José Luis Turina, a musician of heritage

By Martín Llade

Interview published in issue No. 6 of Excelentia magazine (Madrid, November 2019)


Question: Bearing the name Turina is no small matter, as it refers to one of the most important composers in our country. Did this fact intimidate you when you decided to pursue composition?
Answer: While we were classmates under Carmelo Bernaola in the "Manuel de Falla" course in Granada back in 1978, Benet Casablancas once said to me: "You have a lot of nerve! To be named Turina and still want to pursue composition! If my name were Benito Beethoven, I'd be anything but a musician..." Well, I'm not sure if it was nerve or recklessness, but by that time, I had already definitively given up on my intention to be a violinist -which is what I would have liked and why I started learning music at the late age of 17- and the world of composition was opening up to me with a broad perspective in which I felt quite confident. In the following years, it was all about acquiring a solid technique that would allow me to develop my own creative personality, which, 40 years later, still moves in a terrain full of oscillations where I feel very comfortable.

Q: You were born three years after your grandfather's death. What image of him has remained with you through your family?
A: You can't fully trust family in these matters, because there's always an inevitable element of subjectivity that can distort or misrepresent the reality of someone you never met. Fortunately, that image is complemented by the fact that I had the opportunity to study with some of my grandfather's direct students, which I believe has made the image clearer. I can assure you that, apart from being a great musician, he was also a great person: very warm and generous, with excellent teaching and management skills -his time at the Music Commission in the 1940s, towards the end of his life, was very fruitful for Spanish musical life- and with a great sense of humor, which is evident in his writings.

Q: Do you think that, despite his fame, Turina is well known by the public? Or has the popularity of works like the Sinfonía sevillana, Danzas fantásticas, or La oración del torero overshadowed other aspects of his production?
A: No composer is immune to that if they've had the good fortune of "hitting the mark" with two or three masterpieces -and those certainly are, without a doubt. In such cases, the rest of the production -which in my grandfather's case is quite extensive, with 104 cataloged works - tends to be slightly overshadowed. For me, his best body of work is in chamber music, where he shines with his own light in the landscape of Spanish composition of that period, given that neither Albéniz nor Falla paid attention to that genre, and only Granados came close with a couple of works. In contrast, my grandfather wrote no less than 16 chamber works, including three string quartets (considering La oración del torero as such, in its transcription by the author from the original for lute quartet), three piano trios, a piano quartet, a piano quintet, and five violin and piano duos. And the three remaining works to complete the aforementioned 16 are truly curious, given how unrepresentative they are of conventional chamber music ensembles: a sextet for principal viola, piano, and string quartet titled Escena andaluza; a suite of nine numbers, each composed for a different ensemble involving voice, piano, and string quartet, called Las Musas de Andalucía; and a Theme and Variations for harp and piano. As you can see, wind instruments are notably absent from all these works, and for that reason -among others- one of my latest projects has been to orchestrate four of his significant works for wind quintet (a composer has to do a bit of everything): the suite Sevilla, Op. 2, La oración del torero, the first series of Danzas gitanas, and the second series of Mujeres españolas. These arrangements are dedicated to the Azahar Ensemble, formed in 2010 within the JONDE, and recorded on a recently released CD titled Turina X Turina.

Q: Your body of work is extensive, and so is your discography. How do you manage to balance composing with your duties as a director?
A: The work as the artistic director of the JONDE (National Youth Orchestra of Spain) is extremely intense. Aside from the orchestra's gatherings and tours, there is a significant amount of management and preparation work throughout the year at the orchestra's administrative headquarters in the National Auditorium of Music in Madrid. This has forced me to slow down my creative pace over the years, allowing me to maintain it by being very cautious about accepting certain commissions. I always joke that I've become an "A4 format" composer, working on the go in buses, airports, cafés, parks... in other words, spaces where I have to spend a lot of time and where it's impossible to spread out a large-format score.

