The torn echo of one of the most dramatic forms of Andalusian Flamenco Singing: the ‘Seguiriya’, revolves at the centre of gravity of our composition for orchestra. A centrifugal movement in the form of a spiral of the musical mass of the orchestra leads us slowly towards a kind of vibrant rhythmic texture in a ternary rhythm: Bulería de sombras. (Mauricio Sotelo on Muros de dolor... III)
Thomas Søndergård and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra present the Dutch première of Mauricio Sotelo’s Muros de dolor... III on 22 Septemberat HET Concertgebouw.
These are the most thrilling moments in my profession, when I have the honor to première a new piece. One has to be the medium, midwife and guardian angel at same time. (Patricia Kopatchinskaja on Red Inner Light Sculpture)
On 10 June Patricia Kopatchinskaja premièred Mauricio Sotelo’s Red Inner Light Sculpture in St. Paul, MN, together with flamenco dancer Rubén Olmo, percussionist Agustín Diassera, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and conductor Tito Muñoz.
StarTribune has reviewed the world première:
The evening’s finale, the new piece that Kopatchinskaja commissioned, Red Inner Light Sculpture, turned out to be an unbuttoned, imaginative romp, an exploration of Andalusian flamenco with exuberant, witty dancing by Ruben Olmo, inventive percussion by Agustin Diassera and energetic, go-for-broke violin playing by the wild child herself.(Michael Anthony, StarTribune, 11 June 2016)
On 9 November Alfred Brendel will hold a keynote speech about Franz Liszt at the Auditorium in Arezzo.
Afterwards Mauricio Sotelo will introduce his Ancora un segreto before pianist Juan Carlos Garvayo performs the work, which is dedicated to Alfred Brendel and was inspired by conversations with the pianist about Liszt’s Sonata in B minor.
Find out more at the website of the Amici della Musica Arezzo
The Italian première of Mauricio Sotelo’s Urrutiko urdin will be performed by the Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi (cond. José Ramon Encinar) on 10 October at the Biennale di Venezia. Sotelo dedicated the orchestral piece to the orchestra, who premièred it in 2013.
The composer on Urrutiko urdin:
Urrutiko urdin – azul de lontananza or “Distant Blue” – is a vibrant sonic landscape and a frame for remembrance composed for and dedicated to the Orquestra Sinfónica de Euskadi. The Spanish name lontananza (borrowed from Italian) uses pictorial language to describe the zone farthest away from the foreground. Blue, the fifth colour of the solar spectrum, is also an adjective for the hue of cloudless sky and the sea; it also stands for space and distance.
View the full score of Urrutiko urdin.
Mauricio Sotelo: Urrutiko urdin
for orchestra | 7'
national prem. 10.10.2014, Teatro alle Tese, Venice; Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi, cond. José Ramon Encinar
Happy Birthday Mauricio Sotelo!
Find out more about the composer and listen to his music.
José Angel Valente on Sotelo:
Which act is the more artistic: the remembrance of music long since heard? Or the dream of music that has never sounded? Little does it matter, for in his music Mauricio Sotelo does both. “The infiniteness of the universe is the infiniteness of God. Man is inspired by the infinity of worlds and suns. Only thus can man approach perception of the Godly. And that perception is a journey on which memory is our guide.”
Watch the full performance of Sotelo’s Luz sobre lienzo:
Georg Friedrich Haas, Vykintas Baltakas, Mauricio Sotelo and Luke Bedford after the amazing performance of in vain under Sir Simon Rattle.
Commissioned
by the Sociedad Estatal Acción Cultura Espagñola, Sotelo composed Luz sobre lienzo in
honour of the 200th anniversary of the 1812 Cádiz Constitution. He was inspired
by the allegory La Verdad, el Tiempo y la
Historia [“Truth, Time and History”], which refers to the eponymous
painting Goya made for the 1812 occasion (the painting is now on display in the
Stockholm National Museum).
The three figures in the painting – apparently shrouded in a strange veil of
light – are represented in the piece by a violin (Truth), a cajón (Time), and dance (History). Live
electronics replace the eerie “light,” the entirety scenically presented by
unconventional interpreters.
The group includes Patricia Kopachinskaya, the internationally celebrated Moldavian violinist (who recently gave the premiere performance of Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in Austria, where it was received enthusiastically by the public and critics alike), “La Moneta” (the flamenco dancer who enjoyed great success at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam and the Teatro Real opera house in Madrid when she performed in Sotelo’s Muerte sin fin), Agustin Diaserra playing the flamenco cajón and Fernando Villanueva, in charge of the light projections – both the latter having always been part of the composer’s recent pieces.
Watch the full performance online: