Variaciones sobre temas de Turina / Variations on themes by Turina

Para Piano Four-hands


Commentary
Recordings
Videos
Review
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Commentary

The more years a composer celebrates, the more likely it is that their catalog will be as diverse as the successive circumstances that have shaped it. Thus, even among the most eminent authors in the history of music, it is possible to find, alongside masterpieces, lesser works that, in many cases, were created for a special circumstance, far from the concert hall and, therefore, with very different objectives.
My catalog is no exception to this rule, as alongside very serious works there are many that are not as serious, or are serious in a different sense: many of them pedagogical, or simple amusements of a pleasant nature. Among the latter, one could include the Variations on themes by Turina (Joaquín Turina, to be precise), for piano four hands, composed to be part of a surprise tribute with which the numerous descendants of my illustrious Sevillian ancestor wished to celebrate my father José Luis Turina's 90th birthday. His profession as a painter has served as a link between my great-grandfather, the painter Joaquín Turina Areal -an equally illustrious representative of the Sevillian pictorial school of the second half of the 19th century- and two composers -his son and his great-grandson (that is, myself)- in an alternation between painters and composers that has continued uninterrupted for four generations, only to begin to blur in the fourth -mine- in which there are two musicians and a painter, and especially in the fifth and most recent generation, in which two new musicians mix with representatives of different applied arts.
For this tribute, I thought that the best way to honor my father was to ensure that his father's music was somehow present in a work by his son, so that it would all remain essentially a family event, in which affection was the predominant element. For this purpose, I selected a series of my grandfather's themes that I knew are my father's favorites, and I wove them together in the classical form of Theme with Variations. However, the fact that each of the variations is actually a development of a different theme detracts from the classical rigor of having all the musical content derive, in one way or another, from a single theme.
Thus conceived, these Variations on themes by Turina begin, in the place corresponding to the Theme, with the initial bars of the Piano quartet op. 67, followed by six variations, which are nothing more than small developments elaborated from thematic material originating from the following works:
1st variation: Soleares, from the Theme with Variations (2nd movement) of the Piano trio op. 35.
2nd variation: the initial bars of Bullfighter’s prayer op. 34.
3rd variation: Parade of the tin soldiers, 3rd movement of the 1st series of Niñerías op. 21.
4th variation: Final Theme of the 2nd scene of Navidad op. 16 (dedicated precisely to my father).
5th variation: Cantares, from the Poem in the form of songs op. 19, alternating with Holy Thursday at midnight, 2nd movement of the suite Sevilla op. 2.
6th variation: Zapateado, 3rd of the Three Andalusian dances op. 8.
A coda, recalling the theme of the initial Piano quartet, closes the work.
Each of the variations plays the role of a differentiated and contrasting section of the entire work, acting as a scherzo, slow movement, march… according to its character.

The Variations on themes by Turina were composed between the months of April and May 2009, and premiered by Fernando Turina and Jorge Robaina at the Centro Cultural Campamento in Madrid on September 18, 2009, as part of the Tribute to José Luis Turina Garzón on the occasion of his 90th birthday.

In October 2015, they were transcribed for wind quintet for the Azahar Ensemble and included in the CD Turina x Turina, released in 2019 by the German label Profil.

Recordings

I. Original version for Piano four-hands
Recording: Marisa Blanes and Javier Negrín


II. Transcription for wind quintet
Recording: Azahar Ensemble

Videos

I. Video made by Joaquín Turina de Santos on an audio model of the Variations on themes by Turina, to be projected at the event in honor of José Luis Turina Garzón on the occasion of his 90th birthday. Cultural Centre Campamento. Madrid, September 18, 2009

I. Marisa Blanes and Ana Guijarro (two pianos) Luis Clemente Hall. Valencia, February 2013

II. Forum "Iberian Music" of Moscow Yulia Litvinenko and Maria Sadritdinova (dos pianos) Rachmaninov Hall at Moscow Conservatory, February 22, 2022

IV. Festival COMA'2022 of Madrid Composers Association Concert-Homage to José Luis Turina in his 70th anniversay Laura Sánchez and Cristina Lucio-Villegas (Scarbó Duo) Manuel de Falla Hall of the Royal Conservatori of Music. Madrid, November 4, 2022

Review

The Scarbó Duo pays tribute to José Luis Turina
By Tomás Marco
(Review published in the magazine Scherzo. Madrid, November 6, 2022)

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(Score without watermarks available at www.asesores-musicales.com )