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Opening Paths: Mexican Composer Ricardo Castro and Latin America’s First Cello Concerto (Part 3)

Natali Herrera-Pacheco, Horacio Contreras, and Germán Marcano

Editions

Ricardo Castro’s cello concerto has been edited twice. The first edition was authored by Jorge Alejandro Mendoza Rojas as a part of his unpublished Doctoral Thesis at The University of Texas Austin: “The cello concerto by Mexican composer Ricardo Castro (1864-1607): A performance edition for cello and piano” (1994). The dissertation itself provides a through survey of information regarding Castro, including his life, composing style and other aspects that are relevant to anyone willing to understand the concerto from a wider perspective. Mendoza Rojas’ edition includes a fully edited cello part as well as a piano reduction.

The second edition was sponsored by the Sphinx Organization and has been recently prepared by Strings of Latin America (2021). It includes a piano reduction, a fully edited solo part, an unedited solo part, and orchestral score and parts. The piano reduction and solo cello parts were published by Strings of Latin America in 2022, and the orchestral score and parts are in process of revision. This second edition will be used for the finals of the Senior division of Sphinx Competition 2023. The piano reduction and solo part for the third movement are available for free download at the website of the Sphinx Organization.

Both editions were based on the Fleisher Collection’s score, a microfilmed copy of which was generously provided to the editors by the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Pedagogical aspects

There are many sides to developing skills when it comes to cello playing. Perhaps the most obvious ones, and many times the most exciting for many younger students, are those related to the virtuosic aspect of technique. The exciting list includes fast runs, precise shifting, tons of double-stops, chords, or virtuoso bow strokes such as sautillé and ricochet. As we cellists get more mature, we usually develop ideas around the importance of other technical skills, -such as a solid pulse and a beautifully connecting legato in both the right arm and the left hand- and style-related skills connected to the need of contextualizing expressive tools in order to fit historical periods, cultural contexts, and even individual composers. There are also other aspects that are less obvious but not less important, including developing a strong sense of individual creativity, together with a generous performing personality that is able to convey artistic ideas with our audiences.

Aspects of technique

Ricardo Castro’s concerto can help cellists develop many of the skills that were just mentioned. Fun starts right on the first page when we open the cello part, as we will quickly encounter chromatic double-stop scales in thirds and sixths, together with quick leaps in octaves (for example, mm. 35-36). Double-stops of these nature -especially chromatic and leaping octaves- abound in both the first and the third movements, with some passages that remind those of advanced romantic concertos such as Dvorak’s. The short cadenza of the first movement also provides some nicely structured double-stop passages, that count with the space and freedom of unaccompanied playing. Also unaccompanied and free in nature are the arpeggios and short runs of the second movement “Theme varié.” Those passages cover a wide register that explores some of the highest pitches of the cello’s register. Although, there is not too much of virtuoso bow strokes or quick runs in the Castro, shifting is widely explored and presents considerably difficulties coming from the rather high register of the writing.

Connecting with the idea of high-register writing in the Castro is the need for a smooth legato and a balanced vibrato in thumb position. Those embarking on the study of the concert will find a fostering environment for the development of cantabile in the high register, in the shape of scale-like melodies, and also in melodies that display wider pitch distances. In regards to coordination, the piece doesn’t display too much passagework requiring high-speed playing in slurs or separate bow strokes, although it does have some rather flowing phrases as those in measures 84-92 from the first movement, or the aforementioned short cadenzas of the second movement as the one in measure 303.

Performing underrepresented repertoire

There is a great value in the study of works that we don’t know. With those works, we can nurture our knowledge of style with a gaze that is free of all of the pre-conceptions stemming from the contact with the great performance tradition of the canonic works. It can actually be very difficult, or even impossible, to study works like the concerti by Dvorak or Elgar without constantly making unconscious references to the interpretative traditions as shaped by the individual ideas of the myriad of illustrious cellists that have left historic imprints on those works. Nevertheless, there are many other beautiful works that for one or another reason have not received the same attention through history. We can approach those works with real questions in our mind about the way they will sound like, how is the construction of phrases, sections and movements, what is the style of the composer, and what expressive decisions would be effective to convey all of those ideas to the audiences.

