1 Symphony for Large Orchestra - Adagio - Allegro vivace - Presto
2 Andante
3 Minuetto_ Allegro - Trio
4 Allegro con moto
5 Los Esclavos Felices, pastoral overture
6 Overture, 'Nonetto'

Concert des Nations, Capella Reial Instrumental Ensemble 
Jordi Savall – conductor

The remarkable career of composer Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga, dubbed the "Spanish Mozart" by musicians of the late nineteenth century, was cut tragically short by his death just ten days before his 20th birthday. Today his fame rests as much on brilliant potential as it does on his actual output of music (of which there is, sadly, quite little).

Arriaga was born on January 27, 1806 (50 years to the day after Mozart), in the Basque town of Bilbao. An account of his life by musicologist and composer Francois Fétis (with whom Arriaga would later study) indicates that young Juan Crisóstomo received almost no childhood training in music, though it is quite possible that this account (like many later ones, including those that claim Arriaga was born two years later than he actually was) is slanted so as to make Arriaga's already exceptional precociousness even more pronounced. One way or the other, the pieces composed by Arriaga in Bilbao, while not as finely crafted as the music from just a few years later, show no lack of formal understanding. He was, in addition, a skilled violinist as a youth, though whether his ability derived solely from innate talent or was in part the result of study with some nameless violinist remains unknown.

At 15 Arriaga enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied violin with the legendary Pierre Baillot and was trained in counterpoint and harmony by Fétis. In 1823 he earned the Conservatoire's second prize in fugue and counterpoint and shortly thereafter was hired as an assistant for one of the Conservatoire's harmony courses. During 1824 he published three string quartets (D minor, A major, and E flat major). For the remaining two years of his life Arriaga focused his creative energies on vocal and choral music (both sacred and secular, including such large-scale works as the Stabat Mater, a mass which has since been lost, and several cantatas/dramatic "scenes"), though he found time to complete the large Symphony in D major as well. His death may have been due to a lung infection.

Arriaga was essentially a conservative composer whose innate personality was strong enough to manifest itself despite the rigid academic constraints maintained by the Paris Conservatoire at that time. The Italian influence which saturates Arriaga's earliest music (including the Overture for orchestra, Op. 1, and the opera The Happy Slaves, produced in Bilbao in 1820) was discarded almost immediately upon entering the Conservatoire, where Arriaga's developing contrapuntal and harmonic skills enabled him to forge an elegant style that owes much to the aristocratic, formal (but nevertheless very flexible) outlines of the Viennese Classical masters.

Once a forgotten figure in the history of music, Arriaga was brought back into the concert hall during the late nineteenth century, and a publishing campaign was begun in his native Bilbao during the middle twentieth century. The comparatively meager size of Arriaga's contribution to the concert repertory, however, has ensured that he remains a little-known, undervalued musical gem.---Blair Johnston, Rovi

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01. Obertura en Fa mayor, 'Nonetto, op.1    [0:06:52.18]
02. 'Herminie' Cantata para soprano y orquesta - Recitativo "Le jour frappe mes yeux"    [0:02:10.13]
03. 'Herminie' Cantata para soprano y orquesta - Aria "Long temps, hélas!"    [0:04:28.07]
04. 'Herminie' Cantata para soprano y orquesta - Recitativo "Mais sur cette arène guerrière"    [0:01:46.67]
05. 'Herminie' Cantata para soprano y orquesta - Aria "Il n'est plus"    [0:02:59.00]
06. 'Herminie' Cantata para soprano y orquesta - Recitativo "Se peut-il?"    [0:01:37.34]
07. 'Herminie' Cantata para soprano y orquesta - Aria "Tancrède me devra le jour"    [0:07:10.56]
08. Obertura en Re mayor, op.20    [0:10:48.07]
09. Sinfonia en Re menor - I. Adagio    [0:10:30.65]
10. Sinfonia en Re menor - II. Andante    [0:08:45.72]
11. Sinfonia en Re menor - III. Minuetto (Allegro)    [0:03:37.57]
12. Sinfonia en Re menor - IV. Allegro con motto    [0:07:03.65]

Ainhoa Arteta, soprano
Orquestra de Cadaques
Sir Neville Marriner, conductor

Arriaga died at the age of 19, and yet his output included an opera, cantatas, chamber, and orchestral works, and many shorter pieces. At 18 -- when this, his first and only symphony, was written -- he was already an assistant professor at the Paris Conservatoire. This work shows no trace of youthful immaturity; indeed, the long, slow introduction has an almost Beethovenian authority and leads to an equally powerful faster section that sustains the mood of high seriousness. The sorrowful slow movement contains expressive writing for woodwind, and the flute also has an important part in the brief, syncopated minuet and trio. The final scherzo is far from being an anticlimax. Marked Allegro con moto, it has all the melodic and rhythmic drive of the earlier movements. Other echoes of the earlier movements include passages in minor keys casting chilling shadows over the musical narrative. The smoothly classical grace that marks many of Arriaga's other works is replaced in the symphony by music as dramatic and compelling as anything that followed it in early Romantic period. --- Roy Brewer, Rovi

