Vocal
Vocal
N. Works written before 1989 have been withdrawn by the composer
IX+, DE SUBSTANTIIS SEPARATIS 1990
for soprano, ensemble (saxophone, double bass-clarinet, tuba, piano, 2 violoncellos, double bass) and live-electronics
Text by Sotelo, inspired by the homonymous book by Santo Thomas de Aquinas
première: 03/12/1990, ORF Grosser Sendesaal, Vienna / Austria. Margarete Jungen (soprano) Klangforum Wien / Mauricio Sotelo
• Ariadne Verlag
NON GRIDATE PIÙ 1990/91
for 2 female voices, piano, ensemble (flute, 2 clarinets, saxophone, tuba, 2 percussions, string trio and double bass) and live-electronics
commissioned by: Fundación Juan March
text by Giuseppe Ungaretti.
première: 23/10/1992, Philharmonie Cologne / Germany. Sarah Barrett, Renate Burtscher (voices), Kristi Becker (piano), WDR Sinfonie Orchester Köln / Hans Vonk. Sound director: Peter Böhm
• Ariadne Verlag
EXPULSIÓN DE LA BESTIA TRIUNFANTE 1995
for cantaor (flamenco singer), string quartet and double bass
commissioned by: Festival de las Artes Sibila
text: José Ángel Valente
première: 12/03/1996, Teatro Central, Sevilla / Spain. Enrique Morente (cantaor), Arditti Quartet, Stefano Scodanibbio (double bass).
• Universal Edition
NADIE 1995/97
for cantaora (ossia contralto), saxophone, percussion and piano. 11’
commissioned by: Verano Musical de Segovia
text: José Ángel Valente
première: 11/07/1997, Iglesia de San Juan de los Caballeros, Segovia 7 Spain. Esperanza Fernández (cantaora), Trio Accanto [Marcus Weiss (saxophone); Christian Dierstein (percussion); Yukiko Sugawara (piano)]
• Universal Edition
ANGEL DE LA TIERRA 1997
for 2 cantaoras (ossia contraltos), ensemble (flute, saxophone, piano, 2 perc, violoncello and double bass) and tape. 25’
commissioned by: Studio für electronische Musik des WDR Köln
première: 10/04/1999, Cologne / Germany. Marina Heredia, Eva Durán (cantaoras), De Amore Ensemble / Mauricio Sotelo.
• Universal Edition
EPITAFIO 1997
for cantaora (or contralto) y percussion. 8’
commissioned by: Verano Musical de Segovia
text: José Ángel Valente
première: 11/07/1997, Iglesia de San Juan de los Caballeros, Segovia / Spain. Esperanza Fernández (cantaora), Christian Dierstein (percussion)
• Universal Edition
IN PACE 1997
for cantaora (or contralto), percussion and sound carrier. 12’
text: José Ángel Valente
première: 01/10/1997, Madrid. Carmen Linares (cantaora), Christian Dierstein (percussion).
• Universal Edition.
POSESIÓN DEL ÁNGEL 1997/2001
for cantaor (or baritone), ensemble and sound carrier. 50’
text: José Ángel Valente
• Universal Edition
SI DESPUÉS DE MORIR… IN MEMORIAM JOSÉ ÁNGEL VALENTE 1999/2000
for cantaor (or contralto), orchestra (2.2.2.2. / 4.2.3.1. / 3 perc / string) and sound carrier. 18’
text: José Ángel Valente
première: 18/10/200, Teatro Monumental, Madrid / Spain. Arcángel (cantaor), Orquesta Sinfónica de la RTVE / Antoni Ros-Marbà.
P. Universal Edition 31956 / 32548 (2001)
Alternative version: ELEGÍA. FRAGMENTO 1999/2003
for flute and orchestra (2.2.2.2. / 4.2.3.1. / 3 perc / string)
première: 16/10/2003, Teatro ‘Giuseppe Verdi’ , Trieste / Italy. Orchestra Filarmonica Teatro ‘Giuseppe Verdi’, Roberto Fabbriciani (flute) / Stefano Mazzoleni
CANTES ANTIGUOS 2003
for cantaor, piano and sound carrier. 10’
commissioned by: Het Muziektheater Amsterdam
text source: Persian poems of the XII century selected and arranged by the composer
première: 12/02/2003 Het Muziek-theater, Amsterdam / Netherlands. Arcángel (cantaor). Het Nationale Ballet / Kristof Pastor.
