Argentine National Symphony Orchestra
Encyclopedia
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Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, and is based in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
.
Overview
Established as the State Symphony Orchestra, on November 20, 1948, via a bill (Law 35879) signed by President Juan PerónJuan Perón
Juan Domingo Perón was an Argentine military officer, and politician. Perón was three times elected as President of Argentina though he only managed to serve one full term, after serving in several government positions, including the Secretary of Labor and the Vice Presidency...
, the orchestra was created that it could "constitute the pitch of universal resonance that our music needs, while providing the most effective means of popular education in the arts."
Philharmonic associations had, by then, a long tradition in Argentina, and could be traced in Buenos Aires to the 1822 formation of the Academy of Music and of the Philharmonic Association, the following year. These orchestras struggled under the instability prevailing during the years of the Argentine Confederation, however, and their performances were only sporadic. The German Argentine community helped advance the medium with the founding a number of choral societies
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
between 1852 and 1863, notably Concordia, Germania and the Deutsche Sing-Akademie, and these were complementted by the Buenos Aires Orchestral Society (1876) and the Musical Mutual Society (1894). The latter ultimately formed the first orchestral guild
Guild
A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...
in Argentina, the Orchestra Professionals' Association (APO), in 1919.
The APO Orchestra was constituted as such in 1922, and prospered with its colloaboration with the local Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
Association, reaching its zenith under the baton of Swiss conductor Ernest Ansermet
Ernest Ansermet
Ernest Alexandre Ansermet was a Swiss conductor.- Biography :Ansermet was born in Vevey, Switzerland. Although he was a contemporary of Wilhelm Furtwängler and Otto Klemperer, Ansermet represents in most ways a very different tradition and approach from those two musicians. Originally he was a...
. The great depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
later limited its activity sharply, and the orchestra was nearly closed in 1935, highlighting the need for state support. Accordingly, the Buenos Aires Symphony (today the Buenos Aires Philharmonic
Buenos Aires Philharmonic
The Buenos Aires Philharmonic is an Argentinian orchestra based in Buenos Aires. Founded in 1946, it is based in the renowned Colón Theatre, and is considered one of the more prestigious orchestras in its nation and Latin America, and has received several honours in 60 years of history. Its local...
) was founded in 1947, and in 1948, the State Symphony Orchestra.
The symphony was created under the aegis of the Secretariat of Culture, and with 92 musicians. Directed initially by Roberto Kinsky, its first concert took place at the renowned Colón Opera House on November 30, 1949; on that evening's program was Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
's Consecration of the House Overture
Consecration of the House Overture
Consecration of the House , op.124, is a work by Ludwig van Beethoven composed in September 1822. It was commissioned by Carl Friedrich Hensler, the Director of Vienna’s new Theater in der Josefstadt, and was first performed at the theatre's opening on October 3, 1822. It was the first work...
, Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
's Symphony No.2
Symphony No. 2 (Brahms)
The Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73, was composed by Johannes Brahms in the summer of 1877 during a visit to Pörtschach am Wörthersee, a town in the Austrian province of Carinthia. Its composition was brief in comparison with the fifteen years it took Brahms to complete his First Symphony...
, and Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
's Scherzo Fantastico. Its repertoire was soon expanded to include works by classical Argentine composers, as well, notably Carlos Guastavino
Carlos Guastavino
Carlos Guastavino was an Argentine composer.Carlos Guastavino was born in Santa Fe Province, Argentina. He studied music in Santa Fe with Esperanza Lothringer and Dominga Iaffei, and in Buenos Aires with Athos Palma...
, Carlos López Buchardo
Carlos López Buchardo
Carlos Félix López Buchardo was an Argentine composer whose work was inspired by native music....
and Alberto Williams
Alberto Williams
Alberto Williams was an Argentine symphonic composer and conductor.-Life and work:Alberto Williams was born to in Buenos Aires, in 1862. A maternal grandfather, Amancio Jacinto Alcorta, had been a respected government and banking policy-maker, as well as a well-known composer of sacred music...
. Apart from its performances at the Colón Opera House, the symphony would appear often in the Cervantes
Cervantes Theatre (Buenos Aires)
The Cervantes National Theatre in Buenos Aires is the national stage and comedy theatre of Argentina.-History:The Cervantes Theatre of Buenos Aires owes its existence, in part, to the 1897 relocation to Argentina of Spanish theatre producer María Guerrero and her company, who popularized...
and Gran Rex
Teatro Gran Rex
The Teatro Gran Rex is an Art Deco style theatre in Buenos Aires, Argentina which opened on July 8, 1937, as the largest cinema in South America....
theatres, and it increasingly featured 20th-century classical music, notably Ottorino Respighi
Ottorino Respighi
Ottorino Respighi was an Italian composer, musicologist and conductor. He is best known for his orchestral "Roman trilogy": Fountains of Rome ; Pines of Rome ; and Roman Festivals...
