Clara Rodrguez VENEZUELANI 6122

Clara Rodrguez VENEZUELA

Clara Rodriguez is a poet of the pianoAntonio Estvez, Composer

Clara Rodriguez plays the music from South America like no other pianist, with a marvellous sense of phrasing, poetry and sparkling dynamism. This music belongs to her

Arioso International, France

There is not a single item on this well-filled disc that is less than captivating, and most are beautiful precious gems.

Jerry Dubins Fanfare Magazine

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Recorded at: Wyastone Concert Hall, Monmouth, UK on 1 & 2 February 2010Engineer: Michael Ponder General production: Clara Rodrguez

Design: www.doubletakedesign.co.uk Cover: Carlos David Photography: Antoln Snchez & P 2010 Wyastone Estate Limited

www.wyastone.co.uk

LUISA ELENA PAESANO1. Pajarillo (joropo) 3.02 EVENCIO CASTELLANOS2. Maanita caraquea (waltz) 2.26 FEDERICO VOLLMER3. Jarro mocho (joropo) 2.47 RAMON DELGADO PALACIOS4. La Dulzura de tu rostro (waltz) 2.33 LUISA ELENA PAESANO 5. Elporfiao (joropo) 1.29 FEDERICO VOLLMER6. El atravesado (waltz) 1.55 FEDERICO RUIZ7. Aliseo (joropo) 3.04 MARIA LUISA ESCOBAR8. Noche de luna en Altamira (nocturne-waltz) 3.40 FEDERICO RUIZ9. Zumba que zumba (joropo) 3.04 MIGUEL ASTOR10. Adriana (waltz) 3.19 PABLO CAMACARO11. Diversin (ritmo orqudea) 2.31 ANTONIO LAURO12. Cancin 3.34 ANTONIO LAURO13. Vals criollo 2.57

VENEZUELA Clara Rodrguez, piano JUAN CARLOS NUEZ14. Retrato de Ramn Delgado Palacios (waltz) 4.03 MODESTA BOR15. Fuga 2.21 MODESTA BOR16. Juangriego (waltz) 2.44 ANTONIO LAURO17. Seis por derecho (joropo) 2.58 RICARDO TERUEL18. Destilado de vals 2.58 FRANCISCO DELFN PACHECO19. El cumaco de San Juan (merengue) 2.55 LUIS LAGUNA20. Creo que te quiero (waltz) 5.38 PEDRO ELIAS GUTIERREZ21. Alma llanera (joropo) 2.47 PABLO CAMACARO22. Don Luis (merengue) 2.26 SIMON DIAZ23. Caballo viejo (pasaje llanero) 3.22 MANUEL YANEZ24. Viajera del ro (waltz) 3.48 HERACLIO FERNANDEZ25. El Diablo suelto (waltz-joropo) 1.57

Total time 74:24

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won a scholarship to come to he Royal College of Music of London and I spent a year at the Junior Department (where I now teach) and six at the senior. There I met a fairy of the piano, she had met Ravel when she was in her teens, she had also had Rachmaninov amongst her close acquaintances, she was sweet, very intelligent and had the highest standards in piano playing I have ever come across. Her name: Phyllis Sellick. Paul Badura-Skoda, Regina Smendzianka and Niel Immelman have also inspired me with their knowledge of piano playing.

Travelling to play concerts is a fantastic experience but it can also be a bit daunting; the music you play and love in your house might not be what people of different cultures might like, or so I used to think. Going to European countries, India, Tunisia, Morocco, Syria, Egypt to play mixtures of the traditional European and Venezuelan music used to worry me a little but now I know that people everywhere are eager and happy to receive it. I enjoy performing recitals on my own, as well as a soloist with orchestra, with the incredibly musical El Cuarteto ensemble, with actors Karin Fernald and Alberto Rowinski in productions of our own: Liszt in petticoats (dedicated to Teresa Carreo) and Con-cierto humor.