It is not difficult to include Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga's entire orchestral output on CD, such as it is. The "Spanish Mozart" produced only three overtures and a symphony before his premature death at age 19. The Overture, Op. 20 is certainly a work devotees of Arriaga will want to know; among the very last works Arriaga undertook, it makes clear that moving into the realm of full-blown romanticism wouldn't be difficult for Arriaga had he lived. --- Uncle Dave Lewis, Rovi

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Quartet No. 1 In D Minor
1 	Allegro 	6:47
2 	Adagio Con Espressione 	5:48
3 	Menuetto - Allegro - Trío Piú Moderato 	2:53
4 	Adagio - Allegretto 	7:30

Quartet No. 2 In A Major
5 	Allegro Con Brio 	8:10
6 	Andante Con Variaciones 	6:46
7 	Menuetto - Scherzo - Trio 	3:14
8 	Andante Ma Non Troppo - Allegro 	4:50

Quartet No. 3 In E Flat Major
9 	Allegro 	7:53
10 	Pastorale - Andantino 	5:46
11 	Menuetto - Allegro - Trío Plus Lent 	3:08
12 	Presto Agitato 	6:18

Camerata Boccherini:
Massimo Spadano - Violin I 
Mauro Rossi - Violin II
David Quiggle - Viola
Luigi Piovano - Cello

Arriaga was born in Bilbao, Spain in 1806. His earliest known compositions are from 1817. Two years later he completed the two-act opera Los esclavos felices (The Happy Slaves) which was performed to great acclaim in 1820. The overture has been recorded several times and is the only Arriaga work that I have actually heard live. The symphony is central to his output as are the three string quartets, which were my introduction to this composer back in the mid-seventies, or rather the first two of them (Concert Hall LP - Quatuor de Genève). That record rotated quite frequently on my turntable for many years and it was only a few months ago that I reacquainted myself as part of my project of transferring old LP favourites to CD. I also did some random sampling while reviewing the present disc and was impressed by the still vivid sound and the stylish playing of the Swiss ensemble. I was just as impressed by the Camerata Boccherini, four experienced musicians who have made it their speciality to play Baroque and Classical music on authentic instruments.

Arriaga, who died before he had even turned twenty, has been called “The Spanish Mozart” but he is actually closer to Schubert in style. Rather he was developing in a Schubertian direction, which can be followed through these three quartets. The first is the most Mozartean, like the other two cast in four movements with a minuet as the third. It is a splendid work and if it had been presented as a composition by the Salzburg master it would probably have been on the music stands of every self-respecting string quartet. The opening allegro at once catches the listener with its elegance and vitality. The Camerata Boccherini dig into it, seething with energy but also phrasing with great subtlety. By comparison the Geneva players are more reserved, more classically correct. The wonderful second movement Adagio con espressione is lovingly played here, with a real glow in the impassioned eruptions and always showing great care with the dynamics. This goes for the whole disc. These are indeed highly accomplished and spirited performances, and if one now and again feels that the Geneva quartet might be just as good in their more restrained way they are not quite as exciting. Listening alternately to the two groups I have reached the conclusion that I can’t find a clear winner, but if this were boxing, Camerata Boccherini would probably get some extra points for more activity. I am not prepared to throw away the Geneva disc but I will probably play the new disc more often. And of course it includes Quartet No. 3, which has some claims to be the greatest of the three, or at least the boldest. The second movement, Pastorale – Andantino, stands out as a direct indicator of a budding romanticism with its dramatic, minatory tremolo strings. It might be a storm, as Santiago Gorostiza suggests in the liner notes, but keeping in mind Arriaga’s early excellence as a music dramatist, it could be something even more threatening. This is indeed music that anticipates the romantic opera - Verdi’s Macbeth isn’t far away. In the Presto agitato finale he also seems on his way towards new challenges. Whether he would have become a pioneer of the Romantic era had he lived longer is impossible to know but he obviously had ambitions and the three works performed here were actually published as Premier Livre de quatuors (First Book of Quartets).

These are, as I hope I have already indicated, among the freshest and most attractive string quartets of the period – or indeed the whole quartet repertoire. I strongly recommend them. There are other versions that I haven’t heard, but longstanding acquaintance with the Quatuor de Genève recording – which of course is no longer available – has convinced me that it is hard to imagine them better played than by Camerata Boccherini. And at Naxos’s give-away price everyone can afford them. ---Göran Forsling, musicweb-international.com

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