That is the case of Castro’s concerto. It is a beautiful work written in a romantic fashion resembling that of Saint-Saëns, where cellists can creatively explore their knowledge of style to bring a work that they have probably never heard before. A contact with the Castro will necessarily imply a synthesis of all their stylistic knowledge about music from the romantic period for the creation of a version that will almost surely be unique because of the lack of previous references.

At the same time, performances of underrepresented repertoire will be also a first for audiences, and that will test the eloquence of performers in ways that canonic repertoire won’t. Once the performance starts, there won’t be any intrinsically musical expectations in the average members of audiences to be fulfilled or deceived other than the expectations that the musicians will create as they perform the work in real time. Thus, there is much creative power to be explored when performing underrepresented works of high musical value such as Castro’s cello concerto.

Lastly but very importantly, there are big gains to be made from the broader social significance of bringing to life a work like the Castro in today’s society. We pedagogues know about the importance that a broader idea of relevance can have for the development of a strong sense of individuality in younger musicians. The great success of musicians coming from programs such as Venezuelan El Sistema is a clear example of those vast positive consequences of transcending the purely musical significance of a performance so that it can also become a social statement. The fact that young musicians not only feel significantly represented when performing a musical work, but also feel that through their performances they are becoming relevant agents in the representation of social groups that have been historically marginalized, has immense potential in the development of a strong, positive, and creative self in relationship with music performance. The combination of a cello and a work like the Castro can then become the equivalent of the toolbox that actors display in popular movies where those superheroes fight for justice.

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ABRIENDO CAMINOS: EL mexicano Ricardo Castro y el primer concerto para violonchelo en Latinoamérica

Ediciones

El concierto para violonchelo de Ricardo Castro ha sido editado dos veces. La primera edición fue preparada por Jorge Alejandro Mendoza Rojas como parte de su tesis doctoral inédita en la Universidad de Texas Austin: “El concierto para violonchelo del compositor mexicano Ricardo Castro (1864-1607): una edición de interpretación para violonchelo y piano” (1994). La tesis proporciona un estudio exhaustivo de la información sobre Castro, incluida su vida, estilo compositivo, y otros aspectos que son relevantes para quien comprender el concierto desde una perspectiva amplia. La edición de Mendoza Rojas incluye una parte de violonchelo totalmente editada, así como una reducción para piano.

La segunda edición fue patrocinada por la Sphinx Organization y ha sido preparada recientemente por Strings of Latin America (2021). Incluye una reducción para piano, una parte solista completamente editada, una parte solista sin editar, así como el score y las partes orquestales. La reducción para piano y las partes de violonchelo solo fueron publicadas por Strings of Latin America en 2022, y el score orquestal y las partes individuales actualmente se encuentran en proceso de revisión. Esta segunda edición se utilizará para las finales de la división Senior de la Sphinx Competition 2023. La reducción para piano y la parte solista del tercer movimiento están disponibles para descarga gratuita en el sitio web de la Sphinx Organization.

Ambas ediciones se basaron en una copia microfilmada del score de la Fleisher Collection, que la Biblioteca Libre de Filadelfia proporcionó generosamente a los editores.

Aspectos pedagógicos

Cuando se trata de tocar el violonchelo, hay muchas aspectos en el desarrollo de habilidades. Quizás los más obvios, y muchas veces los más emocionantes para muchos estudiantes jóvenes, son los relacionados con el aspecto virtuoso de la técnica. La lista incluye pasajes rápidos, cambios de posición precisos, miles de doble-cuerdas, acordes, o golpes de arco virtuosos como sautillé y ricochet. A medida que los violonchelistas maduramos, solemos desarrollar ideas en torno a la importancia de otras habilidades técnicas, como un pulso sólido y un legato bellamente conectado tanto en el brazo derecho como en la mano izquierda, así como otras habilidades relacionadas con el estilo en conexión con la necesidad de contextualizar herramientas expresivas para adaptarse a períodos históricos, contextos culturales e incluso compositores individuales. También hay otros aspectos que son menos obvios pero no menos importantes, como el desarrollo de un fuerte sentido de la creatividad individual, junto con una generosa personalidad interpretativa que sea capaz de transmitir ideas artísticas a nuestro público.