I have enjoyed recording my five Venezuelan music CDs, but also it was very fulfilling recording a CD of late piano music by Chopin and the piano music by Ernesto Lecuona. There are CDs of music by Rachmaninov, Liszt and Mediterranean music on the pipeline.

Another of the activities I have got used to doing now is participating in interviews on the radio; the programme In Tune on BBC 3 is one of the more nerve racking ones to do because one plays and talks live on it. The last one I did was particularly beautiful because the other person invited was the lovely mezzo-soprano Sophie Van Otter.

Between 1993 and 1998 I founded and directed a Music Festival in Caracas at the Teatro San Martn which was very rewarding because it was wonderful to see a project come to life in an area of Caracas where before there had not been any music.

In London I have played a dozen solo recitals at Southbank Centre, a few others at the Wigmore and a number of concertos at St. Johns Smith Square, including Ravel in G, Rach 3, Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Federico Ruizs Second piano concerto which you can hear on youtube.

The reasons an artist might have to record a CD may obey to a number of circumstances, in this case it causes me great joy and it also seems to be the natural sequence to my previous CDs of Venezuelan composers Moiss Moleiro, Teresa Carreo and Federico Ruiz

Dilemmas occur though when the repertoire is so vast, beautiful, interesting and close to my heart. There is an intimate connection with the music chosen for this recording for instance, most of the pieces by living composers and arrangers, have been handed down to me by the creators themselves and if I delve into those personal childhood connections, my mother studied the piano with Moiss Moleiro, at home there was an LP of Teresa Carreo playing Liszt and Chopin that we used to listen to as well as one by Evencio Castellanos playing Venezuelan waltzes that would fill the air of the sunny house in Caracas. Later on I met Federico Ruiz who has written for me some of the most beautiful pieces in the world, including a Piano Concerto, and with whom I have had for many years a permanent and fluid communication.

I have infinite respect and admiration for the humility, ethics and real passionate work that the generations of musicians here represented have had; they of course, have created the Venezuelan music- idiom. A friend was telling me that we always seem to be in a party mood; it is true that Venezuelans are perhaps the happiest people I have met; perhaps it is in the genes; perhaps it is due to the lovely whether or not going through terrible world wars; I cannot explain it. I can only say that the music represented here can paint a picture of the country but it is only a detail of it.

There are many topics to write about in relation to this CD, all to do with Venezuelan tradition: the style of piano playing, history of the different genres here present: the waltz, the joropo and the merengue; how this music has evolved in the course of time and interestingly how it is still very much present in the todays generations.

Since I am a pianist I would like to say that there have been some fantastic and important Venezuelan pianists that have trained to the highest standards in different European and Venezuelan styles. I have to start with Evencio Castellanos because he was probably the first person to put in one disc a collection of the most memorable Venezuelan waltzes from the 19th century, in such an elegant way that the collectivity grew accustomed to listening to this music played beautifully. Unfortunately I do not think that there are any recordings of other great piano personalities such as Ramn Delgado Palacios, Federico Vollmer,

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Rogerio Caraballo, Rafael Saumell, Heraclio Fernndez, Salvador Llamozas or Joaquin Silva Daz to name but a few, the technology was simply not there in the mid 19th and beginning of the 20th Centuries in Venezuela. EL Cojo Ilustrado, El Albm Lrico and La Lira Venezolana were newspapers and literary supplements that published the most popular waltzes by the former composers.

Then I would like to say that Guiomar Narvez who started me on the piano, has been a big influence on my playing and preoccupation with the Venezuelan piano music. Tchek- Venezuelan pianist Gerty Hass sculpted her style in Caracas and in Vienna she studied with Richard Hauser but her love for Venezuelan pianism has always accompanied her. The Venezuelan piano style should have fine pedaling, light-finger work and steely rhythmic sense for the joropos; genuine cantabile for the waltzes and a graceful sense of syncopation for the merengues.

