José Luis Turina. Madrid, 1952. Compositor musical, docente y gestor / José Luis Turina. Madrid, 1952. Musical composer, educator, and cultural manager

By Natalia Erice

Interview published in the online magazine Figuras of the Center for Performing Arts and Music Documentation of INAEM (Madrid, February 2022)
https://www.teatro.es/contenidos/figuras/jose-luis-turina/


His prolific career as a composer has earned him a fundamental place in the history of contemporary music. The grandson of Joaquín Turina, he carries in his genes a blend of genius and the artistic influence of his painter father. Over 150 cataloged works make up an eclectic body of award-winning pieces, including Ocnos, La raya en el agua, or the opera D.Q. in the version by La Fura dels Baus. A recipient of the National Music Award in 1996, he directed the National Youth Orchestra of Spain (JONDE) for two decades; a demanding role as an educator and manager that he has carried out through various institutions, promoting music education in our country.

Three moments from the interview



A Sensitive Composer Committed to His Legacy

In José Luis Turina's account of his career, there is a significant depth of reflection that permeates the explanation of each stage of his professional life. Looking back on such a prolific career as a composer allows a mind as curious and sharp as that of the Madrid-born artist to offer a rich analysis of the whimsical fate that, in his case, took paths far removed from the usual curriculum of a musician.
Being the grandson of the illustrious maestro Joaquín Turina did not mean that he had an intense musical education from an early age, nor was there any family pressure to follow in his grandfather's footsteps. A predecessor who, along with Falla and Albéniz, has shaped the history of 20th-century music with works such as La oración del torero, Danzas fantásticas, or his piano sonata Sanlúcar de Barrameda, whom young José Luis never met, as he was born three years after Joaquín Turina's death in 1949.
At home, it was his father’s canvases, the painter José Luis Turina Garzón, that took precedence over musical scores, to the extent that his children grew up surrounded by the intense smell of oil paint that permeated the house in the Gracia neighborhood where they lived. The composer fondly recalls the time when he and his brother slept in the room that his father used as a studio during the day, and how a can of paint once spilled over his head, which his mother managed to clean off with ample doses of turpentine. That unforgettable "baptism" attests to the artistic environment in which Turina grew up, one that would open his creative spirit to other arts such as literature, theater, dance, and, of course, painting; all of which influenced his later musical production.
It is also remarkable that he began his musical training quite late; apart from some experience in a choir during his school years, he had little contact with music until he enrolled in his first solfège class at the age of 17 at the Municipal Conservatory of Barcelona, where his father had been appointed as a drawing professor at the Balmes Institute. At that age, his initial desire to become a violinist was frustrated, but as he wisely deduced, those years of instrumental training, which he complemented with piano studies and even harpsichord -fueled by his interest in Renaissance and Baroque music- led to an early inclination toward composition. He would later apply all this acquired knowledge, especially in violin, as demonstrated by his inspired Violin concerto (1987), composed at the age of 35, in the mezzo of his career. It was at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid where José Luis studied composition under the guidance of maestros Antón García Abril and Román Alís, a training that he completed with advanced composition studies at the Spanish Academy of Fine Arts in Rome in 1979 (thanks to a scholarship from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs). However, Turina always complemented his education with significant self-study, leading him to affirm: "My gratitude goes to the teachers I had, but also to the great works by great composers with whom I had no direct contact but who taught me as much or even more". Alban Berg, Salvatore Sciarrino, Olivier Messiaen and Witold Lutoslawski are among the contemporary geniuses who have most influenced his style, an artistic personality that began to take shape in the 1970s and 1980s with the first recognitions he received for pieces like Punto de encuentro (1981) and Ocnos (1986), awarded in international composition competitions, such as the Centennial of the Orchestra of the Valencia Conservatory and the Reina Sofía Prize. In the case of Ocnos, José Luis demonstrates a special ability to translate Cernuda's words into music, an interest in the musicality of language that would guide future compositions and that the jury valued with the following words: "It is the work of an artist who is both intelligent, sensitive, imaginative, and concerned with clearly expressing his thoughts in a thoroughly contemporary language…"
The composer's vast musical output, which includes stage music, chamber and ensemble pieces, orchestral works, vocal music, and solos, comprises nearly two hundred cataloged pieces. His output surged in the 1980s and 1990s, with works such as Lama sabacthani? (1980), Ligazón (1982), Música ex lingua (1989), Tres sonetos (1992) and Fantasía sobre doce notas (1994). This intense artistic activity culminated in his appointment in 1986 as an academician of the Academy of Fine Arts of Seville and in 1997 of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Granada, as well as receiving the National Music Award in 1996 for his eclectic piece La raya en el agua. Composed on commission from the Círculo de Bellas Artes for the reopening of its Fernando de Rojas Hall, it marked a professional leap that prepared him for challenges like the ambitious opera D.Q. (2000), premiered with La Fura dels Baus at the Liceo Theater in Barcelona and awarded the SGAE Prize in 2001 for the best score for a stage work.

