“The succession of imitative string entries in the pulsing Andante movement [of Mozart’s Symphony No.40] emerged with telling clarity and eloquence, Mena lacing them seductively together like a master weaver.”
Se puede leer la crítica de Terry Blain del Star Tribune aquí.
La vida breve is the first great work by Manuel de Falla, not only on account of the brilliance of his achievement, but also because in this score the powerful musical personality of the composer shines through. It introduces an orchestral scope that was previously unheard of in Hispanic musical theatre; there are direct references to folklore; there is the very remarkable role of the choir, and the incredible ability to evoke the magic of the Albaicín in Granada. The idea of the story came to Falla when he read, in the periodical Blanco y Negro, a short poem of clear social content, written by Carlos Fernández-Shaw, which would become the heart of the libretto.
‘I am filled with emotion at the prospect of releasing this disc, because for all Spanish conductors Manuel de Falla’s La vida breve is the highpoint of Spanish opera and a fundamental work in our repertoire.’ – Juanjo Mena
You can see the full track listings and download the audio here.
Former Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, Juanjo Mena continues the series ‘La Música de España’, which has seen the recording of orchestral works by de Falla, Turina, and Albéniz, with another important Spanish composer: Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga, known for years after his early death as the ‘Spanish Mozart’.
The orchestral overture to Los esclavos felices (The Happy Slaves) is all that survives of an opera which the child prodigy Arriaga wrote aged fourteen. When Arriaga moved to Paris in 1821 to study under Fétis, Guérin, and Baillot, he revised the overture, making changes to the instrumentation and removing a third theme. It is the revised version which is heard on this recording.
Air de l’Opéra Médée and Herminie are included in the largely autograph volume ‘Ensayos lírico-dramáticos’ (Lyric-dramatic Essays), and here feature one of Scandinavia’s most sought-after concert singers, the soprano Berit Norbakken Solset. Tonally ambiguous, the D minor Symphonie à grand orchestre, which begins and ends in D major, and the Overture, Op. 20, in D major, which was written ‘without having learnt the principles of harmony’, are proof that the death of Arriaga at age nineteen was a ‘sad loss to Basque music’.
You can see the full track listings and download the audio here.
In his final year as BBC Philharmonic’s Chief Conductor, Juanjo Mena completes a highly-acclaimed Ginastera series with this third volume. Like in his previous series ‘La Música de España’, Mena brings the composer’s creative genius to a more deserved fame, showcasing here three works that belonged to three different period of his compositional life.
While the Concierto Argentino is the most significant score of his early years, drawing directly on Argentinian folk music and full of youthful exuberance, the Variaciones Concertantes (more a concerto for orchestra than a set of variations) assumes a more personal and abstract form in accordance with the development of his harmonic ideas in the later stage of his life.
The rhythmic energy and magic scoring of the ‘neo-expressionist’ piano concerto (as Ginastera defined the third phase of his life) is faithfully expressed by the highly technical and virtuosic playing of Xiayin Wang, widely praised for her recent solo recording of piano works by Enrique Granados.
Juanjo Mena regresa a la ABAO en noviembre de 2018 tras su exitosa dirección de “Billy Budd” de B. Britten en 2009 para ponerse al frente de la Bilboko Orkestra Sinfonikoa, con “Fidelio” de Beethoven.
Informazio gehiago.
“Under [Juanjo Mena’s] darting baton, The Rite of Spring ceased being the textbook leviathan of musical modernism and became, supremely, music for dancing — urgent but lithe.”
“At 105 years old, Stravinsky’s ballet score still felt raw, dangerous and new.”
(Geoff Brown, The Times)
Available here as a PDF
“Here was a Rite that could be danced to, as well as being thrilling, and with an observant regard for the score’s folksong aspects, often overlooked in gung-ho approaches. Musical clarity was Mena’s watchword, no cheap thrills here, and no short-changing of the music either, and the opening of Part Two was unusually bewitching in its mystery and distance, yearning even.”
“The LPO was precise, dynamic and responsive throughout, Mena playing the long game so that the ‘Sacrificial Dance’ was the inevitable corollary to everything that had gone before. It was quite something to hear The Rite not treated glibly and used as a showpiece vehicle, for this was not a sensation-seeking account but one that gave a more-complete view of music easy to abuse that nevertheless fully conveyed the work’s sense of ritual and carousal, the final drop-dead chord properly emphatic.”
(Colin Anderson, Classical Source)
“Outstanding Stravinsky from Mena and the LPO […..] It is possible to become over-familiar with Le sacre, so that its dramatic force becomes diminished. But on this occasion everything sounded completely fresh.”
(Alan Sanders, Seen and Heard International)
“Making his debut with The National Symphony Orchestra, Spanish-born Conductor Juanjo Mena, elegant in tails and passionately eloquent in gesture and carriage, was in full command, not of the orchestra, but in full partnership with the orchestra. And not only here, but in the two thoroughly divergent, yet somehow essentially – musically, creatively or emotionally – complementary selections that would complete the program: Samuel Barber’s Piano Concerto, Op. 38, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, the “Pathétique.”