Guitarist John Williams who advocates Venezuelan music and who studied with Alirio Daz talks about how to interpret this music in a way that beautifully rounds it up:

Listen to it with two rhythms going simultaneously - a six-eight over a three-four. To really play this, you need to do the African thing - move your body with the complex pulse. Its no good tapping your feet like a European. Theres an European influence here, but the guts of it is Indian plus African.

Venezuela is the result of that mixture of cultures and feelings, as the listener of this CD will discover.

The waltz arrived to Venezuela in the 19th century from Paris and Vienna and the composers made it into a vernacular genre by adding a special and distinctive syncopation in the accompaniment, usually on the left hand. There are two types of Venezuelan waltzes, the salon one, played mainly on the piano to which people danced and for which the composers wrote scores, and the one composed and played traditionally in ensembles with violin, cuatro (Venezuelan four stringed guitar), Spanish guitar, and double bass. The salon waltz usually comprises two sections; the middle section is usually in a faster tempo.

The contemporary composers I have included here give us their vision of the Venezuelan waltz as a transformed, personal interpretation of the traditional 19th century one, with modern jazz -tinted harmonies but still very lyrical and nostalgic.

Creo que te quiero (waltz) by Luis Laguna (1926-1984)Self -taught guitarist Luis Laguna composed some of the most memorable and popular songs in the Venezuelan repertoire. He created the urban merengue in the 70s by including harmonies taken from Bossa Nova. He founded the group Venezuela cuatro, an ensemble that reunited fine musicians such as Eliezer Guzmn, Carlos Laguna and Henry Martnez with whom he performed extensively in the country. Pieces such as Un heladero con clase, El Saltarn and Serenata have also gained great popularity and have been performed by popular and classical musicians. He was born in Guacara (Carabobo State) in 1926 and died in Maracay (Aragua State) in 1984.

El cumaco de San Juan (merengue) by Francisco Delfn PachecoFrancisco Delfn Pacheco was a popular musician from Caracas born at the beginning of the 20th century. He belonged to spontaneous ensembles known as Ventet that used to get together in the Esquina de Gradillas in Caracas from where they would be hired to play in weddings and balls. He was also known as a caonero musician; these were called thus because a canon used to be sounded at the beginning of performances in parties where merengues would be played. He was the creator of another very famous parody waltz called La Ruperta. The piano version I play of this very famous merengue is by Pablo Camacaro.

With special thanks to the ongoing support of Fundacin Luis Bertrand y Nelly Soux, and to Maria Teresa Novo and Eduardo Lecuna for their help.

Clara Rodriguez

About myself I was born in Caracas from art- sensitive parents. My father was a polemic writer who had a not too easy a life, sadly he died in the year 2000 at 64. My mother raised my sister Valentina, fashion designer, and I in the best possible way a mother can: with lots of love and sacrificing her time taking me to music school from when I was 7. I had a great childhood, fantastic and fun training (although strict) at the Conservatorio Juan Jos Landaeta, which was located in a beautiful old villa in a posh residential area of the city. There were some good old grand pianos and a lovely smell of polished woods and exotic plants. There was a friendly atmosphere and apart from my very elegant piano teacher -Guiomar Narvez- my harmony teacher was composer Angel Sauce who also directed the place. When I was seventeen I

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video art, sound poetry as well as works for voluntary audience participation. His creative work has received twenty national and three international awards.

Destilado de vals is a piece that combines jazzy harmonies with an interesting rhythmic bass under a lyrical, very expressive melody. It is the second movement of his Sonatina Destilada (2006)

Retrato Solemnsimo de Ramn Delgado-Palacios by Juan Carlos Nez (1947-)This piece belongs to a series of solemn portraits of Venezuelan waltz composers by Juan Carlo Nez; I gave its premire in Caracas in 2004. Originally the score includes an accompaniment of a string orchestra but this waltz works as well on solo piano.

