Jose Luis Temes - José María Franco Bordóns - Obras Orquestales (2019)

It is well documented the work that opens our anthological album: Three brothers sailors. It is an orchestral suite with the main scenes of the Galerna ballet, with a Basque atmosphere, which our composer composed in 1931, although the premiere, in the Teatro Español in Madrid, did not take place until 1942. It was the result of an order by the dancer and Basque choreographer Pilar López (sister of "La Argentinita") and is based on an argument by Consuelo Gil, wife of the composer, who is not limited to a mere choreographic history but, because of its length, beauty and detail, is in itself a whole literary narrative. Sound and costumbristas images, of great beauty and not a little dramatism, around the life of the sea, the marine loves or the tragedy of the shipwreck ...
Only two years before, José María Franco had composed En un aldea (1929), a diptych on rural life in Castile. It is known that if for the previous generation - Falla, Turina, Granados ... - to speak of Spain was to speak of Andalusia, for the generation of 27 it is Old Castile that exerts an irresistible magnetism. The heat of its fields glides by its first number, static and luminous, whereas in the second it shines the hullabaloo of a Castilian town in day of celebration, with its itinerant company of comedians and its popular dance in time of pasodoble. The score was signed in September 1929, and the premiere took place at the Teatro de la Comedia in Madrid, in 1931, by the Classical Orchestra of Madrid, directed by the author.
On the contrary, Lembranza has as reference the world of rural Galicia to which our composer was very close (his referred to as the first stage work, El emigrante [1921] is already on a Galician theme). The title in Galician [Nostalgia, memoria, morriña ...] already announces how the memory of the unparalleled Galicia -the original land of his wife, where the couple spent long periods of time- plans for their pentagrams. The score is undated, but by the number of opus (op 46) it had to be composed in 1944.
Little do we know about the origin of Cantos - Arca, nor about the circumstances of its symphonic premiere. Only that it is an orchestration made in 1946 of a pianistic work of youth, of the same title (and subtitled Spanish Dance), dated in 1918, that is to say when the composer was still in his twenties. It is not easy to know the genesis of his strange title, about which his son has not been able to give us any information either. The premiere of the orchestral version (in 1947) took place in the now defunct Teatro Fontalba in Madrid, by the orchestra that José María Franco used to direct to accompany the ballets of Pilar López.
Four notes is one of the few works of our author that reached a certain diffusion in his time. Well, in fact, it was born as a work of easy assembly and a very beautiful result, for a string-only training. Basically it is an orchestration of four previous pieces for violin and piano, although with many variations. Since its composition in 1958, its author took it by the numerous small low budget formations that invited him to more willing than profitable musical sessions. Great profession, effectiveness of results and a certain aesthetic conservatism -perhaps the three hallmarks of the general catalog of José María Franco- characterize this music, simple and direct.