Aspectos de la técnica

El concierto de Ricardo Castro puede ayudar a los violonchelistas a desarrollar muchas de las habilidades que se acaban de mencionar. La diversión comienza en la primera página cuando abrimos la parte del violonchelo, ya que rápidamente encontraremos escalas cromáticas de doble-cuerdas en terceras y sextas, junto con rápidos saltos en octavas (por ejemplo en los compases 35-36). Las doble-cuerdas de esta naturaleza -sobre todo cromáticas y con saltos en octavas- abundan tanto en el primero como en el tercer movimiento, con algunos pasajes que recuerdan a aquellos de conciertos románticos como el de Dvorak. La breve cadencia del primer movimiento también proporciona algunos pasajes de doble-cuerdas muy bien estructurados, que cuentan con el espacio y la libertad de tocar sin acompañamiento. También sin acompañamiento y de naturaleza libre son los arpeggios y los pasajes rápidos de corta duración del segundo movimiento “Theme varié”. Esos pasajes cubren un amplio registro que explora algunas de las notas más agudas del violonchelo. Aunque no hay muchos pasajes que presenten golpes de arco virtuosos o pasajes de rapidez en el Castro, los cambios de posición se exploran ampliamente y presentan dificultades considerables debido al registro agudo de la escritura.

Conectando con la idea de escritura de registro agudo en Castro está la necesidad de un legato efectivo y un vibrato equilibrado en la posición del pulgar. Quienes se embarquen en el estudio del concierto encontrarán un entorno propicio para el desarrollo del cantabile en el registro agudo, en forma de melodías basadas en escalas, y también en melodías que muestren distancias interválicas más amplias. En lo que respecta a la coordinación, la pieza no muestra demasiados pasajes que requieran tocar a alta velocidad en ligaduras o golpes de arco separados, aunque sí tiene algunas frases fluidas como las de los compases 84-92 del primer movimiento, o las antes mencionadas breves cadencias del segundo movimiento.

Interpretación de repertorio poco representado

Hay un gran valor en el estudio de obras que no conocemos. Con esas obras podemos nutrir nuestro conocimiento del estilo con una mirada libre de todos los prejuicios derivados del contacto con la gran tradición interpretativa de las obras canónicas. Puede ser muy difícil, o incluso imposible, estudiar obras como los conciertos de Dvorak o Elgar sin recurrir constantemente a referencias inconscientes a la gran tradición interpretativa manifestada en forma de las ideas individuales de la gran cantidad de ilustres violonchelistas que han dejado huellas históricas en esas obras. Sin embargo, existen muchas otras bellas obras que por una u otra razón no han recibido la misma atención a lo largo de la historia. Podemos acercarnos a esos trabajos con preguntas reales en nuestra mente acerca de cómo sonarán, cómo es la construcción de frases, secciones y movimientos, cuál es el estilo del compositor y qué decisiones expresivas serían efectivas para transmitir todas esas ideas a las audiencias.

Ese es el caso del concierto de Castro. Es una hermosa obra escrita en un estilo romántico parecido al de Saint-Saëns, donde los violonchelistas pueden explorar creativamente el conocimiento del estilo para interpretar una obra que probablemente nunca antes habían escuchado. Un contacto con el Castro implicará necesariamente una síntesis de todos los conocimientos estilísticos sobre la música del período romántico con el fin de crear de una versión que casi seguramente será única por la falta de referencias previas.

Al mismo tiempo, las interpretaciones de repertorio poco representado también serán una novedad para el público, y eso pondrá a prueba la elocuencia de los artistas de formas que el repertorio canónico no lo hará. Una vez que comience el concierto, no existirá en los miembros promedio de la audiencia ninguna expectativa intrínsecamente musical por ser satisfecha o defraudada aparte de aquellas expectativas que los músicos crearán mientras interpretan la pieza en tiempo real. Por lo tanto, hay mucho poder creativo por explorar cuando se interpretan obras poco representadas de alto valor musical, como en el caso del concierto para violonchelo de Castro.

Por último, pero no de menor importancia, se pueden obtener grandes beneficios del significado social más amplio de dar vida a una obra como la de Castro en la sociedad actual. Los pedagogos conocemos la importancia que puede tener una idea más amplia de relevancia para el desarrollo de un fuerte sentido de individualidad en los músicos más jóvenes. El gran éxito de músicos provenientes de programas como El Sistema en Venezuela es un claro ejemplo de las vastas consecuencias positivas de trascender el significado meramente musical de un concierto para que también se convierta en una declaración social. El hecho de que los jóvenes músicos no solo se sientan significativamente representados al ejecutar una obra musical, sino que también sientan que a través de sus interpretaciones se están convirtiendo en actores relevantes en la representación de grupos sociales históricamente marginados, tiene un inmenso potencial en el desarrollo de un fuerte y positivo sentido del yo creativo en relación con la interpretación musical. La combinación de un violonchelo y una obra como la de Castro puede convertirse entonces en el equivalente a la caja de herramientas que los actores despliegan en películas taquilleras donde los superhéroes luchan por la justicia.