Juan Carlos talks metaphorically, he said to me something to the effect of him having gone up to the 19th century Venezuelan loft and encountering in a trunk the diaries of Teresa de la Parra, Delgado-Palacios and other Romantic figures of Venezuelan music and literature to come up with his Anthology of Venezuelan Waltzes. Juan Carlos Nez, composer, conductor and teacher, was born and trained in Caracas under Moiss Moleiro, Vicente Emilio Sojo, Inocente Carreo, and in Warsaw, with Stanislaw Wislocki.

Nez has written numerous symphonic and choral works such as the Misa de los Trpicos, Homenaje Tropical a Arvo Prt, El Tambor de Damasco and Los Albores de la Revolucin (dedicated to Francisco de Miranda), also the opera Doa Brbara original text by Rmulo Gallegos, Seis Tonadas de Simn Daz, a number of chamber music pieces and music for the theatre for which he has been awarded the Stampa of Milan in Italy.

Viajera del Ro (waltz) by Manuel Ynez (1941-2000)Manuel Ynez was a self-taught mucisian and composer of about 150 Venezuelan pieces: songs, merengues criollos, valses, pasos dobles, boleros, salsas, canciones patriticas, joropos, guarachas. Pescador (pasodoble) and Viajera del ro have become very popular pieces and are often performed by singers and ensembles. The lyrics of Viajera del ro are inspired by the aquatic flower Bora (Eichhornia crassipes) that travels down the Orinoco River. This song was first performed in 1999. Ynez was born in Ciudad Bolvar (Bolvar State) city where he spent all his life. Federico Ruiz wrote the version I play on this recording.

The theories about the origins of the Venezuelan Merengue are as varied and polemic as the metric it should be used to write it in. Its name could have derived from an African idiom such as muserengue or tamtam mouringue, and the actual dance from the Basque zorcico, the tango-merengue from Haiti or the fula negra, an Afro-Venezuelan dance. In any case it is a typical, traditional, dance of Venezuela and has nothing in common with the merengue from the Dominican Republic. There are recollections of its existence from the second half of the 19th century, including writings by German travelers such as Carl Sachs and Friederich Gerstcker who were struck by the interesting rhythm given by the five beats per bar of the dance and how the accompaniment had to be shared off the beat by the left hand, in regular pulses. The merengue has constantly evolved and Venezuelan contemporary composers think that it has very interesting possibilities. The first songs all Venezuelan children learn to sing and even accompany on the cuatro are the traditional Compadre Pancho, Sancochoe gesito and Los chimichimitos all merengues.

The Joropo is the national Venezuelan dance; it has its origins in the ancient Iberian music from the XVII and XVIII Centuries, such as the fandango, jotas and malagueas. These developed with the influence of centuries of Arabic occupation and then got transformed in Venezuela by the mixing of African and indigenous elements in the Orinoco Basin and its savannas.

It is a vigorous, virtuoso experience involving singers, instrumentalists and dancers; it consists of strongly accented rhythms and often makes use of hemiola but unlike the other Venezuelan dances, no single rhythmic pattern is associated with it.

The basic instrumentation of the joropo is the Venezuelan harp, the cuatro and the maracas.

In the case of the piano versions, we can speculate that we can imitate the sound of the harp or the harpsichord, since the Baroque influence is strong. I think that once you discover the richness of the dance you are fascinated by its incredible speed and rhythmic vitality.

Pajarillo (joropo) and El Pofao (joropo) by Luisa Elena Paesano(1946-)Luisa Elena Paesano is the descendant of a long line of pianists who was born in Caracas in 1946. She had her training at the Juan Manuel Olivares Music School with Gerty Hass on the piano and with Angel Sauce on harmony and composition. Luisa Elena has won numerous composition prizes, amongst them: the Chopin Prize of Vienna of 1974, the 1998 Premio Nacionalista; the 1998 Gran Aguila of

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Venezuela; the Sociedad de Autores y Compositores de Venezuela prize; and the 2005 Luis Alfonso Larrain composition prize. She has a busy concert career playing and recording CDs with her trio of Venezuelan music.