• Universal Edition
AUDÉEIS 2004
for voice (cantaor) and string quartet. 20’
commissioned by: Fundación Caja Madrid
première: 27/10/2004, Auditorio Nacional de Música, Madrid. Artemis Quartett, Arcángel (cantaor)
• Universal Edition
SONETOS DEL AMOR OSCURO. CRIPTA SONORA PARA LUIGI NONO 2003/05
for 2 cantaores, mixed choir, (4A4T4Bar4B), bass flute, double bass, ensemble (clarinet / bass clarinetbajo, 3 perc and string trio) and sound carrier. 64’
commissioned by: Festival Internacional de Música y Danza de Granada and Institut Valencià de la Música. 64’
première: 01/07/2005, Hospital Real, Granada / Spain. Arcángel, Miguel Poveda (cantaores), Roberto Fabbriciani (flute), Uli Fussenegger (double bass) Grup Instrumental de València, Coro de la Generalitat Valenciana / Joan Cerveró. Sound director: Mauricio Sotelo. Images: Sean Scully
• Universal Edition
RAÍZ DEL AIRE 2005/06
for cantaor and ensemble (flute, clarinet, violin, violoncello y percussion)
première: 24/04/2006 Sendesaal Radio Bremen, Bremen / Germany. Antonio Vélez ‘Pitingo’ (cantaor), Grup Instrumental de València / Joan Cerveró
• Universal Edition UE 33583 / 33585 (2006)
MUROS DE DOLOR… IV – SOLEÁ DE UTRERA 2007
for cantaor, saxophone and percussion. 10’
commissioned by: Dúo Lorca and Año Jubilar V Centenario de Utrera
première: 14/12/2007, Teatro Municipal ‘Enrique de la Cuadra’ Utrera / Spain. Rafael de Utrera (cantaor), Dúo Lorca [Juan Jiménez, saxophone; Antonio Moreno, percussion]
• Universal Edition
EL RAYO DE TINIEBLA 2007/08
for cantaor, choir and orchestra
commissioned by: Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid
première: 04/06/2008, Auditorio Nacional de Música, Madrid / Spain. Arcángel (cantaor) ,Orquesta y Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid / José Ramón Encinar
• Universal Edition
DE OSCURA LLAMA 2008
for voice (cantaor), ensemble und sound carrier.50’
première: 08/12/2008, Teatro Jovellanos, Gijón / Spain. Arcángel (Cantaor), Roberto Fabbriciani (flute) Stefano Scodanibbio (double bass), Ensemble RESIDENCIAS: Carlos Glavez (clarinet), Miguel Borrego (violin), José Miguel Gómez (violoncello) Juan Carlos Garvayo (piano), Juanjo Guillem and Rafa Gálvez (percussion) / Mauricio Sotelo
• Universal Edition
CRIPTA, MÚSICA PARA LUIGI NONO 2009
for voice (cantaor), mixed choir, ensemble and sound carrier. 64’
commissioned by: Salzburg Biennale (I)
première: 05/03/2009, Mozarteum, Salzburg / Austria. Arcángel (cantaor), Österreichises Ensemble für Neue Musik, Salzburger Bachchor / Beat Furrer
• Universal Edition
ARDE EL ALBA 2008/09
for soprano, ‘cantaor’ and orchestra. 24’
commissioned by: Orquesta Nacional de España.
première: 04/03/2009, Auditorio Nacional, Madrid / Spain. Milagros Poblador (soprano), Arcángel (cantaor),Orquesta y Coro Nacional de España/ Josep Pons
• Universal Edition
ALTER KLANG 2009/2010
for cantaor, guitar and string quartet
commissioned by: Quatuor Diotima
première: 17/02/2010, Auditorio Nacional de Música, Madrid / Spain. Quatuor Diotima, JM Cañizares (guitar), Arcángel (cantaor)
• Universal Edition
CRIPTA COLONIA GÜELL – MÚSICA PARA LA ESMUC 2010
for 2 voices (cantaoras), mixed choir, ensemble (1.0.2.0-0.0.0.0, timp, perc(2), hp, acc, pno, vln, guit, vla, vc, cb) and electronics. 25’
commissioned by: Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya
première: 25/10/2010, L’Auditori, Barcelona / Spain. Solisten-Ensemble / Mauricio Sotelo (dir.)
• Universal Edition
MUERTE SIN FIN 2010
for for dancer, cantaor and ensemble. 34’
commissioned by: Biënale Flamenco 2011
première: 30/01/2011, Muziekgebow Amsterdam/Netherlands. Niew Ensemble / Ed Spanjaard
• Universal Edition
MUERTE SIN FIN … COMENTARIO, a la memoria de Enrique Morente 2011
for reciter, bailaora, cantaor, ensemble and electronics. 72’
text: José Gorostiza
première: 29/06/2011, Teatro Real, Madrid / Spain. Juan Diego (recitation), Fuensanta “La Moneta” (bailaora), Arcangel (cantaor) / Mauricio Sotelo
• Universal Edition
A MITAD DEL CAMINO DE LA VIDA 2020
Fragments from Dante’s Comedia traslated by José María Micó.
commissioned by: CNDM
première: 10/5/2021. Auditorio 400 Reina Sofía. Madrid/ Spain.
