Orchestral works by José Luis Turina

By José Luis Temes
(Notes for the booklet of the CD José Luis Turina, part of the 12th Cycle of "Contemporary Composers" by the Málaga Philharmonic Orchestra – Málaga, 2005)


This album includes five of the seven orchestral works that José Luis Turina has penned to date. The other two, Punto de encuentro (1979) and Pentimento (1983), were composed earlier and have already been recorded and released under José Luis Temes conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra, respectively.
Let’s first discuss Fantasía sobre una Fantasía de Alonso Mudarra. Readers will recall that the 1980s were a time of growth for the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, perhaps pioneering among Spanish orchestras in demonstrating that a high level of orchestral performance could be achieved in locations removed from major historic musical centers like Madrid or Barcelona; even a relatively modest city like Santa Cruz de Tenerife could be home to an orchestra of exceptional quality. It was under the leadership of conductor Víctor Pablo Pérez and manager Enrique Rojas that Turina was commissioned to create a work with two specific requirements: it needed to fit the smaller orchestral dimensions of the Tenerife ensemble, with double wind instruments only -bearing in mind that both Pentimento and Ocnos required a large orchestra- and it should be a brilliant, effective, and practical piece for touring, even suitable as an encore.
Turina is well known for his inclination to reinterpret past music, along with the aesthetic and cultural approach that drives it. In this case, he looked back to Alonso de Mudarra (1510-1580), specifically the Fantasía décima from Mudarra’s collection of fantasies for the vihuela. It is worth noting that these fantasies by Mudarra are, in turn, reimaginings of other music from his era. Thus, Turina recreates a piece by Mudarra, which itself is a recreation of earlier music. I regret that Tomás Marco, in one of his writings, preempted me in coining the clever term "Russian doll variation" to describe this kind of structure, which can also be seen in another illustrious example, Ritirata notturna di Madrid by Luciano Berio. Two lively and vivid movements frame a central modal section, almost like plainchant, that is masterfully crafted. True to the commission’s purpose, the piece is highly effective and shines with orchestral brilliance while retaining a touch of restraint.

Three years later, another orchestral commission, this time from the Spanish Radio and Television Orchestra, would inspire Turina’s next symphonic work. At the time, Turina was contemplating a future stage work based on Alejo Carpentier’s novel El arpa y la sombra (The Harp and the Shadow), when he received this new commission. Up until that point, Turina had only sketched the preludes for the three sections he planned for the piece. By weaving these three introductory sections together, he created a symphonic triptych, with the same title as Carpentier’s novel, where each section flows seamlessly into the next. Carpentier’s book centers on the figure of Christopher Columbus and the mythologizing of his life and legacy over the centuries. This symphonic piece -dedicated with kind courtesy by Turina to my wife, Rosa María Molleda, and myself- was met with great success at its premiere, conducted by the commissioned orchestra’s then music director, Sergiu Comissiona. Although we all eagerly anticipated its continuation as a projected stage work, the composer soon shifted his focus toward other stage projects, and he never revisited Carpentier’s novel. The book thus inspired an excellent symphonic work but would never see the light in stage form.
Ten years after its premiere, given the fundamentally scenic and expressionist nature at the heart of El arpa y la sombra (1991), José Luis Turina deconstructed this work into its three original sections -El arpa, La mano, and La sombra- and with minor adjustments, reused them as preludes to the three acts of his opera D.Q. (Don Quixote in Barcelona). In fact, the piece presented here exists equally under its original title as well as under the title D.Q. (Don Quixote in Barcelona): Preludes.

After another three-year silence in orchestral composition, a commission from CajaMadrid, again for the Tenerife Orchestra -let us recall, the driving force behind Fantasía sobre Mudarra- gave our protagonist the opportunity to bring to life a long-cherished project: a very free "replica" of the Overture to The Barber of Seville by Rossini, which José Luis regards as a model work in its genre. However, it should be noted that Música fugitiva, as this new work would be titled, is neither a series of variations, a reworking, nor even a fantasy on the mentioned overture; therefore, aside from a few isolated moments, the origins of the piece remain almost entirely hidden from the listener.
Música fugitiva is essentially the combination of two isolated fragments -in fact, the composer subtitles the work "Two Symphonic Studies"- that could very well function independently. Barbara armonia, the title of the first section, opens at a brisk tempo, with material inspired by the chords and figures of the slow tempo that begins Rossini's overture, though very freely reworked; an oboe solo leads to a central section of enigmatic tones, which then transitions into a lively recapitulation. A mezza notte in punto, the second of the studies, is a slow-tempo transformation of the first rapid passage of the same overture; each string section is divided into two sub-sections, one of which evokes a tonal harmonic process that may give the attentive listener -a very attentive one- a clue to the ultimate Rossinian origin of the work.
Dedicated by Turina to his son Luis, Música fugitiva was premiered by the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra in La Laguna, Tenerife, in April 1992. The poetic title is taken from a line in a sonnet by Gerardo Diego, dedicated to the memory of Robert Schumann.

