ‘Pingüino’, is a guitarist, cuatro player, double bass player, composer and pedagogue with whom Pacho has collaborated on many occasions including a phonographic record for Deutsche Grammophon, ENTROPÍA, perhaps Pacho’s most intimate and chamber music album to date. date, which brings together a good number of classic songs from Latin American popular music along with new works due to both Pacho and ‘Pingüino’ and which won the gold medal at the Global Music Awards.
Pacho Flores stars in a new premiere of Historias de Flores y Tangos by Daniel Freiberg with the Minería Symphony and Carlos Miguel Prieto on August 19, 20 and 21. This concert is the product of a shared commission between the Oviedo Filarmonía orchestra, which premiered it on October 23, 2021 at the Príncipe Felipe Auditorium in Oviedo under the direction of Lucas Macías; the Minería Symphony Orchestra; the Norwegian Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra, which will premiere it on March 16 and 17, 2023 under the baton of Manuel Hernández-Silva; and the Walla Walla Symphony will close the cycle of premieres under the direction of its Chief Conductor Yaacob Bergman on May 2, 2023. Along with Historias de Flores y Tangos, Pacho will also play his own work Cantos y Revueltas, which has the participation of co-soloist of Leo Rondón playing the Venezuelan Cuatro.
This concert is part of the project of shared commissions that Pacho Flores, together with his agency ACM Concerts, launched in 2017 with the aim of expanding the solo trumpet repertoire with orchestra with concerts that offer a greater range, both in register, as well as sound and color, and therefore, expressive capacity, making room for the various prototypes of four-piston trumpets, cornets and flugelhorns in new tonalities that Pacho has spent years experimenting and developing with his manufacturer Stomvi.
Five other concerts have already emerged from this project: Arturo Márquez’s Concierto de Otoño, commissioned and premiered by the National Orchestra of Mexico (Prieto), the Orchestra of the Center for Performing Arts of Hyogo Japan (Inoue), Oviedo Filarmonía (Macías) and Tucson Symphony (Gomez); the Concerto Venezolano, by Paquito D’Rivera: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (Hindoyan), Minería (Prieto), Valencia Orchestra (Hernández-Silva) and San Diego Symphony (Payare); Salseando, by Roberto Sierra: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (Hindoyan), Murcia Orchestra (Hernández-Silva), São Paulo State Symphony (Prieto) and Bordeaux National Orchestra (Hernández-Silva); Danzas Latinas, by Efraín Oscher, Royal Philharmonic of Galicia (Hernández-Silva); and Caballos Mágicos, by Christian Lindberg Royal Galician Philharmonic (Daniel), Swedish Chamber Orchestra (Lindberg) and Bilkent Symphony (Lindberg); and a new commission is already underway, Altar de Bronce, by Gabriela Ortiz by the Galicia Symphony Orchestra (Hernández-Silva), the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (Hindoyan) and the New World Symphony (Prieto).
Several of these concerts have already been recorded, such as Caballos Mágicos, with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and conducted by Christian Lindberg, a recording that includes another concert with the participation of Pacho Flores, such as Sueño Morisco, a double concerto for trumpet and trombone commissioned and premiered by the RTVE Orchestra; the Concierto de Otoño by Arturo Márquez and the Concerto Venezolano, by Paquito D’ Rivera, which are part of ESTIRPE, the new album by Pacho Flores with Minería y Prieto that will be available from July 29; and Salseando, by Roberto Sierra and Altar de Bronce, by Gabriela Ortiz, which will be recorded within a year with Liverpool and Hindoyan.
Pacho Flores will be artist-in-residence of La Virée Classique (The Classical Spree) 2022, the summer festival organized by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra during the month of August. The broad presence provided by his status as artist-in-residence, with three different programs as a soloist, will allow him to also show himself as a conductor and composer, two facets that have become increasingly important in the development of his career. On August 10, on the Esplanade of the Olympic Park with the Montreal Symphony conducted by Rafael Payare, Pacho Flores will perform the Concerto Venezolano, by Paquito D’Rivera, a concerto commissioned and premiered by the Minería Symphony Orchestra (Prieto), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (Hindoyan), Valencia Orchestra (Hernández-Silva) and San Diego Symphony (Payare).
