Spanish Embassy to honor Casals with free clarinet virtuoso concerts.
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 5 hours ago
- 3 min read
By PEGGY ANN BLISS
Special to The STAR
Flash! At 26, Spanish virtuoso Ángel Martín, a top attraction of the Casals Festival, has reached a rare pinnacle. After three auditions to attain the chair of solo clarinet in the prestigious Paris Opera Orchestra, he made the cut on May 6.
This young Toledo prodigy has taken the giant step up from the Lyon (France) Opera Orchestra, where he reigned in the top clarinet spot for three years. The emerging superstar will bring a unique free concert to three island venues as part of the Casals Festival.
Without orchestra, without piano.
In a spectacular tour de force, Martín will perform “Hommages” composed by contemporary Hungarian clarinet virtuoso/composer Bela Kovács. The piece, evoking nine composers who have helped give life to the instrument over the centuries, requires supreme control of breath and stamina. Martín will perform another Hungarian piece, “Shalom Aleikem, Rov Giova Feidman,” an homage to a modern pinnacle of klezmir, Argentinian composer Giova Feidman, now 90, by the same composer.
The first stop will be in the historic southwestern town of San Germán, followed by the city of Mayagüez, where cellist Pablo Casals’ mother was born, and San Juan, seat of the festival.
“Young Spanish Talent Meets America,” a Spanish Embassy program in Washington, D.C.’s Cultural Office, has organized the trio of concerts.
The program will consist of the aforementioned two Hungarian works covering the broad range of the clarinet. “Hommages,” written in 1994 by Kovács, evokes the unique style of nine famous composers: Manuel de Falla from Spain, Claude Debussy from France, and German greats from the classical, pre- and post-romantic periods, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig von Beethoven and Richard Strauss.
Italian violin virtuoso Nicolo Paganini inspired the most spectacular fireworks, while Carl Maria von Weber is evoked for his virtuoso works for the instrument as are two more modern Hungarians, Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly.
The opening presentation in San Germán, the island’s oldest municipality, will be at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 29 at a unique venue, chosen for its acoustic advantage: the museum in the Porta Coeli Convent, an ancient religious structure built in the early 17th century.
Cellist’s heritage: Memories of Pilar
The concert will then encore in Mayagüez on Saturday, May 30 at 7 p.m., in the birthplace of Casals’ mother, Pilar Defilló. Born in 1853 to political refugees from Vendrell, Catalonia in Spain, she lost her father Josep when she was 18. Her mother, Raimunda, took her and her younger brother Francisco back to Vendrell, where Raimunda still had relatives.
The long trip took its toll, and 10 days after their arrival, Raimunda was dead, leaving two teenage orphans with her family.
Soon after, Pilar met Carles Casals, the local church organist who soon became her teacher.
In 1875 they married, and in 1876 Pilar gave birth to Pau, who would become the world’s most famous cellist. The couple had 11 children, only three of whom survived to adulthood. When Pilar noted that young Pau had a remarkable gift for the cello, she became highly pro-active in his journey to stardom, moving to Barcelona and France for his studies.
This remarkable story of the young Puerto Rican woman behind the world’s greatest cellist is the subject of a half-hour film, “Interludio con Pilar Defillo” (Interlude with Pilar Defillo), to be premiered at 6:30 p.m. The film, starring Cristina Sesto and directed by Mariana Quiles, is based on a monologue by Alberto Medina Carrero to honor the 10th anniversary of the restoration of the neoclassical home, a charming museum and events venue on the corner of Méndez Vigo and Candelaria Streets.
The third and final clarinet concert will be held on Monday, June 1 at 5 p.m. in the Anthony “Junior” Soto Room in the Bertita and Guillermo Martínez Theater at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music in Miramar.
The crescent-shaped room is ideal for the naked instrumental gymnastics Martín will display. Best to beat the crowd for a seat!
The Conservatory is at 951 Ponce de León Ave., Stop 15.
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