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�e�a�ián �� �lbero Six Recercatas · Fugas and Sonatas
ALEJANDRO CASAL harpsichord
SEBASTIÁN DE ALBERO Spanish keyboard music in the 18th century has still to acknowledge the originality and talent of a number of authors belonging to this period, beyond Scarlatti or Soler, not so isolated as they may initially seem. It is in this context where the figure of Sebastián de Albero should stand out. Albero, looked upon as a musician with an exceptional talent in his time and whose career was abruptly ended due to his untimely death, left us a unique keyboard repertoire, full of musicality and novel language. Sebastián Ramón de Albero Añanos (Roncal, Navarra, 1722 – Madrid 1756), virtuoso harpsichordist, was appointed, at only 24 years of age, organist at the Royal Chapel. Between 1734 and 1739 he had been infante at Pamplona’s Cathedral, where he was trained by Francisco de Alba, Andrés de Escaregui and the organist Andrés Gil. Between 1739 and 1746 his biography is incomplete. We know he belonged, for a short period of time, to the organ school of Josep Elíes (ca. 1687-ca. 1755), main organist at Convento de las Descalzas Reales in Madrid who, in turn, was trained by Cabanilles, from whom he learnt counterpoint style really well. In 1746 he got his post as the main organist at the Royal Chapel in Madrid, where he worked under King Ferdinand VI (1713-1759), living together with musicians as renowned as José de Nebra, Joaquín Oxinaga or the great Domenico Scarlatti. He stayed in the capital until his death, in 1756, before getting to 34 years of age and becoming part, together with Carlos Seixas (1704-1742) and a century later Crisóstomo de Arriaga (18061826), of a group of talented musicians that, had it not been for their early deaths, they would have developed brilliant careers. Only two work collections by Albero have reached our days: Obras para Clavicordio and Treinta Sonatas para Clavicordio (Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Ms. 197/9708). The Obras para Clavicordio (or “piano forte”)1 are kept at the library of the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música in Madrid (Ms. 4/1727(2)) and were dedicated to king Ferdinand VI, an expert harpsichordist2. The 2
term Clavicordio refers in Spain to the harpsichord and not to the clavichord, also called monacordio. The collection includes six works with an atypical structure, unique in the Iberian keyboard repertoire, since each of them consists of a Recercata, a Fuga and a Sonata. By using these terms, Albero may have wanted to include music forms belonging to the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, showing, in this manner, that he mastered both old and new forms. In Spain, in Albero’s times, the term recercada had become obsolete since the publication in 1553 of Diego Ortiz’s Tratado de Glosas, with the entry diminution or variations of songs or polyphonic pieces. For Albero, on the contrary, Recercatas are pieces written like preludes with a clear improvisatory character (Ad libitum) without bar-lines, which remind us of the préludes non mensurés by 17th c. French harpsichordists or C.P.E. Bach’s fantasies. It is not strange that Albero was familiar with French music since Pamplona’s cathedral got to establish musical connections with France and the presence of French organists in Pamplona is well documented. This kind of free writing is unique in Spanish keyboard music since, although it had been practised by musicians such as Antonio Soler, who later included eight Preludios in his Llave de la Modulación (1762), these never reached Albero’s degree of freedom or length. Throughout these compositions, the musician from Navarra shows a great imagination, with witty and advanced modulations, ahead of his time (d minor-f sharp minor-e flat major in the Recercata in d or c minor-b minor-c sharp minor in the Recercata in c, to name just a few); varied and abrupt enharmonic modulations, sharp contrasts, free rhythms, writing following the recitativo pattern (such as the beginning of recercatas in c or a), toccata (beginning of recercatas in G or e) or the maintenance of sounds through long slurs (typical writing of préludes non mensurés). Fugues, on their part, are counterpoint compositions, which catch anyone’s attention due to their extraordinary length, from 300 bars of fugue in d up to the 522 bars in fugue in a. This singularity must have been noticed at the time, since there is an anonym manuscript also kept at Real Conservatorio Superior de Música 3
de Madrid (Ms. 3/1043) with a reduced version of five out of the six fugues3. Fugues, the par excellence music form in the Baroque period, provide the baroque taste to Albero’s collection. Albero shows a full mastery of counterpoint and great formal riches that combines episodes with expositions or pedal points by the end of the fugue, learnt in his period as infante in Pamplona and the time he worked with Elíes, “oracle in our profession”, according to his disciple. Albero praised his Obras de órgano entre el antiguo y modern estilo (1749) where other extensive counterpoint works were included, such as Intento cromático o Ave Maris Stella. Turning back to Albero’s fugues, subjects are tackled depending on the affect of each tonality, using real answers for four of the fugues and tonal ones for the other two. In four of them (a, c, b flat and e), by the middle of the piece, Albero has introduced a new contrasting subject with small values which act like diminutions to go on to combine it with the main subject. In the sequences among the subjects several counterpoint resources have been implemented (suspensions, appoggiaturas, inversions, imitations…) as well as big jumps, fast octave scales, parallel thirds and sixths or Hispanic elements (chords with acciacature, mordents or augmented intervals). This could show the knowledge, admiration and mutual influence of Domenico Scarlatti, a point that still needs further research. Some have suggested Albero’s active involvement as a copyist of Scarlatti’s work and some even come to acknowledge his authorship in sonatas K142, K143 and K144. Finally, Sonatas capture the typical music form of that time. They all have been written in Major mode (probably to give a conclusive sense to each group); they all have the characteristic binary form (tonic to dominant in the first half and back to the tonic in the second one) and move around a single theme. In line with Scarlatti’s sonatas, Albero’s include hand- cross, virtuosi excerpts and chords stemming from folklore. Some motives even show melodic, expressive and very advanced elements, which could embody a precedent of the EmpfiindsameZeit style in Spain.
