Presentation by Iker Sanchez (director) and Alberto Chaves (SIGMA Project soloist)

Concert: Corola (1998)

Conversation Remembering LdP (and II), Fabián Panisello (composer and conductor) and Andrés Gomis (soloist SIGMA Project)

Musical Tip: The director’s view of today’s music. Iker Sánchez (director)

COROLA (1998) for saxophone quartet, piano and timpani.
Guest Piano Soloist: Sofía Chacón
Guest percussion soloist: Sergio Astasio
Guest conductor: Iker Sánchez Silva
Scenography/Lighting:: Javier Larreina
Work commissioned: Centro para la Difusión de la Música Contemporánea-CDMC de Madrid.
World premiere: London, 5/12/1998, by the Sax-Ensemble
Spanish premiere: 23/12/1998, Auditorio Nacional, by the Sax-Ensemble

In Luis de Pablo’s own words, Corola “consists of an extremely virtuosic single movement that superimposes several tempi with regular pulses against other free ones, and recitative-style passages (sometimes in unison) with others of great contrapuntal complexity. The work has a free form and the timbre plays an essential part in the musical discourse. The title of the work is a visual metaphor, but not a descriptive one“.

The work is a re-reading and instrumentation of the 1992 piece Ritornello for 8 cellos, which the Iberian Cello Ensemble premiered at the 1993 Alicante Contemporary Music Festival. To the question of whether it is a simple transcription of this work, the composer answers us:

“I think they are very different things because you can imagine that it is not a literal transcription. It can’t be! I have taken a material as a starting point and I have rewritten it from beginning to end, taking into account not only the characteristics of the saxophone, but also changing the very nature of the music, right? I mean, that ending that’s so difficult for the sopranino in Ritornello is barely audible, it’s like escaping into the sky because it’s the natural harmonics of the cello, and it has a completely different feel to it. The reason is quite obvious: the nature of the instruments is not the same.”

SIGMA Project is especially grateful to Eresbil (Basque Music Archive) and Musikaste (Basque Music Week) for their collaboration and support in this broadcast specially dedicated to the memory of Luis de Pablo. Eskerrik asko!!

+ info: A Contratiempo. Luis de Pablo