Maanita caraquea (waltz) by Evencio Castellanos (1915 - 1984) A pianist, organist, teacher, composer and conductor, received his first lessons from his father, organist, Pablo Castellanos. In 1944 he graduated as teacher-composer, and was part of the first generation of Vicente Emilio Sojos students, whose compositions were oriented by the nationalist tendency. In 1946 he was designated director of the University Choir of the Central University of Venezuela. Between August 1947 and September 1949, he received a scholarship to New York City, to study piano with Carlos Buhler. Throughout his musical career, Castellanos obtained several awards and recognitions, such as the Teresa Carreo Prize, by the Caracas Athenaeum in 1952, the National Prize of Music for his symphonic poem Santa Cruz de Pacairigua in 1954, and the National Prize of Music for the oratorio Tirano Aguirre in 1962.Castellanos died in Caracas in 1984 at the age of 68.

La Dulzura de tu Rostro (waltz) by Ramn Delgado-Palacios (1863-1902)I would like to quote here an excerpt from a diary by Lucila Luciani (1882-1971) a pupil of Ramon Delgado-Palacios.

Ramn Delgado Palacios was a notable pianist who was moreover a renowned teacher. He had studied in Paris (at the Conservatoire) with a pupil of Chopin. And besides playing the piano, he also played the organ with so much mastery that the Caraqueas attended in great number the 10 a.m. mass at San Francisco Church, just to hear his playing.

He was also a composer and author of Venezuelan waltzes for two hands imitating four hands Just after beginning lessons, I found myself studying six hours of piano plus two of violin. A miracle of the Chopinianne mechanism, or a miracle of love? Delgado possessed a unique teaching method... One had to hear him when he felt like playing: he had incredible strength in his small, woman-like hands; and a clearness, and admirable preciseness, in his technique. And he produced excellent effects with the use of the pedal. In short, he was what one called at that time a real artist. He composed for me a waltz entitled Lucila, each one of its parts was a reproduction of each of the syllables in my name. Extremely beautiful and equally as difficult. He also dedicated to me a precious dance Wo bist du?, describing

Alma llanera (Joropo) by Pedro Elas Gutirrez (1870-1954) Pedro Elas Gutirrez was a talented musician who started his musical studies at the age of 15 very much against his parents wishes. At the age of 19 he premired his first composition and graduated from the Escuela de Msica Jos ngel Lamas in Caracas. As a composer he wrote mainly zarzuelas and waltzes and gained recognition as conductor and a double bass player. His Misa Panamericana was premired at Saint Patricks Cathedral in New York. In 1914 he wrote the one act zarzuela Alma llanera that contains the joropo of the same name. This piece made him one of the most famous composers of Latin America. The libretto was written by Rafael Bolvar Coronado and was premired in September of the same year in the Teatro Municipal de Caracas. This piano version is by Federico Ruiz.

Cancin, Valse Criollo and Seis por derecho by ANTONIO LAURO (1917-1986) When I was a young student at the Conservatorio Juan Jose Landaeta Maestro Lauro used to teach there and I am glad to say that I have the loveliest memories of this generous and handsome man. He handed me then his Suite Venezolana (1960) for piano to which the Song and the Valse Criollo belong. They are the third and fourth movements of the Suite. It is a Ravelian piece, he told me.

Lauro was a pianist at the beginning of his musical career but after listening to Agustin Barrios Mangor he decided to become a guitarist. He made of the guitar his medium, writing for it many works, all jewels of the standard guitar repertoire. Alirio Daz and John Williams have extensively played his works.

This version for piano of the Seis por derecho is by Clara Marcano.

Antonio Lauro was born in Ciudad Bolvar in 1917 and died in Caracas in 1986.

Destilado de Vals by Ricardo Teruel (1956-)Ricardo Teruel was born in Caracas in 1956. He teaches composition, orchestration and electronic music at the UNEARTE University in Caracas. He also gives electronic music courses at the Simn Bolvar Conservatory since 1983.

