Breton - Salamanca: Symphonic Poem (1916)

Another great piece of music by Tomas Breton (1850-1923), who was one of Spain's most important composers of the nineteenth century.

Orchestra: Orquesta Sinfonica de Castilla Leon
Conductor: Max Bragado-Darman

From the linear notes:

In the summer of 1916, at his vacation residence in Astillero (Cantabria), Breton composed a symphonic poem in honor of his homeland. In the worlds of biographer Gabriel Hernandez-Gonzalez, "It is now, by the sea, and the end of his life, that his musical genius arises. With paternal tenderness and dedication to express the feelings of his soul he crowns his success with this work. HE orchestrates his poem in Madrid and dedicates it to Salamanca."
The inspiration for the composition arose from "The Salamanca Song Book" by Damaso Ledesma, for which Breton had written the introduction. There, Breton noted that while he had been born in Salamanca, he "did not suspect the quantity and quality of popular folk songs from that noble province so full of poetry... Those who want to utilize folk music should do so respecting it as the prolific and eternal mother, without losing its form and style...possessing the solid base of our own folk songs, we can aspire, following our own nature, to emulate one day with our music, the glory of other nations more advanced than ours."
"The Salamanca Song Book" also provided the thematical [sic] materials for the work, from the ploughing song "Navarrito, navaritto, no me seas fanfarron..." and the grinding song "A la mar se van los rios..." to the likes of the country song "Ya se murio el burru..." This last one Breton had cited as a model of folk song in his introduction to the Song Book: "I have never listened to anything so beautiful, typical, and original. ... It is difficult for me to remember anything within its character that can be compared with the aforementioned song." The elegance of its course, the way that-although it does not exactly put antiquity aside- the song reflects the independence of modern music, the lovely freedom in the treatment of the text, and the short and beautiful chorus: these all contributed, in Breton's mind, to the song's singular yet embematic quality as a folk song. In his treatment of these songs in the poem, Breton handles them all quite literally, with little or no recourse to either manipulation or transformation of the material. Here, Breton approaches a poetic symphonism [sic] quite different from the progressive nationalism that had inspired other European composers in the first part of this century.
"Salamanca" was premiered by the Madrid Philharmonic Orchestra at the Teatro Breton (formerly the Teatro del Hospital) in Salamanca on 14 October 1916 under the direction of Breton himself as part of an entire program dedicated to Breton's work conducted by Bartolome Perez-Casas. The work received its Madrid premiere on 1 December of the same year under the direction of Perez-Casas at the Teatro Price. In both performances, the work was a clamorous success. Shortly thereafter, on 10 January 1917, the Town Council of Salamanca named Maestro Breton "Illustrious Son of the City of Salamanca" - in part because of his extraordinary contribution to the advancement of Spanish concert music, but largely because of the magnificence of the work he had dedicated to his native city.