 

Subjects: Historical, Repertoire

Tags: cello concerto, Cello Repertoire, Latin America, Origins of concerto, Pedagogy, Ricardo Castro, Sources, Technique

AUTHOR

Natali Herrera-Pacheco, Horacio Contreras, and Germán Marcano

Natali Herrera-Pacheco is a Venezuelan artist and scholar that works on the intersection of music with other expressive forms. Natali holds a Doctorate in Latin American literature from the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain; and a Masters in Ethnohistory and a Bachelors in Art History from the Universidad de Los Andes in Venezuela.

As a scholar, her work has encompassed the study of Venezuelan musical rituals and the relationship of music and literature in the work of Dominican writer Marcio Veloz Maggiolo. She has published articles in scholarly journals in Venezuela and presented papers at conferences in France (École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales), Mexico (53 International Congress of Americanists), Venezuela (Third National Congress of Anthropology), and Spain (University of Granada).

As an artist, her activity centers in images, both still (photography) and mobile (video). Natali was an artist-in-residence of Khemia Ensemble, a music collective devoted to the presentation of contemporary concert music in innovative ways. Her character Fragile inspired the ensemble’s 2017-2018 concert season, where she collaborated in intersections of Natali’s video-art and Carolina Heredia’s music in the works Negative Image and Interludio. Her video-art has been presented at venues and festivals including National Sawdust, Strange Beautiful Music Festival, University of Missouri, MoxSonic Experimental Sonic Arts Festival, among others. In photography, her main interests has been photography of musicians and street photography. She has worked as a freelance photographer for the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theater and Dance; faculty members of the schools of music of the University of Michigan, University of Missouri, Baylor University, Lawrence University; the chamber music ensembles Khemia Ensemble and the Ivalas Quartet; and members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Her most recent project is the production of the educative video series The Voices of Latin-American Cello, hosted by The Sphinx Catalog of Latin-American Cello Works. Natali is fluent in Spanish, English and French, and lives a happy life with her two cats and her husband in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Venezuelan cellist Horacio Contreras has gained esteem through a multifaceted career as a concert cellist, chamber musician, pedagogue, and scholar. He has collaborated with prestigious institutions across the Americas and Europe as a concerto soloist, a recitalist, a chamber musician, and a master class clinician.

Highlights of his career include solo performances with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra and the Municipal Orchestra of Caracas in Venezuela, the EAFIT University Orchestra in Colombia, the Camerata de France in France, and the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra and the Music Institute of Chicago’s Chamber Orchestra in the US; chamber collaborations with members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and members of the Detroit, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras, and the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin; and master classes at Bloomington, Juilliard, Michigan, Oberlin and the ASTA National Convention, as well as at many renowned programs from Latin America. Recent collaborations include the recording of the works for cello and piano by Ricardo Lorenz, the commission and premiere of Diáspora for cello and piano by the Schubert Club’s composer-in-residence Reinaldo Moya, and the recording of Shuying Li’s World Map Concerti with the Four Corners Ensemble.

Horacio serves on the faculty of Lawrence University, the Music Institute of Chicago and the University of Michigan’s MPulse summer institute Center Stage Strings. His students have made solo recordings, soloed nationally and internationally, attended festivals such as Aspen, Orford and Domaine Forget, and won awards at international and national competitions. They have continued their education at institutions including the University of Michigan, the San Francisco Conservatory, the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne in Switzerland, and the Hochschule for Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Mannheim, Germany. Some of his former students have pursued successful careers as orchestral musicians, chamber musicians, teachers, and freelancers. Others have devoted their energies to grow in other professional areas and enjoy a meaningful connection with music through the cello.

He is the founder and artistic director of Strings of Latin America, an official partner to the Sphinx Organization with the purpose of social engagement through the promotion of diversity in the classical music world. As a part of his efforts to help diversifying the repertoire, he coauthored The Sphinx Catalog of Latin-American Cello Works, a comprehensive database with information about works for cello written by Latin American composers created in partnership with the Sphinx Organization and CelloBello.org. His pedagogic book Exercises for the Cello in Various Combinations of Double-Stops has received recognition as a significant contribution to the instrument’s literature.