On August 13, at the Théâtre Jean-Duceppe, Pacho will play and conduct a brass and percussion ensemble with a program featuring works by Copland and Joan Tower, originals for that group, as well as Musas y Resuello, by Pacho himself, along with others by Gershwin, Sarasate, PIazzolla and another of Pacho’s works, Labios Vermelhos, arranged for this format also by Pacho Flores himself. In this concert he will have the participation as a guest soloist of Paul Merkelo, OFM’s principal trumpeter. And finally on August 14, again at the Théâtre Jean-Duceppe and under the baton of Rafael Payare conducting the Ensemble de la Virée (Ensemble made up of 15 string instrumentalists: winners of the OSM Competition, CMIM, members of the OSM and the Obiora ensemble and guest soloists), Pacho will play Piazzolla’s Revirado and his own work Cantos y Revueltas, for trumpet, Venezuelan cuatro and strings. Therefore, three concerts as a soloist, one of them also as conductor and three works of his authorship plus the arrangements of another three is the balance of his presence as resident artist in the 2022 edition of this Virée Classique.
He will then travel to Mexico for the American premiere, together with the Minería Symphony and Carlos Miguel Prieto, of Historias de Flores y Tangos, by Daniel Freiberg, co-commissioned by Minería itself, the Oviedo Filarmonía (Macías), Arctic Philharmonic (Hernández-Silva) and Walla Walla Symphony (Bergman), and for the presentation of his most recent recording on Deutsche Grammophon, ESTIRPE, recorded precisely with Minería and Prieto in August 2019 and which includes the Concierto de Otoño, by Arturo Márquez, Latin American Chronicles by Daniel Freiberg, Concerto Venezolano by D’Rivera, Mestizo by Efraín Oscher and a short piece by Pacho himself, the Venezuelan waltz, Morocota. This is Pacho’s fifth recording for Deutsche Grammophon after Cantar, Entropía, Fractales, and Cantos y Revueltas.
The Venezuelan Cuatro player Leo Rondón makes his debut at the Salzburg Pentecost Festival as part of the L’Arpeggiata ensemble, conducted by Cristina Pluhar, which will perform a program entitled Torre del Oro. The Salzburg Pentecost Festival has Seville as the central theme of its programming for 2022, which is celebrated between June 3 and 6. A new production of Il barbiere di Siviglia with stage direction by Rolando Villazón will open the festival with its director, Cecilia Bartoli, playing the role of Rosina, with whom she made her professional debut at the end of the 1980s. The concert in which the Cuatro player Leo Rondón participates will take place on Saturday, July 4 at the Haus für Mozart in the Austrian city.
About this program in which the cuatrista Leo Rondón participates, the festival says: On the banks of the Guadalquivir is the symbol of Seville, the twelve-sided Torre del Oro. For many centuries, the port in front of the Torre del Oro was the departure point for Spanish galleons sailing to South America and returning to Seville laden with treasure. But it also symbolizes the lively and enriching exchange between peoples and cultures. In this concert, L’Arpeggiata opens the golden door from the Old to the New World. The starting point of the musical journey is the music of Alonso Mudarra. The Sevillian composer (1508-1580) is one of the most important Spanish vihuelists of the 16th century, whose innovations in instrumental and vocal music were so significant that his work is still recognized today. Mudarra’s works were published in the collection Tres libros de música en cifra para vihuela de Sevilla in 1546. It contains variations of folías, tientos, pavanas, gallardas, romanescas, canzones, villancicos and sonnets in Latin, Spanish and Italian, which can be found among the oldest solo songs with instrumental accompaniment. From this collection the musical path leads to South America and the “living baroque” in the traditional musical culture there to this day. The Venezuelan cuatro, a key instrument in the Caribbean country’s folklore, is a direct descendant of the vihuela, and popular and traditional Venezuelan music is truffled with the aroma of both courtly and popular Spanish music, and its most characteristic forms, such as the joropo, descends directly from the fandango.
