Canarian authors and spectralism - La Provincia

The third session of the contemporary program of the Canary Islands International Music Festival it was very rewarding. Three absolute premieres by two island composers and a fundamental work of the 20th century marked levels of exception and were enthusiastically applauded.

Furthermore, the Interpretations of the Contemporary Ensemble CSMC, conducted by José María Vicente with instrumentalists from the two superior conservatories of Las Palmas and Tenerife, marked a great interpretive height under the exceptional command of a prestigious specialist, Nacho de Paz, who on the same Sunday morning offered a conference on very live music. praised by its listeners.

The canary Sergio Rodríguez opened fire with two premieres previously commented on by himself. Supernova resonance is a short speculation about the apocalyptic star by the scientists of the Universe. Imagined beyond destruction, in slow nocturnal impulses of very wide resonance, followed by a shower of brief figures that seem to evoke an abysmal fall of destroyed fragments, it made a great effect for its clear beauty.

Spectralism has nothing to do with ghosts but with the spectrum of sounds from frequencies that the ear can no longer capture

The second premiere of this composer, Discovery, presents a very controlled fabric of concomitant or opposing ideas, perfectly individualized or combined in textural mixtures by the wisdom of de Paz. The composer himself, in his introductions, declared himself close to Penderecki in the first work, and to Ligeti in the second.

From the also Canarian Wifredo Angulo, Friday early morning in Churruca Street was premiered, an allusion to the hours and the streets of Las Palmas where a spree with a complex but easy-going, fun and very ironic texture takes place. In its third part a diluted echo of the official anthem of Spain is heard, a very street idea that everyone digests to their liking.

And to close the session, a masterpiece of spectralism born in the sixties of the last century. The work, Partiels, is one of the six integrated into the Acoustic Spaces by the Frenchman Gerard Grisey, great guru of a system and an aesthetic that is still in force without the need for a tutor to keep it alive (Grisey died very young, at age 52 ). Spectralism has nothing to do with ghosts but with the spectrum of sounds from frequencies that the human ear can no longer capture. But they can be evoked in instrumental mixes that give home to a new language of contemporaneity. Specifically Partiels, or Partials, exemplifies one of the formants of the system that, in the hands of a creator, is capable of generating extraordinary poetry.

This has been the case at our Festival, with a previous conference by Nacho de Paz who, due to his richness of concept and expression, was as good as his direction of the concert. Bravo!