Benet Casablancas
Encyclopedia
Benet Casablancas is a Spanish
composer
and musicologist
.
and Karl Heinz Füssl. He also graduated in Philosophy in Universidad Autònoma de Barcelona (1982) and has a PhD in musicology by the same university. He has always combined composition with teaching and research. In 2000 he published the book “El humor en la música” and in 2002 he was appointed Academic Director of the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu
of Barcelona.
Since the 1990s, Casablancas’ music enjoys an increasing international diffusion. His “New Epigrams” (1997), which have been performed all around the world (USA, Russia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Venezuela, Croatia, Lituania, Japan, etc.), represented Spain at the ISMC World Music Days Vilnius (2008). Also in 2008, the “Seven Scenes of Hamlet” had its UK premiere in a performance by the BBC Symphony Orchestra
, and in 2009 his work “Alter Klang. Impromptu for Orchestra” was first played in Holland and Belgium by the NJO of the Netherlands, in Sweden by the Malmö Symfoni Orkester and performed again in Belgium by the Orchestre National de Belgique. In the chamber field, the Arditti Quartet
gave the premiere of Casablancas' "String Quartet n.3". In December 2009 he was invited to visit Japan (Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka), where he gave lectures and master-classes and attended several concerts which included the JP Prémière of his set of "Haiku".
In the last years, several monographic concerts have taken place in Vienna at the Musikverein, Madrid (Auditorio 400 del Museo Reina Sofía, Música dhoy, Residencia de Estudiantes, Círculo de Bellas Artes) and Barcelona (L´Auditori). They were followed, in February 2010, by a Composer’s Portrait by Perspectives Ensemble in Miller Theatre
of New York, conducted by Angel Gil-Ordoñez
, which included the US Premiere of the "Seven Scenes from Hamlet" (with the actor Chuck Cooper in the soloist role) and the World Premiere of the new work, “Four Darks in Red”, after Rothko, commissioned by Miller Theatre with the collaboration of the Foundation for Iberian Music
. There has been another premiere planned for 2010, that of his “Chamber Concerto n.1 for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra”, which has been commissioned by the Royal Liverpool Philarmonic Orchestra. Also in 2010, his work “New Epigrams” was performed by The London Simfonietta, conducted by Frank Ollu, in Barcelona (“'Festival Nous Sons'09', L'Auditori”) and in Madrid (Saison of CDMC, Auditorio 400 Museo Reina Sofia)
Next commitments include new commissions and performances by Ensemble 88 Maastricht, Deutsches Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Ensemble Nomad Japan, Ensemble Cantus Croatia, Grupo Encuentros de Buenos Aires, The Tokyo Sinfonietta and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski. He has been "Visiting Composer" at the "Cairo Contemporary Music Days 2011". Recently he has received the commission of a new opera by the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.
Various performers (London Sinfonietta, Arditti Quartet, Barcelona SO, BCN 216, etc.)
EMEC/Fundació Música Contemporània E-068 (2005)
Various performers. Columna Música 1CM0112 (2004)
Jordi Masó, Miquel Villalba. Naxos 8.570757 (2008)
Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, Ofèlia Sala, cond: S. Mas. Naxos 8.579002 (2010)
Ensemble Barcelona 216, cond: M. Valdivieso. Naxos 8.579004 (2010)
Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, Will Keen
, actor, cond: J. R. Encinar. Stradivarius STR 33828 (2010)
Arditti Quartet. Tritó TD 0077 (2010)
Orquesta Nacional de España, cond: Josep Pons. Anemos C33010 (2010)
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and musicologist
Musicology
Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...
.
Biography
Casablancas started to study music in Barcelona and then moved to Vienna, where he attended lessons in the Vienna Academy of Music with Friedrich CerhaFriedrich Cerha
Friedrich Cerha is an Austrian composer and conductor.-Biography:Cerha was born in Vienna.He received his education at the Viennese Music Academy and at the University of Vienna...
and Karl Heinz Füssl. He also graduated in Philosophy in Universidad Autònoma de Barcelona (1982) and has a PhD in musicology by the same university. He has always combined composition with teaching and research. In 2000 he published the book “El humor en la música” and in 2002 he was appointed Academic Director of the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu
Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu
Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu is a music college in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was created in 1837 with the name Liceo Filo-dramático de Montesión....
of Barcelona.
