These are the first-ever recordings of music composed by JosÃ© (Pepito) Arriola, whose works are virtually unknown. Born in Betanzos in the northern Spanish region of Galicia in 1895, Arriola was a celebrated child prodigy known at the time as a 'Galician Mozart', who dazzled audiences across Europe and American with his piano-playing. Most of Arriola's work was lost when his home in Berlin was destroyed during the Second World War. The manuscripts for the three concertos and two song-cycles presented here were discovered just a few years ago, and mysteriously vanished almost as soon as they had been photocopied for dissemination. They were composed in the final decade of Arriola's life: in 1946 he settled in Barcelona, where he lived quietly until his death in 1954. Arriola's music belongs to the second golden age of Spanish music, that of AlbÃ©niz, Granados, Turina and Falla (and, a little later, JoaquÃn Rodrigo), flavoured by nationalism and the rich Spanish folk tradition, along with a verismo that concerned itself with the ordinary people of Spain and their suffering (as mirrored in Carmen, or Candela in El amor brujo). Yet in common with other post-Romantic composers, Arriola sought out a world of vanished beauty, experimenting with color, texture, unusual tonal combinations and harmony full of color, sensuality and emotion. As a student in Leipzig, Arriola had been taught by Richard Strauss, and his teacher's influence may be heard to positive effect in both the soaring vocal lines of the Tres textos cervantinos and the transplanted Classical idiom of the Horn Concerto. The piano-writing in the Concertino and Divertimento concertante is more compact and Stravinskian, while two songs from the cycle of Seis poesÃas de Antonio Machado disclose yet another, more impassioned facet of Arriola's style.

Tracklist:

Concertino: I. Allegro Ma Non Troppo
Concertino: II. Largo
Concertino: III. Allegretto
Divertimento Concertante: I. Allegro Ritmico - Vivo E Scherzando - Moderato Appassionato
Divertimento Concertante: II. Lento
Divertimento Concertante: III. Presto
Seis Poesías De Antonio Machado: VII. La Aurora Asomaba
Seis Poesías De Antonio Machado: VIII. La Primavera Besaba
Seis Poesías De Antonio Machado: IX. Epílogo
Tres Textos Cervantinos: I. Aquí Lloró Don Quijote
Tres Textos Cervantinos: II. Mal Me Guardareis
Tres Textos Cervantinos: III. Marinero Soy De Amor
Concerto For Horn And Orchestra: I. Deciso
Concerto For Horn And Orchestra: II. Andante Calmo
Concerto For Horn And Orchestra: III. Allegro Ma Non Troppo

UPC: 5028421957975
Label: Brilliant Classics
Release Date: 9.13.18
Format: CD

Maximino Zumalave - José Arriola: Orchestral Music (CD)