Ricardo Castro (composer)
Ricardo Castro | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Ricardo Rafael de la Santísima Trinidad Castro Herrera 7 February 1864 |
| Died | 27 November 1907 (aged 43) Mexico City, Mexico |
Ricardo Rafael de la Santísima Trinidad Castro Herrera (7 February 1864 – 27 November 1907) was a Mexican concert pianist and composer, considered the last romantic of the time of Porfirio Díaz.
Life
Castro was born at the Hacienda de Santa Bárbara, in the municipality of Nazas, Durango.[1] His father, Vicente Castro, was a federal deputy; his mother was María de Jesús Herrera. Castro began his music education with Pedro H. Ceniseros. In 1879, his family moved to Mexico City, where the boy entered the National Conservatory of Music and studied piano with Juan Salvatierra and Julio Ituarte. He studied harmony and counterpoint with Melesio Morales. He finished all his studies in just five years, half of the usual ten. He graduated in 1883.
Castro began his musical career as a concert pianist and composer before finishing his studies. In 1882, he won two prizes. At 19, Castro finished his First Symphony in C Minor; the symphony was premiered in 1988, 81 years after his death.
In 1883, the Government of Mexico chose some of Castro's works to send to Venezuela for the centenary of Simón Bolívar's birth and later in 1884 he made a concert tour through the United States.
1896 was the year of the first premiere of the first act of Castro's opera Atzimba. The second act is lost.
Castro received a scholarship from the Government of Mexico and went to Europe from 1903 to 1906 to give master classes in conservatories in Paris, Brussels, Rome, Milan and Leipzig. He published in Paris many Mexican dances for piano in the Habanera style. He studied with Teresa Carreño while in Europe. When he returned to Mexico, he was appointed music director of the National Conservatory of Music by Justo Sierra and kept that work until he died of pneumonia in Mexico City in November 1907.
Style
Castro's music for piano tends to be very colourful and sentimental with a kind of virtuosity in the style of Liszt. He often connects many musical themes in brilliant passages of virtuosity.[2]
Legacy
The Teatro Ricardo Castro, a concert hall in Victoria de Durango, the capital city of his home state, bears his name.[3][4]
References
- ↑ "Ricardo Castro, primer sinfonista del país" (in Spanish). Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura. 26 November 2022.
- ↑ Moreno Rivas, Yolanda. 1995. Rostros del Nacionalismo en la Música mexicana:un ensayo de interpretación. Segunda Edición [México DF] Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Escuela Nacional de Música. p. 84, 85.
- ↑ Saenz, Enrique (30 October 2023). "El recuerdo del Cine Principal, hoy teatro Ricardo Castro". Contexto Durango (in Spanish).
- ↑ "Realizan rehabilitación y mantenimiento en el histórico Teatro Ricardo Castro de Durango". Secretaría de Cultura (in Spanish). Government of Mexico. 3 March 2015.
External links
- 1864 births
- 1907 deaths
- 19th-century classical composers
- 19th-century Mexican male composers
- 19th-century classical pianists
- 19th-century Mexican composers
- 20th-century Mexican classical composers
- 20th-century male composers
- 20th-century classical pianists
- 20th-century Mexican male musicians
- Deaths from pneumonia in Mexico
- Mexican male classical pianists
- Mexican classical pianists
- Mexican male classical composers
- Mexican Romantic composers
- Musicians from Durango
- National Conservatory of Music of Mexico alumni
- 19th-century male pianists
- 20th-century male pianists