Search - Carlos Baguer, Matthias Bamert, London Mozart Players :: Carlos Baguer: Symphonies

The influence of Haydn's music , not Mozart in the Iberian P

Ludovico Ladislaus Ivan | Los Angeles, CA | 11/09/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Carlos Baguer is a totally unknown composer for the musical world, except for iberian musicologists and a few select group of music lovers.

Carlos Baguer was born in Barcelona (Catalonia) in 1738. He started his musical education with his uncle Francesco Mariner organist of the Barcelona Cathedral and Carlos replaced him in 1786; the same year Baguer is named titular organist of the Cathedral, a post he held until his death in 1808. Considered one of the most important musical figures in the Iberian Peninsula at the time, Baguer had a special reputation for great interpretations and improvisations on the organ, however, he took part in numerous competitions for other Spanish Cathedrals, always with negative results.

The nineteen symphonies Baguer composed made him the principal symphonist of the vast Spanish Empire in the clasical era, but his output covered practically all the musical genres of his day: music for keyboard instruments, both in the old style (fugues, partitas and pasos) and the modern (sonatas, minuets, contradanses,etc.) liturgical music and oratorios for one or two choirs, soloists and orchestra, a collection of duos and flutes, and an opera " La Princesa Filosofa " ( "The Philosopher Princess " ).

The symphonies of Franz Joseph Haydn became known in Spain around 1780's and many of Baguer's symphonies are clearly under his influence. So, these congenial symphonies are stepped in central european models, not iberian. Though Carlos Baguer was received into Holy Orders, he renounced religious status at around the turn of the XIX Century and his composition showed more explicit interest in orchestral than religious music.

This is a fascinating and enjoyable disc in many ways. Matthias Bamert is in musical home territory with Baguer's music and he conducts his London Mozart Players with imagination and detail, but never losing balance of his orchestra, or transparency. So far, this production is one of the finest forays in the Contemporaries of Mozart Series, making this cd an exceptional introduction to an unknown and underappreciated iberian composer, whose genius was very much misunderstood in his time. This music deserves the highest recommendation for repertoire, performance and an outstanding recorded sound, shedding light on an iberian composer who sought inspiration in modern central european models."