Q: In your catalog as a composer, there are constant references to Spanish art and literature throughout history, from the musician Alonso Mudarra to Isaac Albéniz, poets like Lope de Vega, Góngora, Bergamín, Quevedo, Luis Cernuda, the painter Fernando Zóbel, or the filmmaker Segundo de Chomón. Do you have any contemporary figures in mind for a new work?
A: To all those names, I would add Santa Teresa, Gabriel Celaya, García Lorca, Valle-Inclán, Rosalía de Castro, Antonio Machado, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Gerardo Diego, and especially Agustín García Calvo and Justo Navarro, with whom I had the opportunity to collaborate directly on my works Musica ex lingua and D.Q. (Don Quijote en Barcelona). I don't currently have any vocal or instrumental works planned that draw on similar references -whether literary, musical, or pictorial- but of course, I don't rule it out.

Q: One of your most acclaimed works is D.Q. (Don Quijote en Barcelona), which premiered in collaboration with La Fura dels Baus. What memories does that project bring back?
A: D.Q. was a work that was both applauded and booed in equal measure. In that sense, it was a unique experience, one that doesn't usually happen in concert halls, where the relationship with the audience is very different. The premiere and subsequent performances of D.Q. have left me with bittersweet memories in that regard, but it's important to note that, although in an opera the composer gets the lion's share of the attention -and I was the least affected, it must be said- there are so many components at play that it's hard to know what exactly is being judged in a review, or in the reaction of an audience that came with many preconceptions, as was the case here, given the extensive media coverage in the days leading up to it and the somewhat exaggerated expectations generated by some rather provocative statements from La Fura dels Baus (which is very much their style, by the way). But in any case, along with the stage-musical show La raya en el agua from a few years earlier, the composition and the rehearsal and preparation process of D.Q. have been my two best experiences as a composer.

Q: Are Spanish composers today like modern-day Quixotes?
A: Absolutely! Suffice it to say that in the current circumstances of superficial and frivolous programming, I highly doubt I would choose composition as a career if I had to start now.

Q: Soon this period that began with the JONDE in 2001 will come to an end. How do you feel about retiring as artistic director after nearly two decades at the helm of this orchestra?
A: I suppose that, like anyone retiring from a job they're passionate about while still in full possession of their faculties, I'll have mixed feelings, but since I've been feeling that way for some time now, all I'm going to do is swap one set of feelings for another. The last few years have been especially tough due to an excess of bureaucracy that greatly complicates management, which, in institutions dedicated to artistic activities, should be very agile and flexible. In that sense, I'll feel quite relieved; but as for the joy of working with young, enthusiastic, and very talented people, I'm sure it's something I'll miss.

Q: Can you name a particularly memorable concert from your years as artistic director of the JONDE?
A: There have been so many that it's hard for me to remember one that stands out above the rest, but I could mention the one we gave in Madrid during the first edition of the CNDM's Día de la Música, with four Beethoven symphonies conducted by Jesús López Cobos in 2013; or the one conducted by Antoni Ros Marbá in 2010, with Christophe Coin as soloist in Haydn's C major Concerto; or Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht conducted by Gunther Pichler at the Granada Festival in 2014; or the Gurrelieder conducted by Josep Pons at the Auditori in Barcelona, in a joint gathering with the Jove Orquestra Nacional de Catalunya; or... There are so many that it's very difficult for me to highlight one over another.

Q: During such an extended period, you have had to fully face the economic crisis. To what extent did it affect you, and what is your perception as you bring your work here to a close?
A: The economic crisis hit the JONDE (National Youth Orchestra of Spain) right at its core, as within just a few years, we lost about a third of our previous budget. This, in the case of a public institution, meant a drastic reduction in activity. There were years when the JONDE conducted up to seven proyects, both symphonic and chamber. At present, and especially with the new administrative demands, it is difficult to exceed the number of two symphonic and two chamber projects per year, and it doesn't seem likely that this situation will improve in the near future.

Q: What does a young musician need to do to join the JONDE? What are the requirements?
A: To start, they must be of legal age and no older than 24, and they must have completed the intermediate level of their instrument studies, which ensures that all JONDE members are either in the process of completing or have already completed their higher education studies. And, logically, they must pass a very rigorous audition -largely due to the extremely high number of applicants, which in the latest calls has exceeded 1,200- where they must demonstrate their technical and musical abilities. Those selected in these auditions become part of the orchestra's Instruments List, which currently has over 250 members. These musicians are called up according to the list order to complete the ensemble needed for each project, which, depending on the repertoire, can range from the 60 musicians of a classical orchestra to the 110 or more required to perform a large work by Bruckner or Mahler.