He performs, mainly his own music, on the piano, synthesizers, English concertina and homemade instruments of his own design.

His works include symphonic music, a childrens opera, concertos, chamber music, solo piano music, songs, incidental music for dance, films and TV documentaries, electronic and experimental music,

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The score of this waltz-joropo by Heraclio Fernndez who also wrote a manual on piano techniques to accompany Venezuelan dances, was located and published by Alirio Diaz. The original composition was conceived as a waltz but with the passing of time and with the popularization of this music it has become a joropo. The version I play was done by the young pianist Pedro Toro. Fernndez died in La Guaira in the same year as Franz Liszt, 1886.

Noche de luna en Altamira (vals-nocturno) by MARIA LUISA ESCOBAR (19031985)Maria Luisa Escobar, composer, pianist and soprano was born in Valencia, Carabobo State, where she received her musical tuition. In 1925 she produced a first album of herself singing her own songs, which included Cancin de amor, La Golondrina and La verdadera espaola. Her bolero Desesperanza is one of the most beautiful love songs ever written in Latin America. In 1928 Escobar traveled to Paris where she studied with Arthur Honegger and Charles Koechlin. Her output also includes orchestral pieces such as Orqudeas azules; the Guaicaipuro ballet; the Concierto sentimental for piano and orchestra. Maria Luisa Escobar worked tirelessly for the promotion of Venezuelan music and the rights of its authors; she also founded the Ateneo de Caracas arts complex. She died in Caracas in 1985.

Don Luis (Merengue), Diversin (Ritmo orqudea) by PABLO CAMACARO (1947-)Pablo Camacaro was born in Barrio Nuevo in Carora Lara State in 1947. He is a cuatro and mandolin player and founder of the Gupo Races de Venezuela. He started to compose in 1962 and since then he has written about 500 pieces that comprise most of Venezuelas popular genres. Diversin is written with the syncopation of the orqudea rhythm an invention of another popular Venezuelan musician, Hugo Blanco, whose hugely popular Moliendo caf song is the first example of such a rhythm. Don Luis is a merengue dedicated to composer Luis Laguna.

Caballo Viejo (pasaje llanero) by SIMON DIAZ (1928-)Simn Daz was born in 1928 in Barbacoa, Aragua State. He is one of Venezuelas most popular figures as a composer, singer, comedian, TV presenter and theatre and film producer. As a composer of the genre tonada llanera he has had an important impact on figures such as Pina Bausch (Nur Du), Pedro Almodvar (La flor de mi secreto), Mercedes Sosa, Joan Manuel Serrat, Cheo Feliciano, Plcido Domingo, Atahualpa Yupanqui, and many other classical and popular musicians and artists around the world. Caballo viejo is a pasaje llanero - a slower kind of joropo that has also been performed by singers like Julio Iglesias, Oscar DLen and The Gipsy Kings (Bamboleo). This version is by Pablo Camacaro.

the great wittiness of a Creole girl. Finally, he also composed another waltz for a brass band, with my name, which also was played in Bolivar Square, with big applauses and encores. He was the true artist that was characterized in that romantic era: noble, generous, delicate, of high sentiments, and exquisite sensitivity, almost un-healthy. The days of my lesson were nerve-wracking while waiting for the hour to come. As the minutes approached I felt such a big anguish, fearing that the teacher couldnt come for whatever inconvenience. And from my room that overlooked the street, I heard his approaching steps, together with the beatings of my heart. This idyll, if one can call it this, was truncated, firstly from his marriage to Rosario Silva Simonovis (also pianist and composer). Secondly, he was already very sick, through alcoholism and his willpower was too weak to resist it. With much sorrow in my soul, I wrote the following necrology:

A crown to my piano teacher and inspired artist Ramon Delgado Palacios.