's Sinfonia Drammatica and Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
's Alexander Nevsky
Alexander Nevsky (Prokofiev)
Alexander Nevsky is the score for the 1938 Sergei Eisenstein film Alexander Nevsky, composed by Sergei Prokofiev. He later rearranged the music in the form of a cantata for mezzo-soprano, chorus, and orchestra...
; among the well-known guest musicians during the symphony's early years was violinist Henryk Szeryng
Henryk Szeryng
Henryk Szeryng was a Polish violinist.-Early years:He was born in Żelazowa Wola, Poland on 22 September 1918 into a wealthy family....
.
The 1955 overthrow
Revolución Libertadora
The Revolución Libertadora was a military uprising that ended the second presidential term of Juan Perón in Argentina, on September 16, 1955.-History:...
of President Juan Perón led to the State Symphony's reorganization as the Argentine National Symphony. Its first post-Perón conductor, former Colón Opera House Director Juan José Castro
Juan José Castro
Juan José Castro was an Argentine composer and conductor.Born in Avellaneda, Castro studied piano and violin under Manuel Posadas and composition under Eduarno Fornarini, in Buenos Aires. In the 1920s he was awarded the Europa Prize, and then went on to study in Paris at the Schola Cantorum under...
, had returned from exile and took the baton to acclaim on November 11, leading the symphony in their performance of La Mer
La Mer (Debussy)
La mer, trois esquisses symphoniques pour orchestre , or simply La mer , is an orchestral composition by the French composer Claude Debussy. It was started in 1903 in France and completed in 1905 on the English Channel coast in Eastbourne...
, by Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
. He worked to widen its appeal by incorporating works by contemporary composers such as Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...
, Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
, Igor Stravinsky and Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
, and by securing guest conductors such as Willem van Otterloo
Willem van Otterloo
Jan Willem van Otterloo was a Dutch conductor, cellist and composer.-Biography:Van Otterloo was born in Winterswijk, Gelderland, in the Netherlands, the son of William Frederik van Otterloo, a railway inspector, and his wife Anna Catharina Enderlé...
and Igor Stravinsky, who conducted performances of his own works in 1960. Frustrated by bureaucratic tedium, however, Castro resigned in October.
The symphony followed a more traditional line after Víctor Tevah's appointment as chief conductor in 1961, and the contemporary music programs were cancelled. Its itinerary was steeped up, and would include a successful tour of theatres in the Argentine hinterland as well as in Asunción, Paraguay, in 1962. Highlights from this period included guest conductor Paul Klecki's Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
concert series and the rise to prominence of pianist Martha Argerich
Martha Argerich
Martha Argerich is an Argentine pianist.-Early life:Argerich was born in Buenos Aires and started playing the piano at age three...
. Ongoing administrative disputes, however, took their toll, and the appointment of Teodoro Fuchs in March 1966 as its first full director since Castro met one the body's chief demands, though budget scarcities led to his resignation later that year.
The installation of a dictatorship under General Juan Carlos Onganía
Juan Carlos Onganía
Juan Carlos Onganía Carballo was de facto president of Argentina from 29 June 1966 to 8 June 1970. He rose to power as military dictator after toppling, in a coup d’état self-named Revolución Argentina , the democratically elected president Arturo Illia .-Economic and social...
led to a marked influence of the Catholic Church over the repertoire, and its new director, Juan Carlos Zorzi, offered up mostly requiem
Requiem
A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead or Mass of the dead , is a Mass celebrated for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, using a particular form of the Roman Missal...
s, masses and te deum
Te Deum
The Te Deum is an early Christian hymn of praise. The title is taken from its opening Latin words, Te Deum laudamus, rendered literally as "Thee, O God, we praise"....
s, as well as frequent collaboratios with the Argentine Catholic University's choir. The symphony performed at the reinauguation of the Cervantes Theatre, which had been nearly lost to a 1961 fire, in 1968, though the Onganía regime's continuing hostility to the symphony led to its being stripped of a formal home, and the body performed as a radio orchestra
Radio orchestra
A radio orchestra is an orchestra employed by a radio network in order to provide programming as well as sometimes perform incidental or theme music for various shows on the network. In the heyday of radio such orchestras were numerous, performing classical, popular, light music and jazz...
