User:Bcasabla/Benet casablancas

BENET CASABLANCAS (Born 2 April 1956 Sabadell, España)

Benet Casablancas studied in Barcelona and at the Vienna Academy of Music with Friedrich Cerha and Karl Heinz Füssl, and he graduated in Philosophy in Universidad Atonoma de Barcelona (1982). He has also a PhD in musicology. His music, firmly rooted in the great modernist tradition, is notable for its great individuality, structural complexity and extraordinary richness of textural detail. Rooted in the formal techniques of serialism, in the 1990s he became more concerned with harmony and texture. His wide-ranging oeuvre covers the most diverse genres and formats, increasingly drawn towards the orchestral field. Critics have highlighted his concern for balancing constructional rigour and expressive strength, dramatic character and whimsical register, in the framework of a discourse in which coexist a progressively luminous harmonic language, rhythmic spirit, timbral differentiation and instrumental virtuosism. He has received many awards: Premio Nacional Disco Ministerio de Cultura de España, Premio Nacional de Música de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Premio Ciudad de Barcelona, Composer´s Arena Amsterdam (Gaudeamus), Musiciens´s Accord New York, Premios Ferran Sors, Oscar Esplá, Jeunesses Musicales, etc. In 2002 he was appointed Academic Director of the Conservatorio Superior de Música del Liceo in Barcelona. His music has been presented at the most important international festivals: Holland Festival Amsterdam, Musica Strasbourg, ISCM World Music Days Vilnius, Biennale Düsseldorf, Spanien Modern Wien, Theatre Miller New York, Atempo Caracas, Weimar, Bruxelles, Antwerpen, London Barbican Hall, Paris, Lausanne, St. Petersburg, Warzawa, Montréal, München, Vancouver, Bolonia, Buenos Aires, Stockholm, Malmö, Lima, Rotterdam, Roma, etc. Recent commissions include: Miller Theater New York, The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Zagreb Biennale and Ensemble 88 Utrecht.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

1982 Graduated in Music and Philosophy. Moves to Vienna to study with Friedrich Cerha 1990 Begins the "Epigrams" collection, that marks a decisive point for his musical language 2000 Doctorate in Musicology by the UAB. He publishes the book "El Humor en la Música" 2002 Academic Director of the Conservatorio del Liceo 2007 National Music Prize of the Generalitat de Catalunya 2008 Diverse "Composers Portraits" in Vienna´s Musikverein. Madrid and Barcelona. The "New Epigrams" represented Spain in the ISCM World Music Days of Vilnius and the BBC Symphony Orchestra plays in London the UK Prémiere of "Seven Scenes from Hamlet" 2009 Holland, Sweden and Belgium Prémières of "Alter Klang. Impromptu for orchestra". World Prémière of his “String Quartet nr. 3” by Arditti Quartet. Recording of his complete works for strings (Fundación Autor/Tritó) and publishes his piano, chamber and orchestral music for Naxos 2010 "Composer Portrait" in Theatre Miller at Columbia University New York. Commissions from Liverpool Philharmonic, Zagreb and Utrecht. He begins working on the opera “Io” (prémière prev.: saison 2012-2013

KEY WORKS

Five Interludes -Quasi variazioni- (1983; string quartet) Seven Scenes from Hamlet (1989; chamber orchestra) New Epigrams (1997; chamber orchestra) Three Epigrams (2000; orchestra) The Dark Backward of Time (2005; orchestra) Alter Klang (2006; orchestra) Darkness visible (2009; orchestra)

SELECTED RECORDINGS

Epigrams, String Trio, Introduction, Cadenza and Aria, String Quartet nr. 2, New Epigrams, Album Leaf, Two Notations, Aphorism, Three Epigrams Various performers (London Sinfonietta, Arditti Quartet, Barcelona SO, BCN 216, etc.). EMEC/Fundació Música Contemporània E-068 (2005) Five Interludes for String Quartet, Two Piano Pieces, Three Piano Pieces, Scherzo, Mouvement for Trio, Little Night music, Two Songs, Celebration Various performers. Columna Música 1CM0112 (2004) Piano Music (Three Bagatelles, Tombeau, Three Divertimenti for piano duet, Album Leaf, etc) Jordi Masó, Miquel Villalba. Naxos 8.570757 (2008) The Dark Backward of Time, Love Poem, Intrada on the name of Dalí, Epigrams, Postlude) Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, Ofèlia Sala, cond: S. Mas. Naxos 8.579002 (2009 in forthcoming)

