Berit Solset/Bbcphil/Mena - Juan Cris?stomo Arriaga: Symphonie ? grand orchestre, Herminie, and Other Works

Spanish music specialist and former Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic Juanjo Mena continues the series La M�sica de Espa�a, with another important Spanish composer: Juan Cris�stomo de Arriaga, nicknamed after his death as �the Spanish Mozart�. The orchestral overture to �Los esclavos felices� (The Happy Slaves) is all that remains of the opera, that the child prodigy Arriaga wrote aged 14. When Arriaga moved to Paris to study under F�tis, Gu�rin and Baillot in 1821, he revised the overture, making changes to the instrumentation and removing a third theme group, this version is heard on this recording. Air from M�d�e and Herminie form parts of the autograph volume �Ensayos l�rico-dram�ticos� (Lyric-dramatic essays) that completes this release, here sung by one of Scandinavia�s most sought after concert singers, Berit Norbakken Solset. Tonally ambiguous, Symphony in D minor (which begins and ends in D major) alongside the Overture in D major, which was written �without having learnt the principles of harmony� are proof that Arriaga�s premature death aged 19 was a �sad loss to Basque music�.