Viola Concerto -Armando Luna (Mexican composer)

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This week we will hear an interesting concerto by the Mexican composer Armando Luna Ponce (1964-2015). He was born in the city of Chihuahua, where he began his musical studies with professor Juan Manuel Medina Díaz. In 1977, he started his piano studies with the priest Víctor Manuel Peña, and in 1980 he continued his studies at the National Conservatory of Music, in Mexico City, where he attended composition courses and workshops with Rodolfo Halffter, Itsvan Lang, and Mario Lavista. He obtained a master's degree in Composition from the Carnegie Mellon University of Pittsburg, in the United States. In his return to Mexico, he was a professor at the National Conservatory of Music, where he was a professor of Harmony, Counterpoint, Analysis, Composition, and Instrumentation; besides, he was a professor at the Conservatory of Music of the State of Mexico. Some of his works have been premiered in the main forums and Contemporary music festivals in the Mexican Republic, as well as in Amsterdam, Caracas, Frankfurt, Havana, Lisbon, Montreal, New Orleans, New York, Paris, Rome, Sao Paulo, and Santiago de Chile.

   There is little information about his Viola Concerto, it was written in 2006 and It has nine movements: I- Introduction, II- Scherzo Nevrosico, III- Passacaglia, IV- Aria, V- Cadenza Nevrosica, VI- Vals Grotesque, VII - Pavana Lacrimae, VIII- Recitative Nevrosico, IX- Toccata. The work is written in a contemporary language, full of dissonances and effects between the instruments, which lead us to different sound sensations, passing through calm to despair. A work loaded with many rhythms for both, the soloist and the orchestra.

   Unfortunately, there is no information on who is the soloist or the orchestra in this recording, which apparently was live recorded, but this record remains for its divulgation, as an important work of the Mexican repertoire for the viola.

Thank you very much for reading and see you soon with more viola music by Mexican composers.

 Luis Ángel Chab Dzul.

References:

-Pareyon , G 2007 , Diccionario Enciclopédico de Música en Mexico , vol. 2 vols. , 2nd edn , Universidad Panamericana , Guadalajara, Mexico .

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