. Losing numerous musicians, Zorzi resigned, and though the 1970 appointment of Spanish conductor Jacques Bodmer as director was followed by a sponsorship from the Italian Embassy, lack of federal support kept the symphony on the brink of closure throughout 1971 and 1972.
The election of Peronist candidate Héctor Cámpora in 1973 brought with it restored support for the institution, including disbursement for a year's worth of unpaid salaries. A successful Beethoven series at the Luna Park Arena
Luna Park, Buenos Aires
For any of the amusement parks of the same name, see Luna Park; for any other use of the term, see Luna Park Luna Park is an 8,000-seat arena, located on the corner of Corrientes and Bouchard Avenues, in the barrio of San Nicolás, east Buenos Aires city and near Puerto Madero...
was followed by the 25th anniversary concert, November 29, 1974, memorable for its being held atop the Buenos Aires Sheraton
Sheraton Buenos Aires Hotel & Convention Center
Sheraton Buenos Aires Hotel & Convention Center is a five-star hotel located in the District of Retiro, Buenos Aires, Argentina.-Overview:...
with a televised reprise of Roberto Kinsky's inaugural program. A renewed funding crisis led director Bodmer to return to Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
in July 1975, however, and his assistant, Jorge Fontenla, was appointed in his stead. Fontenla's replacement with Bruno D'Astoli in 1978 coincided with the symphony's eclipse by the Buenos Aires Philharmonic, which enjoyed the advantage of a permanent home at the Colón Opera House (while the symphony was relegated to Monday nights at the Cervantes). Its struggles helped result in the 1980 establishment of the Friends of the National Symphony, and though the end of the last dictatorship in 1983 brought with it high hopes, a conflict with the newly-appointed general director, Iván Cosentino, resulted in a stoppage during the first half of 1985. Ongoing budgetary problems prompted the new director, Jorge Rotter, to schedule free concerts to the public every other Wednesday as a form of protest during 1987. A renewed crisis in 1990 led to his resignation and the suspension of activities.
Lacking a director, the symphony was supervised by the head of SADAIC, José María Castiñeira de Dios, who organized the symphony's first European performance (in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
), and secured appointment of Simón Blech as director in late 1991. Another figure credited with shepherding the symphony through this difficult era was its former director, Juan Carlos Zorzi, who had served as interim director during the early 1980s and continued to influence the repertoire, including more works by Latin American composers such as Mexican composer Eduardo Diazmuñoz
Eduardo Diazmuñoz
Eduardo Diazmuñoz is a Mexican conductor, composer and arranger.He studied piano, cello, percussion, and conducting at the National Conservatory of Music . In 1978, 1979 he became associate conductor of the newly founded Mexico City Philarmonic. He assisted in preparation for concertos of Leonard...
, who led the symphony as guest conductor; Zorzi also took the baton for a tour of Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
in 1992. The appointment of Pedro Ignacio Calderón as chief conductor in 1996 was followed by a number of critics' awards and by the symphony's 50th anniversary celebrations in 1998, for which the body was invited to perform in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
.
Obtaining their first salary increase in thirteen years in 2006, the National Symphony Orchestra has persisted over often overwhelming odds, not the least of which has been its lack of a permanent home (unofficially located in the Cervantes Theatre
Cervantes Theatre (Buenos Aires)
The Cervantes National Theatre in Buenos Aires is the national stage and comedy theatre of Argentina.-History:The Cervantes Theatre of Buenos Aires owes its existence, in part, to the 1897 relocation to Argentina of Spanish theatre producer María Guerrero and her company, who popularized...
). Maintaining a loyal esprit de corps among its musicians, who have on numerous past occasions performed without pay, the symphony has also attracted figures of international stature on the classical music stage, including guest conductors Erich Kleiber
Erich Kleiber
Erich Kleiber was an Austrian conductor.- Biography :Born in Vienna, Kleiber studied in Prague...
, Sir Georg Solti
Georg Solti
Sir Georg Solti, KBE, was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor. He was a major classical recording artist, holding the record for having received the most Grammy Awards, having personally won 31 as a conductor, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to his...
, Ernest Ansermet
Ernest Ansermet
Ernest Alexandre Ansermet was a Swiss conductor.- Biography :Ansermet was born in Vevey, Switzerland. Although he was a contemporary of Wilhelm Furtwängler and Otto Klemperer, Ansermet represents in most ways a very different tradition and approach from those two musicians. Originally he was a...
