García Leoz, Jesús (1904-1953)

Jesús García Leoz was a student at the National Music and Recital Conservatory of Madrid between 1931-1936. Although he was not signed up for classes in harmony and composition, he was student of José Balsa, Conrado del Campo and Joaquín Turina. He ended up forming a very close relationship with the latter who referred to him as “my nephew”.

García Leoz composed a Sonatina for piano between 31 August and 25 September 1940, dedicated to Turina. The work made its début in March 1946, performed by the pianist Federico Quevedo in the Círculo Medina in Madrid. Later, in 1947, it was included in the movie Cuatro mujeres by Antonio del Amo. In early 1953, García Leoz finished the orchestral score for this work for piano, shortly before his sudden death on 23 February. The orchestral version of the Sonatina was first played on 13 March 1953, by the Spanish National Orchestra, conducted by Ataúlfo Argenta, in the Palace of Music.

Recording date

From 5 to 9 September 2022.

Performers

Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra

The current Navarre Symphony Orchestra was founded by Pablo Sarasate in 1879, making it the oldest working orchestra in Spain. It is currently part of the Baluarte Foundation, an institution funded mainly by the Government of Navarre and, as such, it is the province’s official orchestra. The Navarre Symphony Orchestra (OSN) has been around for almost one hundred and fifty years, playing in major auditoriums, opera seasons and festivals, both in Spain and abroad. Highlights include playing at the Champs Elysées Theatre and the Châtelet Theatre in Paris several times, plus a concert tour organised by the Universal Music record label encompassing important European concert halls. The orchestra is the benchmark ensemble for the works of composer and violinist Pablo Sarasate and their recording of this Navarrese composer’s complete works for Naxos, featuring the violinist Tianwa Yang, has been unanimously praised by international critics. With the same recording label, the OSN performed a programme of recordings with the Polish orchestra director Antoni Wit, lead conductor from 2013 up to the 2017-2018 season. The OSN plays for the public during an annual concert season in the cities of Pamplona and Tudela, in the Baluarte Auditorium and the Gaztambide Theatre, respectively, and it performs an important social and educational role throughout the province.

Jesús Echeverría

Director

Born in Olite, he received a scholarship from the Gipuzkoa Provincial Government to study conducting at the Vienna Conservatory with Julius Kalmar. In 1987, he won a place at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he furthered his training as a conductor with teachers such as Sir Colin Davis, Colin Metters, George Hurst, John Carewe and Horst Neuman. He completed his studies by winning the South Hall Memorial Prize in Conducting. He studied composition with Agustín González Acilu, Francisco Escudero, Tomás Marco, Javier Darias, Cristóbal Halffter and Mauricio Sotelo.

At the age of 23, he set up the Donostia Chamber Orchestra and, during his time in London, he founded The European Sinfonia.

He has conducted and recorded opera, zarzuela and symphonic-choral music in Spain, Poland, Japan, Latvia, Italy and Switzerland and he has conducted groups such as the Basque National Orchestra, the Latvian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra or the Navarre Symphony Orchestra where he was the Associate Conductor between 2015 and 2018.

He has received awards such as the INJUVE Composition Prize from the Navarre Institute of Sport and Youth, in 1998 and 1999, the International Pablo Sorozábal Composition Award for his work Cuarteto de Cuerda Nº 2 – Tétares or first prize for musical composition awarded by the Government of Navarre for his work Ennea III. In 2000, he received the 18th Joaquín Turina Award for musical composition, from Seville City Council, for his work Requiem Sine Verbis for a large orchestra, and the 15th Ciutat d’Alcoi Composition Prize for Coplas.

He is currently the analysis professor at Musikene - the Higher School of Music of the Basque Country and resident conductor for the La Rioja Symphony Orchestra.

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At the beginning of 1946, García Leoz composed an Impromptu para arpa dedicated to Maria Lola Higueras. The composition, which was never published, was missing until he contacted Ms. Higueras during the writing of Jesús García Leoz, un legado interrumpido (1904-1953) by Laura Celaya Álvarez. Maria Lola Higueras donated the score to the General Archive of Navarre, where it is currently kept. The work was premiered by Higueras on March 31, 1946 in a recital at the Winter Concerts at the Pereda Theater in Santander. She never ceased to perform it until her retirement in 1955.

Recording date

15 September 2020.

Performer

Alicia Griffiths

Born in Pamplona into a musical family, her grandfather, Manuel Turrillas, was a great composer of popular Navarrese music. Alicia began to play classical guitar at age 7, and harp at 13. After finishing her secondary studies at the Pablo Sarasate Conservatory, she moved to Wales to study harp at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. She continued her studies with a Master in Musical Performance under Gabriella Dall’Olio, and at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London under Frances Kelly (baroque harp). Alicia plays regularly with the Navarre Symphony Orchestra and has been part of the Lisbon Gulbenkian Foundation Orchestra, the London Mahler Orchestra, the Whitehall Orchestra, the Bloomsbury Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Orchestral Society, the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, the Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of the Balearic Islands, the Basque Country Youth Orchestra and the Norwegian National Youth Orchestra, among others. In 2011, she received the John Marson Prize for Harp Studies, through which she gave her début recital at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London.

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