Iberian Colours Maria Camahort Quintet

• Federico Mompou (1893 - 1987):
• 1 Canción y danza No. 7 (Arr. for Mixed Chamber Ensemble) 04:04
• 2 Canción y danza No. 8 (Arr. for Mixed Chamber Ensemble) 05:38
• 3 Cantar del alma (Arr. for Mixed Chamber Ensemble) 04:43
• 4 La presó de Lleida (Arr. for Mixed Chamber Ensemble) 02:42
• Eduard Toldrà (1895 - 1962):
• 5 Canticel (Arr. for Mixed Chamber Ensemble) 01:28
• Feliu Gasull (b. 1959): Suite for Cello & Guitar (Excerpts):
• 6 Suite for Cello & Guitar (Excerpts): II. Bosc 03:59
• 7 Suite for Cello & Guitar (Excerpts): III. Fe [Arr. for Voice, Cello & Guitar] 04:22
• Quartet breu:
• 8 Quartet breu: I. Lullaby (Arr. for Mixed Chamber Ensemble) 02:44
• Chano Domínguez (b. 1960):
• 9 Pa mi niño, Pt. 1 (Arr. for Mixed Chamber Ensemble) 01:56
• Maria Camahort:
• 10 Poema de la soleá 03:12
• 11 La cogida y la muerte 03:04
• Manuel de Falla (1876 - 1946):
• 12 Homenaje pour le tombeau de Claude Debussy 03:14
• Enrique Granados (1867 - 1916): 12 Danzas españolas:
• 13 12 Danzas españolas: No. 2, Oriental (Arr. for Mixed Chamber Ensemble) 04:43
• 14 Las morillas de Jaén (Arr. for Mixed Chamber Ensemble) 03:38
• 15 En el café de Chinitas (Arr. for Mixed Chamber Ensemble) 02:04
• Total Runtime 51:31

Info for Iberian Colours

Iberian Colours is a journey through the relationship between Spanish Classical repertoire and influences from Iberia’s traditional music. Traditional music in Spain has long been an important source of inspiration for many Spanish composers: De Falla, Mompou, Granados, Albéniz, and Toldrà, to name a few. More intensely since the end of the 19th-century—and especially through the 20th as a consequence of Musical Nationalism—Spanish composers have been inspired by the lyrics, melodies, rhythms and harmonies of traditional music. The guitar, as the predominant instrument of Spanish folk heritage, was one of their main sources of inspiration.

Frederic Mompou (1893-1987), catalan composer and pianist, was a modest and thoughtful person and this is reflected in his wonderful music. He wrote no operas, concertos or symphonies, and some choral works are as close as he got to produce large-scale works. He was predominantly a composer of lyric songs and piano miniatures. His music is imbued with the colors, sounds, and images of his beloved Catalonia, the style ranging from elegantly impressionistic to simplistic and minimal. Read Less

Mompou studied piano at the Conservatorio del Liceo in Barcelona. However, his shy nature did not predestine him to be a virtuoso performer, and he decided to become a composer. With a letter of recommendation from Granados, he went to Paris to study harmony and piano, where he became influenced by the French impressionism of Debussy and Satie. At the outbreak of the First World War he returned to Barcelona for a period of seven years and began composing his earliest works for piano. In 1921 he moved back to Paris, living there until his return to Barcelona in 1941, where he remained until his death in June 1987.

Cançons i danses (Songs and dances, composed between 1921 and 1962) is a collection of Catalan popular pieces harmonized by Mompou for solo piano. His intention was to harmonize some of the more beautiful popular themes and melodies of the Catalan musical tradition, whilst adding his own personal and original language. Each of the 12 pieces (13 including the one composed for solo guitar in 1972) uses the combination of a song and the air of a dance, creating a form that contrasts a slow, melodic and evocative part, with a rhythmical and vital one. ...

Maria Camahort, classical guitar
Maria Camahort Quintet
Violeta García, violin, voice
Laura Ruhí-Vidal, soprano
Sergio Serra, cello
Pablo Domínguez, percussion, guitar

The Maria Camahort Quintet
was established in November 2011 out of the desire to increase the possibilities in chamber music. Guitarist Maria Camahort arranges the repertoire and leads this project created alongside four other talented musicians: Violeta García, voice and violin; Laura Ruhí-Vidal, soprano; Sergio Serra, cello; Pablo Domínguez, percussion and guitar. The originality of the ensemble is given by the intense collaboration between musicians from different musical traditions, by its characteristic timbre, and by the specific choice of classical repertoire and their adaptation to this particular quintet. The Quintet has already performed at some of the top venues and festivals, including St Martin in the fields, The Forge, Kings Place, Southbank Centre (Purcell Room), St James’s Church PIcadilly, St Michael at the North Gate (Oxford), Bath Guitar Festival, London Guitar Festival, Kings Place Festival, and Edinburgh Guitar and Music Festival. Forthcoming performances include Buxton Festival and Kings Place Festival 2015, and the Milton Court (Barbican).

