Claves Record

Basque Music Collection Vol. XIII: Valentín Zubiaurre (1837-1914)

The adventure started over ten years ago. With one recording a year, we are now, in 2010, up to the 13th volume of the Basque music collection, begun by Marguerite Dütschler-Huber, founder of Claves Records, and which the new management is very keen to pursue. This last opus is dedicated to the composer Valentín Zubiaurre (1837-1914), whom we shall discover with the Orchestre National Basque and Juan José Ocón through his only symphonic opus – the Symphony in E Major dated 1870 – two opera preludes (he wrote three in total) and a page called “Ecos de Oiz”. As soloist: cellist Roman Jablonski. Zubiaurre started music as a chorister in Bilbao. In 1852 he left for South America where he visited various countries and taught music. He came back to Spain in 1866 and won the Concours National de Musique in 1869 with his opera Don Fernando el Emplazado. Thanks to a grant from the Académie des Beaux Arts he visited France, Italy and Germany in 1873 and became Second Kapellmeister of the Capella Real two years later; he became First Kapellmeister in 1878, all the while developing his teaching activities at the Madrid Conservatory.