Q: What place does contemporary music have within the JONDE's repertoire?
A: A very prominent one, and not just because I may have a particular interest in it given my background as a composer, but because I sincerely believe it should be part of the comprehensive education of any instrumentalist. This belief led to the creation in 2003 of a Contemporary Music Academy within the JONDE, where the most representative works of this repertoire were studied in great detail, and later, once its initial goal was met, it was dissolved as contemporary music became a normalized part of the orchestra's regular programming. The question is also answered by some indisputable statistical data: between 1984 (the year JONDE was founded) and 2018 (the last year for which we have data), the orchestra has performed 1,524 works, both symphonic and chamber, of which 550 were by living or recently deceased composers, with 65 world premieres, 62 of them by Spanish composers. To make it clearer -in percentages-, 36% of the repertoire programmed over those 34 years has been contemporary, and of that, almost 12% has consisted of world premieres. The numbers speak for themselves, and I don't think anyone can doubt JONDE's dedication to contemporary creation.

Q: What is the JONDE's relationship with other similar orchestras abroad like? Have there been exchanges?
A: The level of young Spanish gmusicians has grown so much in recent years (in fact, Spain has long been the most represented country -with nearly 20% of the members- in the two main European youth orchestras, the EUYO (European Union Youth Orchestra) and the GMJO (Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra), and this leads to national youth orchestras from different countries frequently asking us to send them musicians to collaborate on their projects, just as theirs participate in ours. In this regard, the JONDE actively participates in two major international exchange programs: on the one hand, with Europe through the MusXchange program of the EFNYO (European Federation of National Youth Orchestras), funded by the European Union, in which an average of about 50 young Spanish musicians participate each year; and on the other, with Latin America through the Iberorquestas Juveniles program of the SEGIB (Ibero-American General Secretariat), in which an average of about 35 JONDE members collaborate annually as instrumentalists and teachers with the youth and children's orchestral systems of the countries involved in this program, thus coming into contact with a very different reality, both musically and socially, from which they return completely transformed.

Q: Tell us about the working periods held annually by the National Youth Orchestra of Spain.
A: The working period are the core of JONDE's activity, and when they are not being held, all the management work focuses on preparing for them, which is not easy considering the very diverse backgrounds of the participants, the lack of a fixed headquarters (the National Auditorium of Music in Madrid is only an administrative headquarters), and, why not say it, a certain distrust from programmers and festivals towards youth orchestras, when in many cases these orchestras can offer concerts of equal -if not higher- quality to those of professional orchestras, especially in recent years, as the level of young instrumentalists has risen spectacularly, as I mentioned earlier. They are held four or five times a year (at least two of them are symphonic), and follow a model common to all youth orchestras, regardless of nationality or the Autonomous Community to which they belong: a first phase of sectional rehearsals, supervised by professors from the different instrumental sections; a second, where the guest conductor -JONDE does not have a permanent music director, so for each project a different conductor is invited, with whom the repertoire and the teaching staff responsible for the preparation are agreed- polishes in full rehearsals what was previously worked on by the professors separately; and finally, a concert tour, which can be longer or shorter depending on the opportunities to perform in different theaters, auditoriums, festivals, etc. At least one of the projects -usually the summer one- includes a tour of two or three concerts in a foreign country, with frequent performances, almost biannually, at the Young.Euro.Classic Festival in Berlin, the most important festival dedicated to youth orchestras.

Q: Finally, what will you do the day after you retire as the artistic director of the JONDE?
A: Well, considering that I am professionally bipolar, and that I will only be retiring from one of my occupations, my intention is to fully dedicate myself to the other, spending all my available time on composition and, within that, on promoting my music, which I have neglected quite a bit during all these years in which the artistic direction of JONDE has absorbed almost all of my work.