"La música contemporánea no ha respondido a lo que se esperaba de ella" / "Contemporary music has not responded to what was expected of it"

Interview published in the newspaper El Día. Tenerife, January 20, 2000

By José Andrés Dulce


The ability to openly discuss contemporary music without hesitation or dogmatism is one of the characteristics that define José Luis Turina, a composer from Madrid whose work in the field of concertos is closely linked to the recent history of the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra. Precisely the insular ensemble, and Guillermo González as soloist, have just premiered his Piano Concerto within the framework of the 16th Canarias Festival.

- You dedicated his last concerto to the pianist from Tenerife, Guillermo González. Is there some kind of artistic affinity that justifies such a dedication?
- When the work was entrusted to me I didn't have any pianist in mind; What's more, I left this decision to the discretion of the Festival organizers, to whom I only warned that the piece would entail a supreme technical difficulty. Later I met Guillermo González in Madrid, who had already performed my Piano Sonata at the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts. I saw that he didn't hold a grudge against me for the interpretive complexity of the sonata, so I suggested that he play this concerto. While we were working on it, our relationship was so fruitful that I decided to dedicate the work to him, partly out of gratitude, and partly because of the artistic risk he takes by fleeing from conventional repertoires.

- It is striking that you have has called the work "concerto", which together with "symphony" is a taboo word for the musical avant-garde.
- Contemporary composers have abused poetic titles or names linked to notions, which, in my opinion, creates false images associated with music in the listener. I prefer the traditional terms: sonata, concerto, symphony, because they are pure abstractions that prevent that type of mental association.

- By the way, in your catalog there is a Viola concerto dedicated to Óscar Domínguez.
- My relationship with Tenerife is curious, because it is linked to my concert production. I came to the Island in 1986 to premiere this piece, which had Humberto Orán, brother of María Orán, as soloist. Then the Tenerife orchestra was going through a period of transition, so much so that the string section had to be reinforced. In any case, I was never satisfied with the work; I refused to integrate it into my catalogue. My next visit was in 1988, to premiere the Violin Concerto, already with the restructured orchestra and with Víctor Pablo on the podium; and now, twelve years later, I return to Tenerife to present the Piano Concerto. The only thing missing is the cello one, which by the way I'm preparing.

- Theatrical music is one of your warhorses. What has been your evolution in this field?
- Opera is my great passion, but when I began to take the first steps in this direction I realized that I was not quite prepared. Although I was fascinated by the relationship between musical and verbal languages, I had to mature as a dramatic composer. For this reason, Ligazón, based on a text by Valle-Inclán, was a musical staging, while La Raya en el Agua, organized as a succession of numbers, was linked to the variety show rather than to the cult drama. My formal debut in opera will be D. Q. (Don Quijote en Barcelona), a commission by La Fura dels Baus that will be performed at the Liceo of Barcelona.

- Don't you think that contemporary music is becoming somewhat endogamic in its proposal and that it has given up establishing emotional and intellectual contact with the public?
- For various reasons, contemporary music has not responded to what was expected of it. There is a manifest divorce between modern creators and their audience. While composers apply themselves to creating atonal works, the public continues to have tonal music in mind. From there an impossible dialogue begins between people who speak different languages. When we hear that García Márquez's latest novel is going to hit the bookstores or that Woody Allen's latest movie is going to be released, great anticipation is aroused; on the contrary, the premiere of a work of contemporary music is received with absolute indifference.

- Does the solution lie in returning to tonality?
- It's already becoming... For years, the problem that has been posed to us is that the existing repertoire is already so generous and beautiful that, perhaps, it makes its expansion unnecessary. It is almost impossible to break through at this point. Let us think that, in its time, the great repertoire was formed to fill a void. When Bach composed cantatas for the church of Saint Thomas in Leipzig, he did so due to the inherent needs of a liturgy that required musical sections; but, now, what would be the point of commissioning cantatas when this great legacy already exists? Consequently, it is not contemporary music, but the repertoire that is endogamic; it is the instituted repertoire that does not admit the entry of more works and that pushes contemporary music to consider whether it is really on the right path.

- Also to put it in the dilemma of adapting or dying?
- In my opinion trying to swell the repertoire is as wrong as wanting to elevate the musical work to an object of contemplation and worship. Personally, I sympathize with the proposal of conceptual art. The creator, and by extension the musician, must conceive the work of art as an entity in which the object and the reflection it provokes are the same thing.

THE PROFILE. From an illustrious saga
A faithful continuator of his saga, José Luis Turina does not blink at the repeated allusions to his surname and the frequent confusion with his grandfather, the famous Sevillian musician Joaquín Turina, whose fiftieth anniversary of his death was celebrated last year and who now returns to foreground of current affairs thanks to the "Notes for a Composer" exhibition, inaugurated this week at the Casa de Murillo in Seville. "My father -explains José Luis- is the fourth of Joaquín Turina's children. Confusion with my grandfather is common, in fact a few days ago a national newspaper attributed my Concerto for piano and orchestra to him when precisely he has a piece entitled Concerto without orchestra, for piano.