Since the 1990s, Casablancas’ music enjoys an increasing international diffusion. His “New Epigrams” (1997), which have been performed all around the world (USA, Russia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Venezuela, Croatia, Lituania, Japan, etc.), represented Spain at the ISMC World Music Days Vilnius (2008). Also in 2008, the “Seven Scenes of Hamlet” had its UK premiere in a performance by the BBC Symphony Orchestra
BBC Symphony Orchestra
The BBC Symphony Orchestra is the principal broadcast orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation and one of the leading orchestras in Britain.-History:...
, and in 2009 his work “Alter Klang. Impromptu for Orchestra” was first played in Holland and Belgium by the NJO of the Netherlands, in Sweden by the Malmö Symfoni Orkester and performed again in Belgium by the Orchestre National de Belgique. In the chamber field, the Arditti Quartet
Arditti Quartet
The Arditti Quartet is a string quartet founded in 1974. The quartet is associated particularly with contemporary music.-Early history:The quartet was founded in 1974 by violinist Irvine Arditti together with John Senter, Levine Andrade and Lenox Mackenzie...
gave the premiere of Casablancas' "String Quartet n.3". In December 2009 he was invited to visit Japan (Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka), where he gave lectures and master-classes and attended several concerts which included the JP Prémière of his set of "Haiku".
In the last years, several monographic concerts have taken place in Vienna at the Musikverein, Madrid (Auditorio 400 del Museo Reina Sofía, Música dhoy, Residencia de Estudiantes, Círculo de Bellas Artes) and Barcelona (L´Auditori). They were followed, in February 2010, by a Composer’s Portrait by Perspectives Ensemble in Miller Theatre
Miller Theatre
Miller Theatre at Columbia University is located on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University. It is a performing arts producer dedicated to developing and presenting new music....
of New York, conducted by Angel Gil-Ordoñez
Angel Gil-Ordoñez
Angel Gil-Ordóñez has attained an outstanding reputation among Spain’s new generation of conductors as he carries on the tradition of his teacher and mentor, Sergiu Celibidache. The Washington Post has praised his conducting as “mesmerizing” and “as colorfully textured as a fauvist painting.”The...
, which included the US Premiere of the "Seven Scenes from Hamlet" (with the actor Chuck Cooper in the soloist role) and the World Premiere of the new work, “Four Darks in Red”, after Rothko, commissioned by Miller Theatre with the collaboration of the Foundation for Iberian Music
Foundation for Iberian Music
Foundation for Iberian Music is a research foundation within the Barry Brook Center for Music Research, affiliated with the doctoral program in music at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City...
. There has been another premiere planned for 2010, that of his “Chamber Concerto n.1 for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra”, which has been commissioned by the Royal Liverpool Philarmonic Orchestra. Also in 2010, his work “New Epigrams” was performed by The London Simfonietta, conducted by Frank Ollu, in Barcelona (“'Festival Nous Sons'09', L'Auditori”) and in Madrid (Saison of CDMC, Auditorio 400 Museo Reina Sofia)
Next commitments include new commissions and performances by Ensemble 88 Maastricht, Deutsches Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Ensemble Nomad Japan, Ensemble Cantus Croatia, Grupo Encuentros de Buenos Aires, The Tokyo Sinfonietta and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski. He has been "Visiting Composer" at the "Cairo Contemporary Music Days 2011". Recently he has received the commission of a new opera by the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.
