Malaga Philharmonic Orchestra / Season 2024-25

C. GUERRA-PEIXE, W. WALTON, H. VILLA-LOBOS

Conductor Evandro Matté
–
Symphonic suite No.2 'Pernambucana', César Guerra-Peixe
Concerto for viola and orchestra, William Walton
Yuval Gotlibovich viola
– –
Chôros No.6, Heitor Villa-Lobos

1.30 h (w/intermission)
orquestafilarmonicademalaga.com
photo ©Joan Vanden Bossche
Program notes José Antonio Cantón

César Guerra-Peixe, born in Petrópolis in 1914, was a Brazilian composer, violinist and orchestra conductor. He was eventually influenced by the serialist musician of German origin Hans-Joachim Koellreutter. Dedicated to the composer and orchestra conductor Eleazar de Carvalho, his Symphonic suite Nº2 “Pernambucana” was composed in 1955, inspired by the folkloric music of Recife and the State of Pernambuco.
In 1928, the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham suggested that Walton write a concerto for the eminent violist Lionel Tertis. The composer agreed and started working on the piece almost immediately. When he finished he sent it to Tertis, who much to Walton’s disappointment, rejected it. In 1960, Walton thoroughly revised the concerto, although it was never amongst his most admired compositions.
Chôros 6 is an orchestral piece written between 1925 and 1942 by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. It forms part of a series of fourteen compositions collectively entitled Chôros, with several formats in respect to both structure and length. According to the sheet music, Chorôs 6 was composed in Rio de Janeiro in 1926 and dedicated ten years later to Arminda Neves d'Almeida, the musician’s second wife. It was premiered on the 18th of July, 1942 by the Orquestra Sinfônica do Theatro Municipal with Villa-Lobos at the podium. The latter described the work’s general harmonic atmosphere as if it were a kind of musical romance taken from the rural environment of northeastern Brazil.

Malaga Philharmonic Orchestra Season 2024-25