BIBLIOGRAPHY (Books, Articles and Critical Rewiews: selective list)

Argullol, R. "Tutto nel mondo è burla". Barcelona: El País, 22 de julio de 2001 Associació Catalana de Compositors, 68 Compositors Catalans. Barcelona Departament de Cultura de la Generalitat de Catalunya, 1989 Basso, A., Dizionario Enciclopedico Universale della Musica e dei Musicisti. Torino: UTET, 1985 Cerha, F., Benet Casablancas. Ciutat de Mallorca: U.M. CD-1, 1988 Charles, A. "Benet Casablancas", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition (Stanley Sadie, ed.). London: Macmillan, 2000, vol. 5, pp. 221-222 Estapé, V. "El Humor en la Música, by Benet Casablancas". London: Arietta. The Journal of the Beethoven Society of Europe, 2002 García Estefanía, A. y Taverna-Bech, F. Benet Casablancas ("Catálogos de Compositores"). Madrid: SGAE, 1995 Marco, T. Spanish Music in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993 Medina, A. "Benet Casablancas", Diccionario de la Música Española e Hispano-Americana. Madrid: S.G.A.E., 2000 Millet, Ll. "Benet Casablancas Domingo. El Humor en la Música". Barcelona: Revista Musical Catalana, Núm. 205, Noviembre 2001 Nommick, Y. "Benet Casablancas Domingo. El Humor en la Música". Madrid: Revista de Libros, 2002 Pérez, O. y Solé, V., Gran Diccionari Enciclopèdic de la Músic., vol 2. Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2000 Sheinberg, E. "Benet Casablancas, El Humor en la Música". Oxford: Music Analysis, 2002 Trías, E. "El humor en la música", El Cultural. Madrid: El Mundo, 4.7.2001 Van der Waa, F. "Kwakkelend. Spanje-programma van Holland Festival krijgt kleur". Amsterdam: De Volkskrant, 25 de juny de 1991 Viana, A. "El Humor en la Música, by Benet Casablancas", Humor. International Journal of Humor Research (Editor in chief Salvatore Attardo). Mouton de Gruyter (Berlin. New York; Book reviews Humor 16-1 (2003), pp. 110-116.