Puede leer la crítica entera de Leslie Weisman aquí.
Juanjo Mena stepped in to conduct three performances of Mozart’s Third Violin Concerto with Janine Jansen, and Mahler’s Symphony No 1 with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks last week, following the cancellation of Gustavo Dudamel due to illness. Friday’s concert at the Herkulessaal in Munich was streamed live, and you can watch it here:
Juanjo Mena will lead the BBC Philharmonic in two concerts at this year’s prestigious BBC Proms Festival. The first is a concert performance of Beethoven’s only opera “Fidelio”, with a stellar cast of soloists and the Orfeón Donostiarra from Mena’s native Basque Country of Spain. And having conducted its successful premiere at the 2014 Manchester International Festival, Juanjo Mena leads the BBC Philharmonic once more in the first London performance of Mark Simpson’s “The Immortal”, followed by Tchaikovsky’s deeply personal Sixth Symphony.
“Mena led [Prokofiev’s first symphony] with an eye towards Haydnesque grace. The opening movement was light on its feet, with the skipping second theme taking on a gentle humor. The second movement was imbued with a singing lyricism. The violin theme spun over the accompaniment in a gleaming, vocal line. The Gavotte moved with a gentle swagger. Mena gave the piece a technicolor flourish, highlighting wind and string lines to good effect. The final movement was a whirlwind of darting figures.”
“After the intermission Mena led a bracing account of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony. Mena, who led from memory, conducted with a keen sense of the work’s breadth. Tempos were fleet, which brought fire to the performance, particularly in the finale. Phrases were shaped in long arcs. Mena, too, kept an eye to the dance-like character that permeates the inner movements of the piece. The scherzo was nimble and swift in its pizzicato statements, and the sweeping string lines of the first movement sounded with glowing warmth.” (Aaron Keebaugh, Boston Classical Review)
“The fervid “fate” motif, which began the symphony, issued in an ominous blaze from the brass section with exhilarating spirit if not pinpoint accuracy. The lighter movements held similar dramatic tension with the heavier; the palpitating third movement’s wired and anxious pizzicato jumped note to note as if it were scoring a high-speed cartoon chase. The final movement [of Tchaikovsky’s fourth symphony] unleashed a giddy carnival, with cymbals crashing, timpani pounding, and a Russian folk song reconfigured into a wild dance, so when the fate theme reared its head again, it felt harsh as a falling blade. It was bombast, but sincere bombast, and played with all the love imaginable.” (Zoë Madonna, Boston Globe)
“Mena’s interpretation [of Prokofiev’s first symphony] certainly felt lively and the orchestra didn’t hesitate for a moment to follow his lead. In the nicely shaped phrasing in the opening moment, the orchestra, and in particular the strings, responded to the conductor with a refined delicacy we don’t always expect from performances of the 20th-century Russian orchestral canon. The second movement glided by as a stately and assured larghetto. Performed with elegant dovetailing between strings and winds, the well-placed articulations highlighted Prokofiev’s occasional expansion of tonal palette. The Gavotte delighted; here we had a typical Viennese style dance with just a hint of a samovar. This came in stark contrast to the controlled frenzy of an exuberant final movement. Mena cued without over-conducting and the orchestra needed no encouragement to fly. From the opening brass fanfare [of Tchaikovsky’s fourth symphony], the playing engaged the audience ….. Mena led a tight ship, resulting in clarity and precision as well as freshness and fervor. The fourth movement yielded more controlled frenzy. A powerful opening with the orchestra at full force, this finale acted almost as a resolution to the Weinberg. Finally, ‘fate’ was conquered and a semblance of order restored as the work raced to its final cadence.” (Georgia Luikens, the Boston Musical Intelligencer)
“Kremer and Mena brought out the humanity and equanimity which underpins the concerto and much of Weinberg’s other work, particularly in the dialogue of the first moment and the hollow triumphalism of the last. From the threatening fanfare which opens [Tchaikovsky’s fourth symphony] through the agile pizzicato ostinato of the third movement, to the wild, exultant Allegro con fuoco which closes it, Mena brought loving attention to detail and balance to the grandiosity of Tchaikovsky’s boisterous score, creating a texture backed by deep string sonorities transparent enough to allow inner voices to be heard and the kaleidoscopic drama to unfold. At the height of World War II, Serge Koussevitzky exhorted an audience in New York’s Town Hall, “let us sing the song of love for mankind and faith in the ageless ideals of independence and democracy. Let music become the symbol of the undying beauty of the spirit of man. Let us conquer the darkness with the burning light of art.” He would have been proud to hear his orchestra doing just that.” (Kevin Wells, Bachtrack)