Aesthetics
In 1990, the composition of the first piece of the “Epigrams” series was a turning point in his musical language; it evolved from the early influence of the formal techniques of serialism towards wider and more sensual idiom, which shows a renewed harmonical, textural and instrumental thinking. Critics have praised his music for keeping balance between constructional rigour and expressive strength, as well as for its timbrical richness. Casablancas’ output covers a wide range of genres, although recently he has been very prolific in the orchestral field; since 2005, he has written “The Dark Backward of Time” (after “The Tempest” by Shakespeare), “Alter Klang. Impromptu for Orchestra after Klee” and “Darkness visible. Nocturnal for orchestra” (after Milton). Casablancas's inspiration in paintings by artists like Paul Klee, Mark Rothko or Pablo Picasso is also one of his personal aims, in his search of creative feed-back between different artistic fields. At the same time, he attains a new kind of rhythmical freedom and formal fluidity, close to the character of free improvisation, together with a new sense of harmonic brightness, in such pianistic works like the three "Haiku" (2007) or the "Impromptu" (2009), commissioned by the Finnish pianist Kristiina Junttu.Key works
- Five Interludes -Quasi variazioni- (1983; string quartet)
- Seven Scenes from Hamlet (1989; chamber orchestra)
- Moviment per a trio (1984; violin, cello and piano)
- String Quartet No.2 (1992; string quartet)
- Petita Música Nocturna (1992; flute, clarinet, harp, piano, percussion)
- String Trio (1992; violin, viola, cello)
- Encore (1992; violin and piano)
- Introducción, Cadenza y Aria (1993; violin, clarinet, cello and piano)
- Full d'Àlbum. Variació sobre un tema de F. Schubert (1993; piano)
- Epigrams (1994; sextet)
- In modo di passacaglia (1992–1996; flute, clarinet, harp, piano, double bass)
- Two Pieces for clarinet and piano (1993/1997; clarinet and piano)
- Díptico for guitar solo (1996, 2004)
- Tríptico for cello solo (1996)
- New Epigrams (1997; chamber orchestra)
- Scherzo (2000; piano)
- Three Epigrams (2000; orchestra)
- Celebració (2001; chamber orchestra)
- Three Bagatelles for piano (2001–2003; piano)
- Melancolías y desabrimientos for double bass and piano (2005)
- The Dark Backward of Time (2005; orchestra)
- Tre Divertimenti (2006; piano duet)
- Intrada sobre el nom de Dalí: Variacions sobre tres notes (2006; orchestra)
- Alter Klang (2006; orchestra)
- Three Haiku (2008; piano)
- Jo tem la nit... (2008; choir mixed and piano)
- String Quartet No.3 (2009; string quartet)
- Darkness Visible (2009; orchestra)
- Four Darks in Red, after Rothko (2009; chamber orchestra)
- Impromptu (2009; piano)
- Dove of Peace: Homage to Picasso (Chamber Concert No.1 for clarinet and ensemble) (2010; chamber orchestra)
- Six Glosses on texts by Cees NooteboomCees NooteboomCees Nooteboom is a Dutch author. He has won numerous literary awards and has been mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in literature.-Life:...
(2010; fl, cl, perc, pno, vl, vc)
Selected recordings
- Epigrams, String Trio, Introduction, Cadenza and Aria, String Quartet nr. 2, New Epigrams, Album Leaf, Two Notations, Aphorism, Three Epigrams
Various performers (London Sinfonietta, Arditti Quartet, Barcelona SO, BCN 216, etc.)
EMEC/Fundació Música Contemporània E-068 (2005)
- Five Interludes for String Quartet, Two Piano Pieces, Three Piano Pieces, Scherzo, Mouvement for Trio, Little Night music, Two Songs, Celebration
Various performers. Columna Música 1CM0112 (2004)
- Piano Music (Three Bagatelles, Tombeau, Three Divertimenti for piano duet, Album Leaf, etc.)
Jordi Masó, Miquel Villalba. Naxos 8.570757 (2008)
- The Dark Backward of Time, Love Poem, Intrada on the name of Dalí, Epigrams, Postlude
Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, Ofèlia Sala, cond: S. Mas. Naxos 8.579002 (2010)
- Seven Scenes from Hamlet and other chamber works
Ensemble Barcelona 216, cond: M. Valdivieso. Naxos 8.579004 (2010)
- Seven Scenes from Hamlet, Alter Klang and other orchestral and vocal works
Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, Will Keen
Will Keen
Will Keen is an English actor. He is also a trustee of the James Menzies Kitchen Award, an award set up for young theatre directors in memory of the director with whom Keen collaborated early in his career...
, actor, cond: J. R. Encinar. Stradivarius STR 33828 (2010)
- Complete Strings Quartets and Trio
Arditti Quartet. Tritó TD 0077 (2010)
- Orchestral Works
Orquesta Nacional de España, cond: Josep Pons. Anemos C33010 (2010)
Honours and awards
- I & III Tribunas Fundación Juan March of Madrid (1982, 1984)
- Ferrán Sors (1984)
- II Musician's Accord New York (1986)
- XVI Premio Internacional Oscar Esplá (1988)
- Spanish National Recording Prize, awarded by Ministerio de Cultura (1988)
- Ciutat de Barcelona (1992)
- Composer's Arena (Foundation Gaudeamus Amsterdam, 1996)
- National Prize of Music (Generalitat de Catalunya, 2007)
- Finalist of the Prix de Composition Musicale, given by the Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco, with the work “The Dark Backward of Time”
Further reading
- Casablancas Domingo, B. “El humor en la música. Broma, parodia e ironía”. Kassel: Edition Reichenberger (DeMusica 3), 2000. ISBN 978-3-931887-86-5.
- Charles, A. "Benet Casablancas", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition (Stanley Sadie, ed.). London: Macmillan, 2000, vol. 5, pp. 221–222