, Igor Markevitch
Igor Markevitch
Igor Markevitch was a Ukrainian, Italian, and French composer and conductor.- Origin :Igor Markevich was born in Kiev, to an old family of Ukrainian Cossack starshyna ennobled in the 18th century...
, Hermann Scherchen
Hermann Scherchen
Hermann Scherchen was a German conductor.-Life:Scherchen was originally a violist and played among the violas of the Bluthner Orchestra of Berlin while still in his teens...
, Sergiu Celibidache
Sergiu Celibidache
- Biography :Celibidache was born in Roman, Romania, and began his studies in music with the piano, after which he studied music, philosophy and mathematics in Bucharest, Romania and then in Paris...
, Rudolf Kempe
Rudolf Kempe
Rudolf Kempe was a German conductor.- Biography :Kempe was born in Dresden, where from the age of fourteen he studied at the Dresden State Opera School. He played oboe in the opera orchestra of Dortmund and then in the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra, from 1929...
, Antal Dorati
Antal Doráti
Antal Doráti, KBE was a Hungarian-born conductor and composer who became a naturalized American citizen in 1947.-Biography:...
, Sir Malcolm Sargent
Malcolm Sargent
Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works...
, Hans Rosbaud
Hans Rosbaud
Hans Rosbaud , was an Austrian conductor, particularly associated with the music of the twentieth century....
, Jean Fournet
Jean Fournet
Jean Fournet was a French conductor.Fournet’s father was a flutist who gave him some instruction on the flute and music theory. Fournet was then trained at the Conservatoire de Paris in flute by Gaston Blanquart and Marcel Moyse, and conducting by Philippe Gaubert...
, Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
, Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos was a Brazilian composer, described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the best-known and most significant Latin American composer to date. He wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works...
, Aram Katchaturian, Frank Martin
Frank Martin (composer)
Frank Martin was a Swiss composer, who lived a large part of his life in the Netherlands.-Childhood and youth:...
and Pablo Casals
Pablo Casals
Pau Casals i Defilló , known during his professional career as Pablo Casals, was a Spanish Catalan cellist and conductor. He is generally regarded as the pre-eminent cellist of the first half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest cellists of all time...
, as well as renowned guest soloists such as Arthur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein KBE was a Polish-American pianist. He received international acclaim for his performances of the music of a variety of composers...
, Ruggiero Ricci
Ruggiero Ricci
Ruggiero Ricci is an Italian-American violinist known for performances and recordings of the works of Paganini. He was born in San Bruno, California. Ricci's brother was cellist and his sister Emma played violin with the New York Metropolitan Opera.He is the son of Italian immigrants. His...
, Nicanor Zabaleta
Nicanor Zabaleta
Nicanor Zabaleta was a Spanish virtuoso and populariser of the harp.Zabaleta was born in San Sebastián, Spain, on January 7, 1907. In 1914 his father, an amateur musician, bought him a harp in an antique shop. He soon began taking lessons from Vincenta Tormo de Calvo and Luisa Menarguez...
, Gyorgy Sandor
György Sándor
György Sándor was a Hungarian pianist, writer, student and friend of Béla Bartók, and champion of his music.- Early years :...
, Martha Argerich, Uto Ughi
Uto Ughi
Diodato "Uto" Ughi is an Italian violinist and conductor. He was the music director of l'Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia from 1992-1997...
, and Barry Douglas
Barry Douglas
Barry Douglas OBE is a classical pianist and conductor. He studied piano, cello, clarinet and organ while growing up in Belfast. He first studied in Belfast while attending Methodist College Belfast and, at 16, had lessons with Felicitas LeWinter, a pupil of Emil von Sauer and grand-pupil of...
.
Its need for an official home was addressed in 2006 with plans to create a concert hall for the symphony in the Bicentennial Cultural Center. The center's inaugural in the former Buenos Aires Central Post Office
Buenos Aires Central Post Office
The Buenos Aires Central Post and Communications Office is a public building and landmark in the San Nicolás district of Buenos Aires.-Overview:...
, scheduled for the Bicentennial
Argentina Bicentennial
The Argentina Bicentennial is a series of celebrations and observances celebrated on May 25, 2010, and throughout the year. They commemorated the 200th anniversary of the May Revolution, a sequence of historical events that led to the Viceroy Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros' being ousted from office...
in 2010, was later delayed, and the Belgrano Auditorium became the symphony's temporary home.