• Proyecto Sotelo SL
UN MAR DE SUEÑO. SUITE Nº 1 DE EL PÚBLICO. 2021/2022
for mezzosoprano, tenor and chamber orchestra. 20’
commissioned by: CNDM and Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía
• Universal Edition
ESTELAS EN LA MAR 2021
for mixed choir and two violins 10’30’’
commissioned by: SWR Vokalensemble
première: 11/05/2022. Brucknerhaus Linz, Austria. SWR Vokalensemble. Soo Eun Lee and Alexander Knaak violins / Marcus Creed
• Universal Edition
Withdrawn works
Works written before 1989 have been withdrawn by the composer
• Málaga (1984), soprano and ensemble (flute, clarinet, horn, percussion, guitar and string trio)
• El Guardián de la Posibilidad I 1987
for soprano and ensemble (1.1.1.0. / trombone / piano / percussion /guitar / viola, violoncello) 17’
Text by Andrés Ibáñez
première: 08/02/1987, Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid / Spain. Adelina Álvarez (soprano), Grupo Círculo / José Luis Temes.
Testimonials
"Mauricio, a great friend and a magnificent artist! What a pleasure to prepare together a new opera! Thanks for your poetry, your invention, your virtuosity." (Madrid, 03 November 2010)
"I know, appreciate and admire Mauricio Sotelo as an internationally recognized composer with a very personal style. He is endowed with a brilliant and sovereign metier in all compositional genres and a universal art-philosophical background. I've been experiencing him since I've known him, with all his structuralist character, as it is ensured not least by his training with Luigi Nono, at the same time stylistically open, definitely not denying his Iberian landscape roots and instead constantly introducing them imaginatively."
When a few years ago I met Mauricio Sotelo, he was just about to familiarize himself with Liszt's Sonata. This not only led to a friendship but also induced the idea of writing a work that would relate both to the Sonata and to our encounter. In the last decades, a number of musical works have emerged that are composed interpretations of older ones. We can regard them as a counter-position to historicising performances that have established themselves in many concert halls. According to Hans Zender, himself a contributor to this new species, the composer "is creator. But he is these days also an interpreter of the past to which he relates - whether seeking to surmount it, or to carry on." Sotelo's work is a confrontation of this kind, an argument dealing with the shape and the material of Liszt's Sonata that has resulted in something personal and spectacular.
Mauricio Sotelo's music is one of the most intense illuminations that, in the air of sounds, can find the semantics of words. I heard about Mauricio from one of the greatest composers of our time, Luigi Nono, who I met in 1988 at the Institut for Advanced Study in Berlin. Luigi was the one who asked me if I knew a young Spanish composer about whom, I confess, knew nothing about. Since then, the admiration I felt for Nono is linked to the person and music of Mauricio. The work of two disappeared friends [Luigi Nono and José Ángel Valente] grows, lasts, illuminates and survives in the prodigious sound universe of Mauricio Sotelo.
Your music shows that twentieth-century anti-tonal academic standards can be shattered, just as the atonal music of the last century shattered nineteenth-century tonal norms. Few operas are successful because there is an insurmountable contradiction between the demands of singing and the straitjacket of norms of the second half of the twentieth century. You use "flamenco" as a crutch to not cut your music from any popular roots nor any expressive cues for the listener. There are other ways with other contemporary composers whom I admire when they are not obsessed with experimentalist temptations and when they remain in love with the voice (there are few) and faithful to the expressive vocation of the "opera" genre. So I rarely enjoy contemporary operas because, as I once replied to another journalist, "I am not interested in 'interesting' music." I was recently moved by an opera by George Benjamin, and more recently by your opera "El Público".
"Mauricio, a great friend and a magnificent artist! What a pleasure to prepare together a new opera! Thanks for your poetry, your invention, your virtuosity." (Madrid, 03 November 2010)
"I know, appreciate and admire Mauricio Sotelo as an internationally recognized composer with a very personal style. He is endowed with a brilliant and sovereign metier in all compositional genres and a universal art-philosophical background. I've been experiencing him since I've known him, with all his structuralist character, as it is ensured not least by his training with Luigi Nono, at the same time stylistically open, definitely not denying his Iberian landscape roots and instead constantly introducing them imaginatively."
When a few years ago I met Mauricio Sotelo, he was just about to familiarize himself with Liszt's Sonata. This not only led to a friendship but also induced the idea of writing a work that would relate both to the Sonata and to our encounter. In the last decades, a number of musical works have emerged that are composed interpretations of older ones. We can regard them as a counter-position to historicising performances that have established themselves in many concert halls. According to Hans Zender, himself a contributor to this new species, the composer "is creator. But he is these days also an interpreter of the past to which he relates - whether seeking to surmount it, or to carry on." Sotelo's work is a confrontation of this kind, an argument dealing with the shape and the material of Liszt's Sonata that has resulted in something personal and spectacular.
Your music shows that twentieth-century anti-tonal academic standards can be shattered, just as the atonal music of the last century shattered nineteenth-century tonal norms. Few operas are successful because there is an insurmountable contradiction between the demands of singing and the straitjacket of standards of the second half of the twentieth century. You use flamenco as a crutch to not cut your music from any popular roots nor any expressive cues for the listener. There are other ways with other contemporary composers whom I admire when they are not obsessed with experimentalist temptations and when they remain in love with the voice (there are few) and faithful to the expressive vocation of the "opera" genre. So I rarely enjoy contemporary operas because, as I once replied to another journalist, "I am not interested in 'interesting' music." I was recently moved by an opera by George Benjamin, and more recently by your opera "El Público".