Unique professor, I would like to knit you a crown, not any more of ephemeral and beautiful roses of which Febos ardent kiss whithers away or Zephyrs blow would defoliate the leaves...My crown should be immortal like your genius and undying like your memory, because it is made of tears: tears for the nation, tears for the music, tears for the friendship. Caracas, June 27, 1902.

Delgado Palacios wrote 45 piano pieces and 17 for orchestra, chamber music and vocal works.

El atravesado (waltz) and Jarro mocho (joropo) by Federico Vollmer (1834-1901)Self-taught pianist and composer Federico Vollmer, was born in the central region of Venezuela in the 19th century. His father was German and his mother was Venezuelan and a cousin of Simn Bolvar, El Libertador. He lived in the State of Aragua and was very much part of the musical scene of his time His compositions define the Venezuelan idiom of his time where people used to enjoy dancing in soires. He composed many dances, polkas, mazurkas, 44 waltzes and some chamber music pieces. Jarro mocho, published in 1897 is one of the most popular Venezuelan pieces of all time. Miguel Astor wrote the versions I play.

Aliseo and Zumba que zumba by Federico Ruiz (1948-) Federico Ruiz was born in Caracas in 1948 where he trained as an accordionist and as a composer at the Escuela Superior de Msica. He is a much loved composer with a vast compositional output containing an interesting eclecticism regarding the techniques, forms and the different media he has used. Its

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scope ranges from electro acoustic music to large orchestral works, taking in on the way numerous piano pieces, chamber pieces, and the music for many films and plays. Also a trumpet concerto, two piano concertos, two operas (Los Martirios de Coln and La mujer de espalda) Ruiz has also been the recipient of many prizes and awards.

Aliseo-This piece was originally written for the film Aire libre (1995), by Luis Armando Roche. It contains elements of diverse types of Venezuelan joropo. In the film, the character Aliseo Carvallo, played by Federico himself, plays it on the harpsichord to welcome scientists Humboldt and Bompland one day in the 1800s, as a sample of the new music from the South American land. Federico wrote part of this piece in my house in Caracas.

Zumba que zumba was written between 2002 and 2003, it is based on folk motives, using as a reference the pattern of the zumba que zumba type of joropo, which has a particular harmonic sequence on which variations are created. He kindly dedicated it to me.

Conversation with MIGUEL ASTOR (1958-) on his waltz and about himself as a composerAdriana was composed in 1987, it is dedicated to my wife. About my style of composing, it depends of the medium I happen to be writing for. I was a pupil of Yanis Ioannidis, Modesta Bor and Antonio Mastrogiovanni in Caracas, which results in a mixture with very diverse influences.

I find that the Venezuelan idiom suits the piano very well and I actually intend to continue along the lines of the Venezuelan piano tradition that naturally has a certain neo- Baroque touch. That does not mean that I do not explore other avenues and languages. For instance I have used Indian rhythms in other pieces and I do not use directly Venezuelan music in my compositions for choir or chamber music. I do not consider myself to be a nationalist composer because that was a period in music history long passed. I belong to the generation of academically trained Venezuelan musicians although I detest that description- There is a love affair with Venezuelan music and we are obviously influenced by groups such as El Cuarteto, Quinteto Contrapunto and so many other groups that have stemmed out of the success of emblematic works such as the Cantata Criolla by Antonio Estevez, Antonio Lauros Guitar Concerto, Inocente Carreos Margaritea, and so many others. We did not feel the need of excluding Modernity, on the contrary we feel that it has been enriching, it has created an agreeable fusion between the world of popular and the written classical music.

Miguel Astor was born in Caracas in 1958. He has taught in many of the conservatories and universities and conducts several choirs in Caracas.

Fuga and Juangriego (waltz) by Modesta Bor (1926-1998)Composer, pianist, teacher and choir conductor Modesta Bor was born in Juangriego, Margarita Island, in 1926 where she received her first music lessons; in 1942 she traveled to Caracas to continue piano and composition studies at the Escuela Superior de Msica under Juan Bautista Plaza, Antonio Estvez, Elena de Arrarte and Vicente Emilio Sojo. In 1960 she was accepted as a pupil of Aram Katchaturian in the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire in Moscow.