BIOGRAPHY EXTENDED

Born in Sabadell (Barcelona, 1956), Benet Casablancas is one of the leading spanish composers of his generation. He studied in Barcelona and Vienna, where he worked with, among others, Friedrich Cerha and Karl-Heinz Füssl. He also has a degree in philosophy and a PhD in musicology, both from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Courses with C. Halffter, G. Ligeti, E. Carter, M. Kagel, G. Benjamin and M. Lindberg. His works, distinguished with numerous commissions and awards (Ciudad de Barcelona, Musician´s Accord of New York, Fundación Juan March of Madrid, Spanish National Recording Prize, Composer´s Arena of Amsterdam, Oscar Esplá, Ferran Sors, ISCM Festival, etc.), have been performed around Europe, Canada, the USA and South America, by prestigious soloists, ensembles and conductors (London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal, Arditti Quartet, Ensemble 13 of Baden-Baden, Notabu of Düsseldorf, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Ensemble Modern Academie, Trio à cordes of Paris, Ensemble Insomnio of Utrecht, Leipziger Streichquartett, Spanish National Orchestra, Orchestra of Barcelona and Catalonia, the Symphony Orchestras of Galicia, Granada, Tenerife, Comunidad de Madrid and Spanish Radio and Television, Spanish National Youth Orchestra, Hermitage of St Petersburg, Malmö Simfoni Orkester, Gran Canaria Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, NJO of the Netherlands, Orchestre National de Belgique, Proyecto Gerhard, Ensemble Reconsil Wien, Damocles Trio New York, Brouwer Trio, L. Foster, F.-P. Decker, T. Weiss, G. Ben-Dor, M.A. Schlingensiepen, V. Petrenko, J. Pons, A. Leaper, B. Güeller, M. Scwierzewski, A. Ros-Marbà, J. López Cobos, E. Colomer, A. Posada, J.R. Encinar, etc.). His work "The Dark Backward of Time", for orchestra, has been finalist of the Prix de Composition Prince Pierre de Monaco 2007. Early on in his career he began combining composition with teaching and research. An advisor for different institutions and patron of several foundations, he has published numerous historical and analytical articles (in The New Grove, Arietta, Quodlibet) and the celebrated book El Humor en la Música (Reichenberger, 2000). He has been head of theory and composition at a number of Spanish conservatories, educational director of the Catalan National Youth Orchestra (JONC) and associate professor at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra de Barcelona. He has also been a frequent member of the jury of several European composing and performing competitions and kept up a busy agenda as a guest professor at several international schools. Currently, he continues to work closely with the Courses of Musical Specialization of the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares (Spain). In 2002 he assumed the direction of the Conservatorio Superior de Música del Liceo (Barcelona), a post he now combines with his work in composition and research. His wide-ranging oeuvre, covering the most diverse genres and formats, is marked by a quest for radical personal and aesthetic independence. The critics have highlighted his concern for balancing constructional rigour and expressive strength, dramatic character and whimsical register, in the framework of a discourse in which coexist a progressively luminous harmonic language, rhythmic spirit, a growing timbral differentiation and instrumental virtuosism. Between his most acclaimed works: “Seven Scenes from Hamlet”, for reciter and chamber orchestra, the serie of “Epigrams”, for different formations, from piano solo to symphony orchestra (“Seven Epigrams”, for piano, “Epigrams”, for six players, “New Epigrams” for chamber orchestra and “Three Epigrams”, for orchestra), “Little Night Music” and “Celebration”, for chamber ensemble, diverse "Haikus" for piano solo and small groups, and orchestral pieces as “Postludio”, “The Dark Backward of Time” and “Alter Klang. Impromptu for large orchestra”. His works have been played in recent years with great succes in all Europe and America: London, Paris, Vienna, Amsterdam, Düsseldorf, New York, Montreal, Vancouver, Oberlin (Ohio), St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Frankfurt, Bruxelles, Weimar, Strassbourg, Lancaster, Varsovia, Lisboa, Caracas, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Lausanne, Lima, Malmö, Napoles, Minks, Kishinev, Karlsruhe, Génève, Bolonia, Lubljana, Vilnius, etc.

In 2007 he received the National Prize of Music of the Generalitat of Catalunya, which is the highest honour that the government of his country awards in this cultural field.

Next commitments include several new recordings: Complete Piano Music (NAXOS; 2008), 3 Orchestral CDs (Orquestra Simfónica de Barcelona/NAXOS; Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid/STRADIVARIUS; Orquesta Nacional de España/DIVERDI), Complete String Quartet Works (Arditti Quartet/FUNDACION AUTOR) and several volumes of Chamber Music (Ensemble BCN 216/HARMONIA MUNDI; Plural Ensemble/VERSO; Trio Kandinsky/COLUMNA MUSICA). Among next commissions and recent performances we may mention BBC Symphony Orchestra (2008, 24th october, London, Barbicane), National Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands (2009, January; tournée in Holland and Belgium, including Rotterdam, Antwerpen, Apeldoorn, Nijmegen, etc.), Ensemble BCN 216 (2008, 9th April, Vienna, Musikverein, II Festival "Spanien Modern"), Malmö Symfoni Orkester (Sweden), Orchestre Nationale de Belgique, Plural Ensemble (Köln, Germany), Trio Arbós (Istambul) and Trio Kandinsky (Tokio and Nagoya).