Among the orchestras in Spain today, the Madrid Symphony Orchestra is the oldest of all, not only because it was founded the longest time ago -a criterion by which the oldest would be the Pablo Sarasate Orchestra of Pamplona- but because it has never ceased its active life since its inception. The Madrid Symphony Orchestra was a splinter group of the Concert Society Orchestra founded by Barbieri and made its first public appearance in 1904.
This background serves as a reminder that in 1994 this remarkable orchestra became the first in Spain to reach 90 years of existence. While this is not typically a milestone that calls for special celebrations, it is important to note that around that time, the orchestra was facing a critical period due to the uncertain future surrounding the reopening of the new Teatro Real. For this reason, the orchestra's leaders launched a series of initiatives to raise public awareness of its brilliant past and its commitment to modernity. Among these actions was the commissioning of several musical compositions to celebrate its first nine decades of existence.
One of these commissions went to José Luis Turina, who responded with Fantasía sobre doce notas, which we do not hesitate to describe as a small masterpiece; and understand "small" here to mean only its necessarily compact dimensions. Though this information may not reach the listener, Turina uses the twelve chromatic notes of the scale -not to imply that this is a dodecaphonic work- just as his grandfather, Joaquín, played with the five notes suggested by the letters in the name ARBÓS (A, D, B-flat, C, G) when in 1933 he composed another piece (Fantasía sobre cinco notas, from which the grandson derives his title) in honor of the conductor who led the Madrid Symphony Orchestra for over thirty years.
The Fantasía has two clearly defined sections: a beautiful crescendo, much like those that open Pentimento or the other Fantasía sobre Mudarra, and a lyrical, harmonic section with charming sonorities that fades into the same silence with which it began. It is, naturally, dedicated to the Madrid Symphony Orchestra and premiered by this ensemble under the direction of our friend and admired conductor José Ramón Encinar, whose career was closely tied to that of the Symphony, especially during those years.
This new Fantasía, now over eleven years old, remains to date the last purely orchestral composition in Turina’s catalog, as the final piece we will discuss, Dos danzas sinfónicas, is actually an orchestration of two previously existing chamber fragments.

I clearly remember when, during musical rehearsals for his show La raya en el agua, at our rehearsal space on the fifth floor of the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, our Grupo Círculo read for the first time the scene titled Pas de deux (Vals). We were all struck by the beauty of the score on our stands, and I believe we all shared the same comment during our coffee break: though the writing was perfectly suited for a chamber ensemble, the music was practically begging for the fullness of a symphonic orchestra. We soon conveyed this unanimous opinion to Turina, receiving only a thoughtful smile as a response; yet I am convinced that he shared the same impression.
Two years later, in 1997, at a time when José Luis Turina was facing a heavy workload, the excellent Galicia Symphony Orchestra proposed a symphonic commission with a certain urgency, which Turina, due to his aforementioned commitments, considered reluctantly declining. However, both orchestra and composer ultimately found a satisfactory solution by finalizing the commission for the orchestration that had been conceived two years earlier from La raya en el agua. Turina chose not only the previously mentioned fragment but also the scene titled Klangfarbenpas de deux -a title that nods to the danceable nature of the piece and the "Klangfarbenmelodie" (tone color melody proposed by Schoenberg)- thus forming the new orchestral work, which he titled Dos danzas sinfónicas. The orchestral adaptation is almost literal, and even in this orchestral version, the Waltz retains the extensive duet for violin and flute from the original chamber work.

(Text excerpted from the monograph on JOSÉ LUIS TURINA, by JOSÉ LUIS TEMES, published by the Málaga Philharmonic Orchestra for the Contemporary Music Conference 2005)