Roberto Gerhard: Selected Works (playlist 1)
1. Ariel (1934), ballet in one act
Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya conducted by Edmon Colomer
I. Allegro molto
II. Adagio
III. Tempo giusto
2. Soirées de Barcelone suite (1936/1938 e 1972), ballet suite
Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya conducted by Edmon Colomer
I. La Foule - Cortège - Danse des Nains
II. Dansa de les "Majorales"
III. Les Couples et les Vieux
IV. Dansa dels "Fallaires"
3. Sinfonia "Homenaje a Pedrell" (1941)
BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Matthias Bamert
I. Allegro (moderatamente)
II. Andante (un poco adagio)
III. Pedrelliana: Allegretto giusto
4. Concerto for violino and orchestra (1942/1943)
Olivier Charlier, violin
BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Matthias Bamert
I. Allegro cantabile, con anima
II. Largo
III. Allegro con brio
5. Pandora, ballet suite (1944/1945)
Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya conducted by Edmon Colomer
I. The Quest
II. Psyche and the Youth
III. Pandora's Carnival
IV. The Monster's Drill
V. Death and the Mothers
6. Three Improptus, for piano (1950)
1. Giochevole
2. Teneramente
3. Con impeto.
Members of Nieuw Ensemble
7. Piano Concerto (1951)
Geoffrey Tozer, piano
BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Matthias Bamert
I. Tiento: Allegro
II. Diferencias: Adagio
III. Folia: Molto mosso
8. Sinfonia n.1 (1952/1953)
BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Matthias Bamert
I. Allegro animato
II. Adagio
III. Allegro spiritoso
9. Concerto for harpsichord and percussion (1956)
Geoffrey Tozer, harpsichord
BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Matthias Bamert
I. Allegro maestoso
II. Largo
III. Vivace spiritoso
10. Sinfonia n.2 (original version) (1959)
BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Matthias Bamert
I. Poco sostenuto - Allegro assai
II. Lento - Comodamente - Molto vivace
11. Sinfonia n.3 "Collages" (1960)
BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Matthias Bamert
I. Allegro moderato
II. Lento
III. Allegro con brio
IV. Moderato
V. Vivace
VI. Allegretto
VII. Calmo
12. Concerto a 8 (1962)
Nieuw Ensemble conducted by Ed Spanjaard
13. The Plague, cantata for narrator, chorus and orchestra, after Camus
BBC Symphony Chorus and Joven Orquesta Nacional de España conducted by Edmon Colomer
I. Oran
II. Déclaration de l'épidémie
III. Choc sur la population
IV. Le Comité de Santé
V. La fermeture des portes de la ville
VI. La mort de la Jeune Fille
VII. Les enterrements
VIII. L'Agonie de l'enfant
IX. La fine soudaine de l'épidemie
14. Concerto for Orchestra (1965)
BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Matthias Bamert
15. Epithalamion, for orchestra (1966)
BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Matthias Bamert
16. Gemini, "Duo concertante" for violin and piano (1966)
Members of Nieuw Ensemble
17. Sinfonia no.4 "New York" (1966/1967)
Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife conducted by Víctor Pablo Pérez
I. Andante
II. Poco rallentando
III. Molto vivace, con impeto
IV. Meno mosso
V. Subito allegro
VI. Flessibile
VII. (senza indicazione)
VIII.Scherzo
IX. Moderato
X. Deciso
XI. Allegro con moto
XII. (senza indicazione)
XIII. (senza indicazione)
18. Libra (1968)
Nieuw Ensemble conducted by Ed Spanjaard
19-20. Leo (1969)
Nieuw Ensemble conducted by Ed Spanjaard
Roberto Gerhard: Selected Works Collection (playlist 2)
21. "String Quartet No. 2" (1961-62) Arditti String Quartet
22. Fantasia for guitar (1957)
performed by Sanel Redzic
23. Secret People (Study for Film Score)
24. Albada, Interludi & Dansa for orchestra (1936)
Orquesta Sinfonica de Tenerife conducted by Pablo Pérez
1. Albada
2. Interludi (4:27)
3. Dansa (7:09)
25. Duo for violin and piano, Gemini (1966)
26. "Concertino para cuerdas" (1929)
27-28. Pedrelliana (en memoria) (1941)
Orquesta Sinfonica de Tenerife conducted by Victor Pablo Pérez
29-30. Nonet (1956-57)
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| Roberto Gerhard: Selected Works Collection (playlist 3- Don Quixote) View Here |
About Roberto Gerhard (1896-1970)
Robert Gerhard (born Robert Juan Rene Gerhard; 25 September 1896 -- 5 January 1970) was a Spanish Catalan composer and musical scholar and writer, generally known outside Catalonia as Roberto Gerhard.
Gerhard (who only consistently adopted the form 'Roberto' after he was exiled from Spain)[1] was born in Valls, near Tarragona, Spain, the son of a German-Swiss father and an Alsatian mother. He was predisposed to an international, multilingual outlook, but by birth and culture he was a Catalan. He studied piano with Granados and composition with the great scholar-composer Felipe Pedrell, teacher of Albéniz, Granados and Falla. When Pedrell died in 1922, Gerhard tried unsuccessfully to become a pupil of Falla and considered studying with Charles Koechlin in Paris but then approached Arnold Schoenberg, who on the strength of a few early compositions accepted him as his only Spanish pupil. Gerhard spent several years with Schoenberg in Vienna and Berlin. Returning to Barcelona in 1928, he devoted his energies to new music through concerts and journalism, in conjunction with the flourishing literary and artistic avant-garde of Catalonia. He befriended Joan Miró and Pablo Casals, brought Schoenberg and Webern to Barcelona, and was the principal organizer of the 1936 ISCM Festival there. He also collected, edited and performed folksongs and old Spanish music from the Renaissance to the eighteenth century.
Identified with the Republican cause throughout the Spanish Civil War (as musical adviser to the Minister of Fine Arts in the Catalan Government and a member of the Republican Government's Social Music Council), Gerhard was forced to flee to France in 1939 and later that year settled in Cambridge, England. Until the death of Francisco Franco, who made it his business to extirpate Catalan national aspirations, his music was virtually proscribed in Spain, to which he never returned except for holidays. Apart from copious work for the BBC and in the theatre, Gerhard's compositions of the 1940s were explicitly related to aspects of Spanish and Catalan culture, beginning in 1940 with a Symphony in memory of Pedrell and the first version of the ballet Don Quixote. They culminated in a masterpiece as The Duenna (a Spanish opera on an English play, by Sheridan, which is set in Spain). The Covent Garden production of Don Quixote and the BBC broadcasts of The Duenna popularized Gerhard's reputation in the UK though not in Spain.[2] During the 1950s, the legacy of Schoenbergian serialism, a background presence in these overtly national works, engendered an increasingly radical approach to composition which, by the 1960s, placed Gerhard firmly in the ranks of the avant-garde. From the early 1950s Gerhard suffered from a heart condition which eventually ended his life. He died in Cambridge in 1970 and is buried at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge. His archive is kept at Cambridge University Library.
