Ricardo Odriozola - Postcards from Arlington

CD booklet notes I spent my final year of high school (1982 - 83) in Arlington, Massachusetts. It was a transitional year for my seventeen year-old self, and one so rich in experiences and impressions that this space is insufficient to cover them all. I took my senior year at the Arlington High School as an exchange student. Aside from the generally very high standard of the teaching in all subjects, I was amazed to find that the school had it's own orchestra. This was unheard of, at the time, in Northern Spain, where I had grown up. Not only that: there was the possibility to take music theory classes at college level for those students who were interested. The conductor of the high school orchestra was Pasquale Tassone. The harmony instructor was Leslie Hurwitz. It soon became apparent that these two men were to become very important to me throughout the year. From the vantage point of late 2010, I am happy to look back with gratitude on a friendship with them that has lasted 28 years. Tassone and Hurwitz personified the essence of unstinting encouragement and support. Each in his way provided me with plentiful challenges and occasions to stretch myself. The most obvious of these were the compositions they wrote for me that year. Tassone contributed with his "Nexus II" for solo violin, written for me and dedicated to his master Franco Donatoni. Hurwitz followed suit with his "Sonatine Prudent Pratique" for violin and piano, which I premiered with the composer at the piano on my graduation recital at the Longy School of music, where I studied with the venerable Roman Totenberg. I have been fortunate to receive a stream of compositions from Tassone and Hurwitz through the years. Hurwitz has written several of them especially for me, some of them for Einar Røttingen and me as a duo. Tassone has sent me many scores of his, several of which I have performed in Norway and elsewhere. In 2009 I asked him to write me a piece for violin and piano, to redress the balance with his two existing "Nexus" pieces for solo violin and Hurwitz's Sonatine and 'Enigma' for violin and piano. He responded, a few months later, with the stunning "Trittico", which provided me with the final building stone to fulfil this long overdue recording project. I will spare the generous listener the tedium of attempting to describe the music contained herein. If nothing else, it confirms my long-held tenet (based on 33 years of performing and 40 + of listening experience) that it is not necessary to be a household name or a world celebrity in order to create art of high calibre. There is much in these recordings to enjoy: from the savage bizarreness of 'Nexus II' to the playful nobility of 'Nexus V'; from the earnestness, reflection and wicked humour of the 'Sonatine' to the light-hearted melodic windings of the 'Capriccio' and 'Divertimento'; from the romance, dreaminess and carefree abandon of 'Trittico' to the conundrum of the 'Five Pieces'; from the polyphonic invention and comradely winks towards J.S. Bach of the 'Suite Baroque' to the mystery of 'Enigma'. Not forgetting the tenderness of 'Para Isabel' and 'Para Blazenka', written as greetings to the two people closest to my inner life. I dedicate this album to Leslie Hurwitz and Pasquale Tassone, as a long overdue thank you for many years of treasured friendship. Ricardo Odriozola. December 19th 2010.