Joaquin Turina - Sonata Op. 61, 1. Allegro

Espressivo - Steven Saulls, Classical Guitarist
About the music and the composer...

Joaquín Turina Pérez (December 9, 1882 – January 14, 1949), a Spanish composer of classical music, was born in Seville, Spain. He studied in Seville as well as in Madrid. He lived in Paris from 1905 to 1914 where he took composition lessons from Vincent d'Indy at his Schola Cantorum de Paris and studied the piano under Moritz Moszkowski. Like his countryman and friend, Manuel de Falla, while there he got to know the impressionist composers Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy, whom he was heavily inspired.

Along with de Falla, he returned to Madrid in 1914, working as a composer, teacher and critic. On 28 March 1916, he joined the Madrid Symphony Orchestra at the Hotel Ritz in that city, to perform the premiere of Falla's revised orchestral version of El amor brujo. In the early months of 1929, he visited Havana, Cuba, where he gave a series of seven lectures at the Hispanic-Cuban Institute of Culture. In 1931 he was made professor of composition at the Madrid Royal Conservatory. Among his notable pupils were Vicente Asencio and Celedonio Romero. He died in Madrid in 1949.

His works include the operas Margot (1914) and Jardín de Oriente (1923), the Danzas fantásticas (1919, versions for piano and orchestra), La oración del torero (written first for a lute quartet, then string quartet, then string orchestra), chamber music, piano works, guitar pieces and songs. Much of his work shows the influence of traditional Andalusian music. He also wrote a short one-movement Rapsodia sinfónica (1931) for piano and orchestra. His music often conveys a feeling of rapture or exaltation. His guitar works include Fandanguillo, Hommage à Tárrega and Sonata Op. 61, which were written for Andrés Segovia. The dedicatee and/or first performer of a number of his piano works was José Cubiles.

During the 1920s and 1930s, he frequently visited Barcelona and Catalonia and interacted with various Catalan artists, critics and intellectuals, such as Manuel Clausells, Joan Lamote de Grignon, Eugenio d'Ors, Oleguer Junyent, Frank Marshall, Rafael Moragas, Jaime Pahissa and Santiago Rusiñol. He also collaborated with various musical institutions, such as the Associació Música da Camera, the Barcelona Municipal Band or the Pau Casals Orchestra.[6] As a result of this relationship, he composed Evocaciones, a set of three pieces for piano that become a tribute to Catalonia and that include a sardana. On 23 October 1928, together with Pablo Casals, he premiered the transcription for a cello and piano «Jueves Santo a medianoche» (from the Seville suite) at the Palau de la Música Catalana. (Wikipedia)

About the performer...

Steven began studying the guitar at age nine and has attended some of the finest music schools in the world including the Berklee College of Music (Boston), and the Mozarteum (Salzburg, Austria). He holds both a Bachelor of Arts degree from Western Washington University (1980) and a Master of Music degree from the University of Arizona (1982).

Over the past 40 years, Steven has performed hundreds of concerts throughout the United States, Central & South America and Europe. His debut recording Steven Saulls Plays Works by Ponce, Torroba & Bach has received wide acclaim both nationally and internationally. In addition to solo concerts, he has performed over 200 chamber works including guitar concerti (with orchestra) by Vivaldi, Ponce and Rodrigo.

About the recording...

Recorded at the Sound Factory, Tucson, Arizona 1986/Engineer: Steve English/Mastered by Damon L. Mapp at Grandma’s House Studios/Cover Photo: Steve Haines/Guitar handcrafted by Robert Ruck/Copyright permission secured: Schott Ltd. Copyright© 2020 Steven Saulls, Sahuarita, Arizona