La Música de Al-Andalus

Ensemble Al-Ruzafa

Conductor: Hames Bitar

Aleppo: custody of the musical tradition from the Orient.   Aleppo is an important trading city and communication cross-point where the most pure traditions of Arabic chant have been preserved. The most characteristic expression of this chant is the vocal improvisations or layali, through which the complete doctrine of maqam was developed into a form of choral music, the qad (alqudud in plural), related to the muaxaha genre, very well-known in Al-Andalus.   From the eighteenth century onwards, the muaxaha expanded through the Mid-Orient, particularly in Aleppo, where it is known ...+ info

Compositores Andaluces Actuales en el Festival de Granada

Manuel CASTILLO:   Concerto for piano and orchestra n. 3 Born in Seville in 1930, Manuel Castillo is one of the most widely-respected composers of the current “generation of maestros”. An excellent pianist, organist and teacher, he is an institution in the musical and cultural world of his home city, and his career and works have made him one of the most representative figures among the Andalusian composers in recent times. Manuel Castillo’s music has been included on several occasions in the programmes of the Festival of Granada, notably the recent world premiere o...+ info

Obra para Órgano - Manuel Castillo (1930-2005)

José E. Ayarra, órgano

Tomás Marco, a great connoisseur of Manuel Castillo’s oeuvre and personality, has defined this Sevillian master as “the Spanish composer of his generation who has served the organ world the most frequently and with the highest quality” (Manuel Castillo, Transvanguardia y Postmodernidad. Málaga 2003: 74). Marco remarks that between a generation of illustrious musicians such as Cristóbal Halffter, Luis de Pablo, Carmelo Bernaola, Antón García Abril and Tomás Marco himself, “it is absolutely certain” that nobody has written o...+ info