But his commitment to music goes beyond his prolific body of work, and as he himself admits, his vocation as a composer is on par with his vocation as a teacher. José Luis began his teaching career in 1981 as a harmony professor, among other subjects, at the Conservatory of Cuenca, securing a position in 1985 at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid, a role he maintained until his retirement. This position gave him the opportunity to be part of the team in the Department of Music and Performing Arts under the General Subdirectorate of Artistic Education, where he helped reform the educational model, adapting it to European standards with the implementation of the L.O.G.S.E. (General Organic Law of the Education System). This experience is remembered by Turina with the satisfaction of having achieved a significant feat, the results of which he had the chance to witness during the two decades he served as artistic director of the JONDE (2001–2020), elevating it to the status of one of the best youth orchestras in Europe. As President of the Spanish Association of Youth Orchestras from 2004 to 2015, he also applied his managerial skills, a facet that has always concerned and accompanied him throughout his career as a composer. His musical brilliance continued to shine alongside prestigious ensembles such as the Tokyo String Quartet, who performed Clémisos y Sustalos at the National Auditorium in 2001, or the Brodsky Quartet, who premiered his string quartet The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross in 2004. After the acclaimed premiere at the National Auditorium in 2021 of a reduced orchestra version of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2 (Resurrection), celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Spanish National Choir, José Luis's restless spirit continues to seek new challenges, among which he does not rule out fulfilling a long-held dream: a well-deserved homage to his grandfather's work.

By Natalia Erice


Interview Details
- Date: October 19, 2021.
- Location: Auditorium of the Infrastructure and Cultural Equipment Management Office, Madrid.
- Duration: 40’ 11’’
- Camera Operator: Izan Galán.
- Direction and Editing: Ana Lillo.
- Interview Conducted by: Natalia Erice.

Credits

Photo Credits
- Daniel Alonso, Enrique Castellano, and Elena Martín.

Video Credits
- Violin Concerto. José Luis Turina. Youth Orchestra of the Community of Madrid
- La raya en el agua. Círculo de Bellas Artes
- Exequias. José Luis Temes
- Lama sabacthani? Residencia de Estudiantes
- D.Q. La Fura dels Baus
- Baluarte
- Azahar Ensemble. Turina x Turina

Music Credits
- Background /fatbunny
- Violin concerto. José Luis Turina. Youth Orchestra of the Community of Madrid
- Lama sabacthani José Luis Turina. Residencia de Estudiantes
- Musica ex lingua. José Luis Turina. Orchestra and Choir of the Community of Madrid
- Exequias. José Luis Turina
- Encore alla turca. Mozart. National Youth Orchestra of Spain
- Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection". Mahler. Spanish National Orchestra and Choir

Acknowledgments
- Azahar Ensemble, BALUARTE Conference Center and Auditorium of Navarra, Círculo de Bellas Artes, Publications Department of the SGAE Foundation, ORCAM Foundation, Infrastructure and Cultural Equipment Management Office of the Ministry of Culture and Sport, Gran Teatre del Liceu, National Youth Orchestra of Spain (JONDE), José Manuel López López, Spanish National Orchestra and Choir (OCNE), Residencia de Estudiantes, and Sindi Producciones - Los Pekenikes.