Actually he is working in several new commissions: “Darkness visible, nocturnal for orchestra” (Generalitat de Catalunya), Theatre Miller at Columbia University New York (Perspectives Ensemble, “Four Darks in Red”, after Rotkho, for chamber orchestra), Festival Internacional de Música de Torroella de Montgrí (“String Quartet nr. 3”, for Arditti Quartet), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble 88 de Utrecht, Biennal de Zagreb, Ensemble Modus Novus Madrid, etc. and the opera "Io” (El fin del mundo como una obra de arte), based upon a libretto of Spanish writer and poet Rafael Argullol whose Prèmière is intended provisionally for the saison 2012-13).

LINKS

http://www.benetcasablancas.tk http://www.naxos.com/composerinfo/Benet_Casablancas/65602.htm http://phonoarchive.org/grove/Entries/S48175.htm http://millertheatre.com/PDF/0910subflyerfull.pdf http://www.liverpoolphil.com/eventdetail.aspx?Event_ID=2208

VIDEOS http://www.tv3.cat/videos/25409

"Seven Scenes from Hamlet" (UK Prémière, BBC SO): http://www.tv3.cat/videos/767299

EDITORIAL: TRITO Edicions (Barcelona, España) www.trito.es (contacto: toni@trito.es)

WORDS ON THE COMPOSER

"THE MUSIC OF BENET CASABLANCAS"

We hear a lot from politicians (particularly from across the Atlantic) about 'old' Europe at this time. For them it is a term of disapproval, of tiredness and ineffectiveness. For some of us Europeans (including the French foreign minister) it is a term of pride. It means the wisdom of experience and profound culture, so profound that we can, if we wish, wear it lightly; but it will still be there, guiding our behaviour from below like the unshowy current of a deep river. Benet Casablancas' music is like that. The past is worn lightly, but it guides from deep down. He has absorbed well the culture of old Europe. There is the wit of Haydn, the polyphony of Schoenberg's third period, the period when he particularly drew on the clarity of Classical phrase structure while at the same time starting a revolution in music. The past was profoundly present to him, even though people, to his dismay, called him a disruption in music. His teaching showed this clearly, he burrowed deeply under the ground. Casablancas writes with a similarly guided classic polyphonic clarity that is uncommon these days. There are many strands simultaneously and they all echo each other loosely, parodying and transforming as they go. They combine in coherent harmonies and bounce off chords played by, say, the piano or grouped choirs of sound, so that there is a constant play between line and chord. The clarity is further enhanced by the symmetries and balance of the phrase structures. Often closure is effected by the clearest sound in atonal music - silence. At any rate, a change of texture will appear quickly and decisively long before anyone gets tired of a set-up. That's why, perhaps, he is so fond of the epigram form - and most of his movements are short. The epigram states an idea briefly, punchily, with wit even. It leaves something to be desired, some mystery to do with unpacking its meaning. This is the music of someone who does not wish to labour points: they should be made concisely and then be done with. A musician talking to intelligent, cultured fellows - 'old' Europeans. The vitality and energy of his work is well-known - sudden switches of direction within a very short span give a superbly exhilarating and exuberant quality in the fast movements. The slow movements, though, particularly ones like the second of the 'New Epigrams', or the second of the 'Three Epigrams for orchestra' are similarly changeable, but in another altogether different vein. They are softer and more veiled; the bright Spanish light is nocturnal and one hears more blend than brilliant blare. The polyphony here takes on a heirarchical aspect. That is to say, some layers become principal, others are ornamental, decorative. Texture is complex rather than multi-polyphonic (wherein all parts are more or less equal). Atmosphere and mood are subtle and suggestive rather than classically clear, harmonics appear, giving non-tempered pitches. One willingly acquiesces in landscapes of the imagination, with birdsong, perhaps. Even here the form, of the phrases, of the sections, of the movements, remains clear, the attention gripped; but not quite 100% is given, we know there is more to it, below the surface. I am grateful for Benet Casablancas' music: and I have no doubt that his students are also grateful for such an imaginatively cultured sensibility in their midst, one with whom the continuities of Western culture will be safe in their spiralling evolution.

Jonathan Harvey (13 Feb. 2003) [Published in: “Sibila”; Sevilla, 2004]