Ricardo Castro: Cello Concerto in C minor

 

Ricardo Castro Herrera 

(7 February 1864, Hacienda de santa Bárbara, Durango -- 27 November 1907, Mexico City) was a Mexican concert pianist and composer, considered the last romantic of the time of Porfirio Díaz.

 

Cello Concerto in C minor

     

 

I. Allegro molto
II. Andante 6:38
III. Vivo 17:18

Carlos Prieto, cello
Berlin Symphony Orchestra
Jorge Velazco, conductor

The Cello Concerto in C minor is the first work in its genre by a Mexican composer. It was composed around 1895, and premiered by Marin Loevensohn in Paris at the Salle Erard in 1903. However, it wasn't heard in Mexico until 1981, when Carlos Prieto played it at the Sala Nezahualcoyotl with Jorge Velazco conducting the Mineria Orchestra.

 

 

 

 

Ricardo Castro was one of the foremost 19th Century Mexican composers, most of which were unfairly forgotten after the Mexican Revolution; considered part of a decadent past. His works are built upon tremendous wit and a deep admiration for Italian and French romanticism. His Piano Concerto in A minor is among his earliest works, which he composed in Mexico and without European experience. It is a dynamic work which requires virtuoso pianist and orchestra, and shows his great compositional talent. This is its first recording of the digital age.