Their debut album ‘Iberian Colours’ will be a representation of the vibrancy of Spain in sound, bringing to the audience the musicality, the flavour and the stories that are held in the music of Spanish composers.

Maria Camahort
is a guitarist, ensemble leader, arranger and composer who possesses exceptional knowledge and facility on her instrument within a vast variety of genres and contexts. Her unique sound and her devotion towards chamber music and collaborative projects has carried her to major concert halls of cities such as London (Milton Court, Southbank Centre, Kings Place, Cervantes Theatre), Paris (Salle Cortot), St. Petersburg (Glasunov Hall), Warsaw (Lutoslawsky Hall, Teatr Imka), Cracow, Barcelona (Auditori, Auditori Caja Madrid), Madrid (Círculo de Bellas Artes, Residencia de Estudiantes), Brussels (European Commission) and Mexico City.

Maria is the artistic creator and director of the Maria Camahort Quintet, an ensemble of outstanding, diverse musicians that present an original, vivid approach to Spanish classical and traditional music. The MCQ released its debut CD Iberian Colours in June 2015 with Convivium Record International: “an alternate route to the music of Spain.” (Planet Hugill), “a seriously impressive CD” (The ArtsDesk). Their second album “Danzas, Canciones y Nanas” will be released this April with Guitar specialised label JSMRecords, and launched in London in May at the Cervantes Theatre.

In addition to her quintet, Maria has been involved in many unique collaborations

such as the all-guitar Quartet Galiu, Farsa Moneda trio (Spanish traditional music), The Last 5 Years musical, the Maria Camahort & Jamie McCredie jazz and classical guitar duo, and many different duets with guitar, cello, voice, violin, viola, bass, oboe, etc. Together with flutist Lucy Driver she received the Pro-Musicis France Award in 2013. She also created and directed the UK Premiere of Feliu Gasull’s compositions in 2011. Her current duo projects include soprano Laura Ruhí-Vidal and flutist and body-percussionist Neus Plana.

Maria’s collaborations within the artistic disciplines of theatre and dance include the the dance project Tango Magnètic (Auditori Barcelona), Guildhall production ofBlood Wedding (F. García-Lorca, directed by C.Burgess) as MD and composer, Little Soldier Productions’ Don Quixote of la Mancha as composer and performer, and Liminal Space Productions Olives and Blood as composer. She most recently collaborated in June 2016 in a cross-arts project focused on Frost’s artwork inspired by Lorca and in January 2017 with the Spanish Theatre Company (London) on Lorca’s conference “On Lullabies.”

Maria has performed in several festivals such as Barcelona Guitar Festival, City of London Festival, International Conservatoire Week Festival, Bath Guitar Festival, London Guitar Festival, Buxton Festival, Kings Place Festival, Edinburgh Guitar Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Vaults Festival, Francesc Tàrrega Guitar Festival, Áureo Herrero Guitar Festival, etc. Her London performances have occurred in Milton Court, LSO St. Lukes, Barbican Center (The Pit), Kings Place, St. Martin in The

Fields, Purcell Room (Southbank Centre), St. James’s Church Piccadilly, Bolivar Hall, The Forge, Bishopsgate Institute, Jacksons’ Lane Theatre, Orange Tree Theatre, Southwark Cathedral, Instituto Cervantes, Ronnie Scott’s Upstairs, Blue Elephant Theatre, New Diorama Theatre, Sands Film and Omnibus Clapham among others. Forthcoming performances include MCQ Cd’s launch at Cervantes Theatre, theatre performances with Little Soldier prod at Teatro Jovellanos (Gijón, Spain) and Chicago’s Physical Festival (USA), and several concerts both in UK and Spain.

Maria completed her studies in Classical Performance at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya in Barcelona. Graduating with a distinction in her Master Studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, she was awarded the prestigious Guildhall Artist Fellowship from 2010-12. During her training both in Barcelona and London, her main influences were Feliu Gasull, Emilio Molina, David Dolan, Christian Burgess, Zoran Dukic, Àlex Garrobé, Robert Brightmore and John Parricelli.

This album contains no booklet.