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The instrument The harpsichord used in this recording is a copy of Joachim José Antunes, Lisboa, kept at Finchcokcs Collection in Goudhurst (United Kingdom), and built by Ugo Casiglia (Cinisi, Italy) in 2011. The instrument can be considered as one of the finest examples in Iberian building. It has a long keyboard (FF-g’’’). Its length (2.5 m.) as well as its diverse Italian and Nordic elements present in its making, provide it with a powerful, rich and melodic sound. © Alejandro Casal
1 The mention to “piano forte” was added later with a different handwriting. 2 “Please be kind enough to admit him under his protection so that in the brief moments that your majesty devotes to entertainment, may the royal exam be the prize for my weak work”. 3 SKYRM, Susanne (2009) «The fugues in Sebastian de Albero’s “Obras para clavicordio”: a second version» in MORALES, Luisa, editor, Domenico Scarlatti in Spain, Almería, Asociación Cultural LEAL- Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores y Cooperación.
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Alejandro Casal was born in Seville, where he studied Piano, Doublebass, Composition, Harpsichord and Musicology at the Conservatory. Later, he studied harpsichord and basso continuo with Tony Millán, Jan Willen Jansen and Jacques Ogg taking also interest in organ. As a harpsichordist, he has played in different orchestras and ensembles, such as the King’s Consort, Capella della Pietà de’ Turchini, Orquesta Barroca de la Universidad de Salamanca, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Orquesta Ciudad de Málaga, Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra, Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, Coro Barroco de Andalucía… He usually plays at the Orquesta Barroca de Sevilla with conductors such as Gustav Leonhardt, Monica Hugget, Christophe Coin, Pablo Valetti, Enrico Onofri, Alfredo Bernardini, Antonio Florio, Pierre Cao, Robert King, Hervé Niquet, Alan Curtis, Giuliano Carmignola, Hiro Kurosaki, Barry Sargent and many others. He has performed in London, Milano, Lisbon, Würzburg, Toulouse, Festival de Musique Sacrée & Baroque de Froville, Festival Internacional de Música y Danza de Granada, Festival de Música Antigua de Úbeda y Baeza, Festival de Música Antigua de Gijón, Ciclo de Caja San Fernando, Festival de Música Antigua de Aranjuez, Ciclo 6
Los Siglos de Oro de Caja Madrid, Festival de Música Antigua de Sevilla, Teatro de la Zarzuela… In 2007 he took part in the contemporary premiere of Domenico Scarlatti’s Ottavia with the Capella della Pietà dei Turchini under Antonio Florio at the Quincena Musical Donostiarra and Naples. Since then, he has played regularly with this ensemble, including the stage of L’Incoronazione di Poppea at Valladolid. Alejandro Casal made his debut recording with the label Enchiriadis performing harpsichord and organ music by Johann J. Froberger (EN2032) with excellent reviews by the critic. The CD was chosen as one of the ten best recordings of the year by Ritmo magazine. Under Enrico Onofri, he has made the first recording of Barrera’s organ concerts and the sonata by Pere Rabassa with the Orquesta Barroca de Sevilla. He has also taken part in different recordings with the labels Aqhai, Verso, Prometeo, Documentos Sonoros de la Junta de Andalucía, as well as RNE- Radio Clásica and Canal Sur. He has taught at the Universidad de Cádiz, Universidad de Sevilla and P. A. Soler Conservatory at El Escorial. Since 2005 he teaches harpsichord and basso continuo at the Conservatorio Superior de Música “Manuel Castillo” in Seville. www.alejandrocasal.es
Recording: 6-8 August & 10-12 November 2014, at Sputnik Studio, Sevilla Recording producer: Alejandro Casal Sound engineer: Jordi Gil, Sputnik Grabaciones Digital editing: Jordi Gil, Alejandro Casal Cover image: Carro del Parnaso, 1748 Museum of Fine Arts of Seville - & © 2016 Brilliant Classics
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