The work achieves a blend between Tanganillo and Tajaraste with contemporary music

 

The Sinfónica de Tenerife is tackling its second world premiere of the season. The orchestra will give its first performance of Tangaraste, by the Tenerife composer Gustavo Trujillo, in the concert this Friday (5th) at 7:30 p.m. in the Auditorio de Tenerife. The concert will feature the Percussion section of the orchestra as the soloists made up of Paco Díaz, Emilio Díaz, Charli Llácer, and Juan Antonio Miñana, all conducted by Jaume Santonja.

Gustavo Trujillo (La Orotava, 1972) explains that "Tangaraste is a combination of Tanganillo and Tajaraste (Canarian music and dance), a spectacular piece packed with energy and rhythm, which I am sure the audience is going to enjoy”. The Tenerife composer adds that "the work has three parts which refer to verses from Canarian folklore and which offer visceral motifs and rhythms that are very characteristic and recognisable in our culture”.

Trujillo acknowledges that he has been thinking about this project for almost forty years and that "it is a tribute to the orchestra's Percussion section, the orchestra itself and my beginnings in the band of the Agrupación Musical Orotava". The work was written in 2019 through the Tenerife Contemporary Music Festival (FMUC) commission.

Before the concert, the composer will give a talk (6:30 p.m.) in the Auditorio de Tenerife's Avenida Hall, in which he will reveal details about this premiere and the other works he has chosen to form the programme. This activity is organized by the Tenerife Association for Friends of Music (Atadem).

Paco Díaz leads the orchestra's Percussion section and acknowledges that this work "conveys important emotions because it is deeply linked to regional folklore". In addition, he states that "in the first movement the small drums are the most important part, in the second the xylophone takes precedence and in the third, there is a percussion set formed by instruments of leather skin, metal and everyday kitchen utensils".

Jaume Santonja is returning to the island to conduct the Sinfónica de Tenerife in a programme that, he acknowledges, "is focused on contemporary music. Although the pieces seem mixed and very different from one another, they constitute a small work in themselves through their connection". Santonja has recently been appointed the principal guest conductor of the Milan Symphony Orchestra. From 2018 to 2021, he was assistant conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and associate conductor of the Basque National Orchestra.

The second part of the concert on Friday will begin with Cantus in Memory Benjamin Britten, by Arvo Pärt, a song composed in 1977 as a tribute to the British composer who passed away a year earlier. The piece, written for strings and bells, is an example of tintinnabula. This style refers to the harmonic vibrations produced by a specific combination of certain notes in the scale, making its author one of the most influential figures of the 20th century.

Then, Britten's work Peter Grimes: Four Sea Interludes, op. 33a will be performed in the Symphony Hall of the Auditorio de Tenerife. This 1945 composition presents four traditional vignettes featuring the sea.

This Midnight Hour is a work by the British composer Anna Clyne, written in 2015, which evokes a visual journey for the listener without representing a specific narrative. It is based on two poems by Juan Ramón Jiménez and Charles Baudelaire.

The programme is completed by Huapango by José Pablo Moncayo, a work composed in 1941 that quickly became a symbol of Mexican identity, as it is inspired by a dance that takes its name from the wooden platform on which the dancers perform steps.

The tickets for this concert can be purchased until the day of the event on the website www.sinfonicadetenerife.es, at the auditorium's box office and by dialling the phone number 902 317 327 from Monday to Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.