He is a member of the Four Corners Ensemble and the Reverón Piano Trio. He started his musical studies in Venezuela through El Sistema, and holds degrees from the Conservatoire National de Région de Perpignan, France, the Escola de Musica de Barcelona, Spain, and the University of Michigan. He is represented by Meluk Kultur Management and Halac Artists together with his colleagues of the Reverón Piano Trio.

Germán Marcano currently excels among the most important cellists in the Latin American music scene. His performances have received the best acclaims from musicians and the specialized critic, and his chamber music work with the Rios Reyna Quartet, has stand out as one of the most important in the continent.

A student with Maestro Stefan Popov and of the renowned British pedagogue William Pleeth, Marcano obtained his Bachelor of Music Degree in year 1983, at the prestigious Surrey University, England, where he was prized for the year’s best graduation concert. In 1979, he received by unanimity of the jury, the “Year’s Best Young Musician Award” granted by the Reading Symphony Orchestra, England, subsequently being invited to perform as a soloist with them, in addition to performing in several concerts in some cities of the United Kingdom. In the following years, he has been regularly invited as a soloist with ensembles such as the Surrey University Symphony Orchestra, the Guildford Camerata and the Surrey Philharmonia.

In year 1985, Marcano completed his cello’s superior studies at the Guildhall School of Music, in London, obtaining the “Premier Prix”, being the first cellist ever awarded with such distinction at said institution. He has taken part in master courses with Maestros Franz Helmerson, Mstislav Rostropovich, Raquel Adonaylo, Lynn Harrel and Janos Starker. Back in Venezuela in year 1985, Marcano occupied the principal cello chair with the Simón Bolívar Symphonic Orchestra, doing numerous tours and records productions with them. Since then, he has been a regular invited soloist with Venezuela’s main orchestras, counting among these invitations playing at the first concert performance of the “Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho” Symphonic Orchestra and the first performance in Venezuela of Elgar's cello concerto. He has developed an important teaching work at the Simón Bolívar Conservatory, the Emil Friedman School, with the Simón Bolívar University Music Master Studies, and the Mozarteum Center’s Music School.

As a founding member of the Rios Reyna Quartet, he engaged in several national and international tours, a recording of Latin American string quartets and two performances jointly with the legendary Amadeus Quartet playing Johannes Brahms’ String Sextets.

In 1997, he traveled to the United States to continue studies with Maestro Uri Vardi. During his stay in this country, Marcano won the audition for the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s principal cello position, in Wisconsin, in addition to carrying out various concerts in Madison and Milwaukee as a cellist and a conductor. In May of 2001, Marcano obtained the degree of “Doctor in Music Arts” granted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the United States. Currently, his activities are split between his teaching (Simón Bolívar Conservatory, Emil Friedman School, Simón Bolívar University Music Master studies, and Mozarteum Center’s Music School) and playing, performing as a soloist with Venezuela’s main orchestras, as a member to the Camerata Criolla Ensemble, and conductor of the Simón Bolívar University Chamber Orchestra’s.

In the last years, Marcano has combined his instrument’s traditional repertoire with Latin American compositions of the past and present times, thus promoting this high quality but very little broadcasted repertoire. He has first auditioned works from renowned Venezuelan composers such as Modesta Bor and Inocente Carreño, as well as fist auditions in Venezuela from different Latin American composers as Leo Brower, Alfredo Rugeles, Juán Orrego Sálas, Alberto Ginastera and Calixto Álvarez. Recently, he performed for the first time with the Puerto Rican Symphony, the Concert for Cello and Orchestra of Puerto Rican composer Carlos Vázques, piece composed specially for Marcano. His catalog of Latin American works for cello was published in year 2004 by the Vicente Emilio Sojo Foundation (Funves), with whom ha has recently published an edition of the Suite for cello and piano by Venezuelan composer Modesta Bor. Last September Mr. Marcano released his first CD with his sister Clara, which includes works by Schumann, Beethoven, Debussy and others. A second CD, devoted to folk Venezuelan music, is already in the making. He was recently invited as a professor and lecturer to Grand Valley State University and Andrews University in Michigan.

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