The Michoacan Cenobio Paniagua (1821-1882) is a widely documented, although barely known, composer. Considered the first opera player in Mexico, this composer born in Tlalpujahua also worked in religious and salon music.
With the idea of spreading the diversity of their production, the free concert will be offered this Saturday Cenobio Paniagua, fundamental composer of musical history in Mexico I, in the Blas Galindo auditorium of the National Center for the Arts (Cenart). The program begins with String Quartet no. 1, performed by the Saloma Quartet, the only work of this nature written by Paniagua and, surely, the first quartet composed in Mexico with a specific form of this genre
says Salvador Guízar, coordinator of the concert.
Several pieces dedicated to the piano will follow: the waltz Ella and the tango The little princess of tango, and for piano and voice, I’m jealous of my love, La jealousa y Your song. Then, there will be a wide selection of songs, romances, arias and waltzes sung by the soprano Alejandra Cadenas, the mezzo-soprano Araceli Pérez Martínez and the tenor Alfredo Rodríguez, accompanied on the piano by José Luis González.
Before the concert there will be an introductory talk by Michel Hernández Lugo, deputy director of the Carlos Chávez National Center for Musical Research, Documentation and Information (Cenidim); Áurea Maya Alcántara, Cenidim researcher; Pedro Rodríguez, first violin of the Saloma Quartet, and Guízar.
Three years ago, Guízar began research into the music of Paniagua and the Michoacan composer José Mariano Elizaga (1786-1842). Although the figure of Paniagua has been practically forgotten, Guízar places his relevance, apart from his work, in that Many other composers, his students, such as Melesio Morales and the singer Ángela Peralta, learned from the mastery with which he composed.
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For Guízar, Paniagua was a musician of his time who was influenced by different genres of which he somehow knew how to appropriate. Although it does show “a very marked influence of lyrical genres, of bel canto, specifically, but which he knew how to translate into his own works. Suddenly, upon listening to his music, it is evident that he knew Donizetti or Bellini, the great bel canto composers of the 19th century.
In addition, he excels at composition techniques and orchestrations; In short, he is a complete teacher. Apparently he was a person with great creativity and initiative, because his catalog is extensive and includes various styles. We are just beginning to know some of the things he left in manuscript and are protected; for example, in the Cenidim, as well as in other centers such as the reserved library of the National Conservatory of Music or that of the Metropolitan Cathedral, and in places in Michoacán and Veracruz where he worked.
The challenges of interpreting works that were composed 150 years ago begin with the research process: “When interpreting manuscripts from the author’s hand, doubts arise and decisions have to be made. The entire process of restoring and updating musical language in today’s programs involves review and editing challenges.
On a technical level for singers and instrumentalists it has its difficulties. It certainly requires solid technique and expressive, even stylistic, interpretation. He is not an easy composer to interpret. If we are going to release music that has been stored in the archives for 150 years, we have to do it in the best way so that today’s audience appreciates it in all its greatness.
The concert will be today at 7 p.m. in the Blas Galindo del Cenart auditorium (Río Churubusco 79, Country Club neighborhood).