ZUREZKO OLERKIA - POEM OF WOOD LUIS DE PABLO

The proposal Zurezko Olerkia, a work by Luis de Pablo, which can be enjoyed at the Museo Universidad de Navarra within the VII edition of the After Cage Festival, has been conceived by its author for wood and voices with which he seeks to convey a synthesis of cultures and will be performed by the group KEA.

Price 16 and 12€.

Zurezko Olerkia, a wooden poem, is linked to Pamplona through the txalaparta of the Artze brothers and the Encuentro of '72. It was then that Luis de Pablo got to know this instrument in depth and decided to compose for it. The opportunity came in 1975 with a commission from the city of Bonn, which the composer wrote between Madrid, Berlin and Ottawa; after its premiere in Germany in 1976, it was performed in 1977 in Paris, Estoril and Madrid, at the Fundación Juan March.

Luis de Pablo, who had lived for long periods in Ottawa, was impressed by the grandeur of the American landscape and by the art of the Canadian aborigines. He understood that the txalaparta and the voices were appropriate instruments to compose a work that would transmit the synthesis of cultures, which he was beginning to sense, and the smallness of the human being in front of the planet. Thus was born this wooden poem, a work of contemplative character whose sonorous atmosphere embraces and envelops the listener.

Artistic data

KEA Vocal Group

Miren Garikano, soprano / Ana Otxoa, soprano / María Jesús Ugalde, soprano / Isabel Lacar, alto / David Azurza, countertenor / Javier Alberdi, tenor / Xabier Barriola, tenor / Íñigo Vilas, tenor / Josu López-Soraluze, baritone / Xabier Sarasola, baritone / Pablo Azpeitia, bass 

Percussion: Jabi Alonso, Olaia Montoya, Nerea Quincoces y Andreu Rico

Txalaparta: Ander Sánchez, Bittor Pastor

Luis de Pablo (Bilbao, 1930) is one of the most important Spanish composers of contemporary classical music. He played a pioneering role in the diffusion of advanced music in our country through organizations such as Tiempo y Música (1959) or Alea (1965). He was the creator of the first electroacoustic music laboratory in Spain and has been a professor at numerous universities around the world. He is Doctor Honoris Causa by the Complutense University of Madrid and Academician of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. Among other awards, he has received the National Fine Arts Prize, the Spanish National Music Prize and, most recently, the Golden Lion of Music at the Venice Biennale.

His work, marked by creative freedom and formal rigor, has explored a wide range of musical discourses, including theatrical and cinematic experiences, incursions into electronic music and a respectful relationship with non-Western music.

Grupo Vocal KEA, directed by Enrique Azurza, is one of the chamber choirs of reference within the Spanish contemporary music scene and the only one of its kind in the Basque Country. Created in 1997 for the interpretation of the great works of the less frequented choral repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries, with a special sensitivity towards Basque composers, it has developed since its formation an intense concert activity, premiering a large number of works, many of them written for the group itself.

Without neglecting contemporary music, in recent years the choir has approached renaissance and baroque polyphony and participated in stage performances. It performs regularly in festivals and cycles of contemporary music inside and outside our borders and among its discography we find the recording of this work by Luis de Pablo.