She wrote one violin and piano sonata (which I premiered in London with Claudio Gonzlez), a viola and piano sonata, a great number of songs for soloists and for choirs, two piano suites, a Suite for orchestra. She moved away from the nationalistic type of writing towards the 70s and 80s with works such as Imitacin serial for strings, the piano Sarcasmos, the Piano concerto, and amongst other works, Acuarelas for orchestra.

The fugue in C that I have chosen for this CD belongs to a group of four fugues that I also premiered in Caracas in 1997.

The waltz is an early piece, sweet in character, reminiscent of Schumann but with a typical Venezuelan lilt.

El Diablo suelto (vals-joropo) by Heraclio Fernndez (18511886)Heraclio Fernndez, an accomplished pianist and composer was born in Maracaibo but from a very young age he resided in La Guaira with his father Manuel Maria Fernndez, from whom he received his first piano lessons.

In Caracas he founded the newspaper El Zancudo, a weekly magazine whose first number circulated in 1876. In 1884 the biweekly magazine El Museo started publication; in each issue it published a piece of music of some composer of the day as well as musical literary works of a satirical-humoristic type, Fernndez signed with the name of El Zancudo ( The Mosquito) in that magazine. On Saint Josephs day (March 19), 1888, El Diablo Suelto was published.

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Clara Rodrguez

Piano

VENEZUELA

LUISA ELENA PAESANo1. Pajarillo (joropo) 3.02 EVENCIo CASTELLANoS2. Maanita caraquea (waltz) 2.26 FEdErICo VoLLMEr3. Jarro mocho (joropo) 2.47 rAMoN dELgAdo PALACIoS4. La Dulzura de tu rostro (waltz) 2.33 LUISA ELENA PAESANo5. Elporfiao (joropo) 1.29 FEdErICo VoLLMEr6. El atravesado (waltz) 1.55 FEdErICo rUIZ7. Aliseo (joropo) 3.04 MArIA LUISA ESCoBAr8. Noche de luna en Altamira (nocturne-waltz) 3.40 FEdErICo rUIZ9. Zumba que zumba (joropo) 3.04 MIgUEL ASTor10. Adriana (waltz) 3.19

PABLo CAMACAro11. Diversin (ritmo orqudea) 2.31 ANToNIo LAUro12. Cancin 3.34 ANToNIo LAUro13. Vals criollo 2.57 JUAN CArLoS NUEZ14. Retrato de Ramn Delgado Palacios (waltz) 4.03 ModESTA Bor15. Fuga 2.21 ModESTA Bor16. Juangriego (waltz) 2.44 ANToNIo LAUro17. Seis por derecho (joropo) 2.58 rICArdo TErUEL18. Destilado de vals 2.58 FrANCISCo dELFN PACHECo19. El cumaco de San Juan (merengue) 2.55 LUIS LAgUNA20. Creo que te quiero (waltz) 5.38

PEdro ELIAS gUTIErrEZ21. Alma llanera (joropo) 2.47 PABLo CAMACAro22. Don Luis (merengue) 2.26 SIMoN dIAZ23. Caballo viejo (pasaje llanero) 3.22 MANUEL YANEZ24. Viajera del ro (waltz) 3.48 HErACLIo FErNANdEZ25. El Diablo suelto (waltz-joropo) 1.57

Total time 74:24

Clara Rodriguez provides performances of alluring vivacity allied to that most essential of requisites - CHARM.

Gramophone

Recorded at: Wyastone Concert Hall, Monmouth, UK on 1 & 2 Feb 2010 Engineer: Michael Ponder

General production: Clara RodrguezDesign: www.doubletakedesign.co.uk

Cover: Carlos David Photography: Antoln Snchezwww.wyastone.co.uk