Cover of Cantos y Revueltas, with Flores, Rondón, the Real Filharmonía and Hernández-Silva
Cuatrista, guitarist, double bassist, composer-arranger and producer, Leo Rondón is one of the most outstanding representatives of his instrument who has performed in concert halls and festivals in Venezuela, Colombia, Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Sweden, United Kingdom, Belgium, Holland, Kazakhstan and Morocco, with different groups and in collaborations with artists such as Quatuor Debussy, Rolando Villazón, Emiliano González Toro, Richard Galliano, Didier Lockwood, Cristóbal Soto, Ricardo Sandoval, Alexis Cárdenas, Simón Bolívar Big Band of Jazz, Omar Acosta and Roberto Koch, Pacho Flores or Manuel Hernández-Silva, among others. As a soloist, he has appeared alongside Alexis Cárdenas and Recoveco in the show El Fuego Latino organized by the Orchester National d’Île-de-France and under the baton of maestro Alondra de la Parra, presenting seven concerts in the Parisian region, where they stand out the Philharmonie de Paris or the Opera Garnier. In Spain, he has performed with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Galicia, the Malaga Philharmonic Orchestra, the Navarra Symphony, the Murcia Region Symphony, the Extremadura Orchestra, the Valencia Orchestra and the Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra, and among his next commitments are the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Arctic Philharmonic or Swedish Chamber Orchestra. He has participated in the album CANTOS Y REVUELTAS, by Pacho Flores, for Deutsche Grammophon, with the Real Filarmonía de Galicia and Hernández-Silva and has recently premiered his CONCIERTO DEL MAR for four Venezuelans and orchestra with the Murcia Region Symphony under the baton of Pacho Flores.
He won third place in the 2007 Siembra del Cuatro, and second place in 2012, as well as in 2011 as a cuatro player at the El Silbón (Venezuela) and San Martín (Colombia) festivals. He is currently a cuatrista, arranger and producer of the Ávila Quartet, a Venezuelan music quartet, as well as a cuatrista with the Ensemble L’Arpeggiata, directed by Christina Pluhar, Alexis Cárdenas y Recoveco, Venezuelan Roots and Joropo Jam, in addition to his solo project Leo Rondon Project. He organizes since 2010, together with the teacher Cristóbal Soto, the Summer Course Música Criolla Venezolana, a Venezuelan music teaching camp in the city of Mirecourt, France. Leo Rondón uses a cuatro made by Mathias Caron.
Manuel Hernández-Silva and Pacho Flores appear with the Orchestre National de Bordeaux-Aquitaine to offer two French premieres, those of the trumpet concertos, Salseando, by Roberto Sierra, and Concerto Venezolano by Paquito D’Rivera. In addition, a purely Latin American program is completed with Redes, by Silvestre Revueltas, and Estancia, by Ginastera. This French premiere of Salseando is the fourth in the cycle of premieres derived from the joint commission between the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Murcia Region Symphony Orchestra, the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra and the Bordeaux-Aquitaine National Orchestra itself. Hernández-Silva, who was also responsible for its Spanish premiere in Murcia, will conduct it next season with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra for its premiere in North America, later it will be Anu Tali with the Orchester Symphonique de Quebec who will premiere it in Canada, and Domingo Hindoyan will conduct it again in Liverpool for a new recording.
In the other hand, the Concerto Venezolano by Paquito D’Rivera completed its series of premieres by the co-commissioning orchestras last February by the San Diego Symphony and Rafael Payare, after the Minería Symphony, again the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the Valencia Orchestra, a Spanish premiere also under Hernández-Silva’s conducting. Since then it has already been scheduled with the Castilla y León Symphony and Carlos Miguel Prieto and the Gran Canaria Philharmonic with Hernández-Silva, Payare will take it this summer with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and next season, again under the baton of Hernández-Silva, will be presented together with the Galician Symphony. Hernández-Silva’s presence in this commissioned project will continue with the premieres of the new concert commissioned from Gabriela Ortiz with the Galician Symphony and Daniel Freiberg’s Historias de Flores y Tangos with the Norwegian Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra, both at the season 2022/23, and at the time he also conducted the Spanish premiere of Danzas Latinas by Efraín Oscher with the Real Filharmonía de Galicia, with which he also premiered and recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Cantos y Revueltas by Pacho Flores himself.
Cover of Cantos y Revueltas, with Flores, Rondón, the Rea Filharmonía and Hernández-Silva
All these new trumpet concerts are the result of a carefully laid plan with the aim of expanding the scarce repertoire for solo trumpet and orchestra, which is materializing through a project of shared commissions for new trumpet concerts from outstanding composers such as all those mentioned here. In a first phase, Arturo Márquez, Paquito D’Rivera and Roberto Sierra were commissioned, in a second Christian Lindberg, Efraín Oscher and Daniel Freiberg, and with Gabriela Ortiz a third phase begins and will last for the next seasons. The first of all the premieres was Arturo Márquez’s Concierto de Otoño, by the National Symphony of Mexico and Carlos Miguel Prieto, and despite the interruptions and delays caused by the COVID19 pandemic, with this one from Bordeaux, sixteen of the twenty-one planned premieres of the first two phases have already been made, and if nothing prevents it, at the beginning of the 2023/24 season the twenty-five premieres corresponding to the seven commissions will have been completed.
