Lorenzo Palomo
My Secluded Garden
During the years from 1977 to 1981 I spent five years
with my family in San Diego, California. Among other
works, I composed there, commissioned by Montserrat
Caballé, my song cycle Del atardecer al alba or
Recuerdos de juventud, which she sang later at the most
prestigious concert halls around the world, including a
world première at Carnegie Hall, New York.
I never believed that places could influence the
inspiration of a composer. The fountain of creativity is
within the artist, and it flows anywhere he goes. I could
have composed these songs, therefore, at any other
place in the world. Nevertheless I asked myself many
times which turn of destiny wanted me to spend those
years in California. The answer was always clear to me:
It was written in the history of my life that I had to meet
Celedonio Romero and his family, the legendary Guitar
Quartet formed by Celedonio, Celin, Pepe and Angel
Romero. To them I owe my knowledge and passion for
the guitar, for them I composed my Nocturnos de
Andalucía for guitar and orchestra and in memory of
Celedonio I wrote my concerto for four guitars and
orchestra Concierto de Cienfuegos, recalling the city in
Cuba where he was born.
Besides being the grand maestro of the guitar that
he was, Celedonio enjoyed immensely his talent as a
poet. He wrote poems with great ease, simple in
structure, with almost a folk style, profound message
and deep philosophy. Sometimes he would describe just
what came in front of his eyes or simply thoughts of
everyday life.
During our unforgettable evenings together,
Celedonio enjoyed reciting his verses for us. Before his
death, he printed a small book with a collection of these
poems. In the copy he dedicated to me he says:
“…Hoping you will compose your wonderful music on
some of these poems, so they will have more value…”
This was the origin of My Secluded Garden which I
dedicated to the memory of Angelita, Celedonio’s wife,
who was without any doubt the fountain of inspiration
of most of his poems.
I cannot find the words to describe the emotion and
the deep affection I felt while composing these songs, in
which I tried to keep intact the genuine and, at the same
time, simple style of the poems which inspired them.
Lorenzo Palomo
Madrigal and Five Sephardic Songs
To the remarkable American stage director, drama
coach and brilliant performer, Janet Bookspan
As I composed Madrigal and Five Sephardic Songs I
principally intended to preserve their magic, simplicity
and traditional character. Madrigals originally are small
choral works from the sixteenth and seventeenth
century. They are about love and pastoral idyll.
Sephardic Songs are melodies from the Jewish music
left in Spain as heritage, and especially captivate by
their great simplicity. The subject is always love, the
pain of unrequited love, the story of a young love or a
lullaby. All of these songs radiate purity and tenderness. Madrigal and Five Sephardic Songs was performed
for the first time by Ofelia Sala, soprano, and Maria
Smirnova, harp, at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Germany,
on 4 October 2004.
Lorenzo Palomo
Concierto de Cienfuegos
for four guitars and orchestra
I. Night, Lake of a Thousand Fantasies
In Bulería rhythm the fairies dance through the side
streets of the enchanted Andalusian night. Smiling stars
illuminate the sky like an immense lake of a thousand
fantasies.
II. Song to the Night—Lullaby
In the placid night one hears a lyric and captivating
theme. The ocean and the stars kiss one another,
whispering endearments…They fall asleep listening to
the cadences of a slow and tropical habanera rhythm.
III. The Two Shores
Cienfuegos does not sleep. The night shines with the
exuberance and sensual beauty of the rhythms which
emerge from the Caribbean. Bongos and congas sound
passionately until sunrise.
The score, written mainly in the course of the year 2000,
was completed in Berlin in April 2001. The première of
this work was given at the Real Maestranza Theatre of
Seville on 14 and 15 June 2001 by The Romero
Guitar Quartet, formed by Pepe, Celino, Lito and Celin
Romero, and the Royal Symphony Orchestra of Seville
conducted by Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. The Córdoba
composer dedicated this concerto “to the memory of my
cherished friend, the eminent guitar maestro Celedonio
Romero”, and this spirit of heart-felt posthumous
homage lies behind the title and the musical substance
of the Concierto de Cienfuegos. Just as Palomo himself
said, “Together with Andrés Segovia, Celedonio
Romero was one of the great ambassadors of the
Spanish guitar outside Spain. His family was from
Málaga but as fate would have it, Celedonio was born in
Cienfuegos, Cuba. This circumstance doubly enriched
his imagination, creativity and soul as an artist. I
composed the Concierto de Cienfuegos to honour the
memory of my dear friend Celedonio Romero with the
name of the city where he was born and (…) at the same
time my special aim in composing it was to join, in one
work, the cultures of the two worlds that merged in
Celedonio: Andalusia and Cuba”.
Although fanciful and unrestrained, Lorenzo
Palomo’s new guitar concerto, written for four guitars,
on this occasion in honour of the Romeros, recalls the
classic format of the concerto in three movements. The
first, entitled Noche, lago de mil fantasías (Allegretto) (Night, Lake of a Thousand Fancies), follows the
“poematic” line of the composer, who conceives music
as a manner of “imagery of sound”. It seeks to evoke a
dance of “little elves on narrow lanes in the enchanted
Andalusian night”. Starting with the solo guitars, the
harp and celesta make a delicate “natural” transition to
the orchestra within an enveloping air of bulerías. The
solo quartet offers a second thematic block in a
rhythmic sonorous ambience that makes no attempt to
establish marked contrasts with the previous part. The
return to the first block with the guitars, to complete the
cyclic form, is a prelude to a beautiful rendition of the
main theme by the orchestra’s strings. A certain sense of
repetition helps to create the desired magical
atmosphere and the movement then dissolves in a
delicate evanescent coda.
In the second movement, called Canto a la noche—Arrullos (Calmo) (Song to the Night—Lullaby), the
composer says that “the sea and the stars kiss, caress,
coo… and drowse off with cadences of the slow tropical
rhythm of a habanera”. Harmonics of the muted violins
and harp create the bed of sound and the atmosphere of
a nocturne, in which the beautiful ample melody of the
flute soon stands out, “a lyrical enthralling theme”, that
is quickly taken up by the violins. Until this moment the
guitars have been only a “touch of colour”, but now they
remain alone to rework freely the material and lead the
music to a section Poco più mosso: the atmosphere has
become illuminated and the solo quartet and the
orchestra alternate in their dialogue: Lorenzo Palomo makes no attempt (which would, moreover, surely be in
vain) to confront the guitar’s little (or “distant”, as
Andrés Segovia said) voice, even if there are indeed
four guitars in this case, with the orchestra’s big (and
“present”) voice. Next comes a Calmo section in the
form of a cadence of the solo quartet, giving way to a
little song in the style of Albéniz, which is joined by the
orchestra, playing at its ease until finally “wandering
off”.
If the bulerías of the first movement denoted
Andalusia and in the second movement the lulled
metrics of the habanera—a folk melody of the so-called
“round-trip type”—formed a link between the Old
World and the New, the Concierto de Cienfuegos closes
with an impetuous deployment of rhythms of a
Caribbean air: Latin America can be felt throbbing
within it. This Allegretto con anima is entitled Las dos
orillas (The Two Shores) and the composer describes it
in this way: “Cienfuegos never sleeps. The night adorns
itself with the sensual beauty and exuberance of the
rhythms springing forth from the Caribbean. The
frenetic sound of bongos and congas can be heard until
the break of day”. The five-beat measure conveys the
orchestra’s vivid sparkling show of rhythms, sound and
colours, bringing the concerto to an end.
José Luis García del Busto
