This unusual record from Colombia presents contrasting works from that country's leading composers circa 1958 - Luis Antonio Escobar and Guillermo Uribe Holguín.
Uribe Holguín, born in 1880, was the senior composer by some 45 years, and was trained in the Schola Cantorum. While his music retained French influences over the years, he also became interested in folk forms. The Three Criollo Dances presented here are his interpretation of dance music from the Criollos - the social caste of native-born people of primarily Spanish ancestry. The composition dates from 1945.
Escobar's work, from just six years later, is in a much different idiom. He wrote it as a 26-year-old newly arrived in Germany to study with Boris Blacher. The soloist in this concertino for flute is Oscar Alvarez. In both works Olav Roots conducts the Sinfonica of Colombia.
In truth, neither the orchestral performances nor the recordings are especially refined, but the music is most attractive and very much worth your listening. This was the first in what may have been designed to be a series on Colombian composers.
LINK
5 comments:
What a very fascinating post. Apparently, there is not one single recording of music by either composer currently in print. (Nothing is listed for either composer at arkivmusic.com.) That means, that you have offered something here that cannot be found anywhere else! Thanks for the introduction to these two composers!
@ ziegelab,
Thanks for your note. I imagine this is the only version of this recording available, yes, but there have been other recordings of Escobar (not sure about Uribe Holguin). Check this Colombian site, which has some mp3s.
http://www.lablaa.org/blaavirtual/musica/blaaaudio/compo/escobar/indice.htm
I was a bit confused about why I should care about music from Columbia during the mid-century, then I realized you meant the country, not the record label. My bad...
Hi Buster,
I had never heard of conductor Olav Roots. A little research yielded that he was a prominent conductor in Free Estonia prior to the second world war and then had to flee as the Soviets moved in and took over. Roots must have been someone that the Soviets would want to make "disappear" if he had hung around. I could find nothing more after that, at least in the English language!
Fred
Hi Fred - thanks so much for the info. I wonder how he ended up in Colombia.
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