Opening Paths: Mexican Composer Ricardo Castro and Latin America’s First Cello Concerto (Part 1)

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Opening Paths: Mexican Composer Ricardo Castro and Latin America’s First Cello Concerto (Part 1)

All cellists know that our instrument’s sound is beautiful, but it also claims its own time from the moment our bow reaches the string until we get that characteristic warm, generous ring from our strings. It also took time, probably more than a hundred years, from the composition of the very first known Latin American piece that uses the cello -“Quatro Tractos para Sabbado da Semana Santa” by Brazilian composer José Joaquim Emérico Lobo de Mesquita, composed in 1783- to the composition of Ricardo Castro’s concerto -somewhere between the last two decades of the nineteenth century and its premiere in April of 1903.

Through this series of posts, we are hoping to build a narrative that gives some context to Castro’s cello concerto, including a brief sketch of Castro’s life and the origins of the work, a brief analysis of it’s style, an overview of the sources and editions, as well as some ideas about the pedagogical value of this important piece.

The composer and his life

Ricardo Castro died too soon, on September 28, 1907, when he was 47 years old, from pneumonia complications. Four years later, on May 25, 1911, the dictatorship of Oaxacan Porfirio Díaz ended, opening the way to the consolidation of the Mexican Revolution that had started in 1910. Shortly before his unexpected death in 1907 and on the tails of a successful return from Europe, Ricardo Castro was appointed director of the Mexican Conservatorio Nacional de Música by Porfirio Díaz himself. Even though Castro didn’t have time to carry out an administrative trajectory that would have allowed him to develop and institutionalize his ideas at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música, he left his works, along with stories connected to a life devoted to art. As a man of his time, Castro developed an artistic activity that looked to Europe, particularly France, for models that shaped his musical ideas. As a man of his time, his works suffered a long silence caused by the Revolution and the accompanying sociopolitical and cultural change.

Ricardo Rafael de la Santísima Trinidad Castro Herrera was born on February 7, 1864, the son of Licenciado Vicente Herrera Castro and doña María de Jesús Herrera. Castro had an early start in music. He began studying piano at age 6, under the tutelage of Pedro H. Ceniceros, and later started composing short parlour pieces that were well-received. Castro moved with his family to Mexico City in 1877, and there he continued his piano studies and composition at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música with Juan Pablo Salvatierra and Melesio Morales respectively, and later with the distinguished pianist Julio Ituarte. As a result of a policy on foreign affairs that had as a goal to internationally project a certain image of México, Castro’s career grew to the point where he was “the first Mexican pianist with an international trajectory and one of the most outstanding composers of his time.” Thus, his works Norma. Fantaisie de concert pour piano sur des motifs de l’Opera de Bellini, Op. 8, Aires Nacionales Mexicanos. Capricho brillante para piano, Op. 10, and Enriqueta were sent to Venezuela for the commemoration of Simón Bolívar’s centenary in 1883. Castro also traveled to New Orleans for the World Cotton Centennial (1884-85), where the composer performed his Fantasía. National Hymn of Brazil y Fantasía. Elegant, followed by concerts in Philadelphia, Washington and New York. With the support of Díaz’s government, Ricardo Castro arrived in Paris at the end of December of 1902, and started working with pianists Teresa Carreño and Eugen D’Albert. He stayed in Paris until 1906, when he was appointed by Díaz director of the Conservatorio Nacional de Música upon his return to Mexico.

As a part of the Grupo de los Seis, Ricardo Castro and composers Gustavo E. Campa, Juan Hernández Acevedo, Carlos J. Meneses, Ignacio Quesada and Felipe Villanueva “decanted for a search of stylistic alternatives to Italian bel canto style, moving towards the French and German schools.” More precisely, Ricardo Castro’s stylistic search was first identified with late-romanticism as it was displayed in parlour music that was “defined by its ornamental values, lightness in style, brevity and a modernism more in the attitude than in the concept.” Nevertheless, the composer’s later style moved towards an exploration of the “major forms of romanticism as the symphony, the concerto, the opera, and the string quartet.”

The transitional nature of his life, one that was split between two centuries, that moved from the waltz to the symphony, from the parlour’s intimacy to the spacious concert hall, is also expressed in other aspects of Ricardo Castro’s music. Despite his clear European influences modeled on the interpreter-composer European tradition of figures such as Franz Liszt, Teresa Carreño and Eugen d’Albert, Castro’s music also showed national colors. However, it was not until the work of Manuel Ponce, Silvestre Revueltas and Carlos Chávez that nationalism became a relevant musical movement in Mexico.

1 For a discussion about Ricardo Castro’s place of birth, read the previously quoted work by Álvarez Meneses.

2 Ricardo Lugo-Viñas, “El Romántico Ricardo Castro,” accessed December 30, 2021, https://relatosehistorias.mx/nuestras-historias/el-romantico-ricardo-castro.

3 Álvarez Meneses, El compositor mexicano Ricardo Castro (1864-1907): vida y obra, 92.

4 Moreno Rivas, Yolanda, “La composición en México en el siglo XX,” (México: Conaculta, 1996) quoted in “Ricardo Castro 1864-1907,” last modified in January 25, 2014, https://musicaenmexico.com.mx/ricardo-castro-1864-1907/,

5 Moreno Rivas, Yolanda, “La composición en México en el siglo XX.”

ABRIENDO CAMINOS: EL mexicano Ricardo Castro y el primer concerto para violonchelo en Latinoamérica

Todos los violonchelistas sabemos que el sonido de nuestro instrumento es hermoso, pero también sabemos que reclama su propio tiempo desde el momento en el que el arco toca la cuerda hasta que obtenemos esa generosa y característica vibración.También tomó tiempo, probablemente más de cien años, desde la primera composición latinoamericana que usa el violonchelo -“Quatro Tractos para Sabbado da Semana Santa” del compositor brasileño José Joaquim Emérico Lobo de Mesquita, escrita en 1783- hasta la composición del concierto de Ricardo Castro -en algún momento entre las dos primeras décadas del siglo diecinueve y su premiere en abril de 1903.

Con esta serie de publicaciones, nuestra intención es crear una narrativa que dé algo de contexto al concierto de violonchelo de Castro, incluyendo un breve bosquejo acerca de su vida y los orígenes de esta obra, un breve análisis del estilo, una revisión de las fuentes y las ediciones, y algunas ideas acerca del valor pedagógico de este importante concierto.

El compositor y su vida

Ricardo Castro murió demasiado pronto, el 28 de noviembre de 1907, a los 47 años, a causa de una pulmonía. Cuatro años más tarde, el 25 de mayo de 1911 cae la dictadura del oaxaqueño Porfirio Díaz abriéndose así la historia a la consolidación de la Revolución Mexicana que se había iniciado en 1910. Un poco antes de su inesperada muerte, en 1907, y respaldado por el reconocimiento recibido a su llegada de Europa, Ricardo Castro fue nombrado por Porfirio Díaz director del Conservatorio Nacional de Música, en la Ciudad de México. Pero, aunque no tuvo tiempo para completar una gestión administrativa que le permitiera impulsar sus ideas en una institución tan importante como el Conservatorio Nacional de Música, Castro dejó su obra, acompañada de las historias que componen una vida entregada a su arte. Como un hombre de su tiempo, desarrolló una actividad artística que buscaba en Europa, particularmente en Francia, modelos que le permitieran darle forma a sus ideas musicales. Y es por eso, por ser precisamente un hombre de su tiempo, que con la llegada de la Revolución y el auge de un movimiento sociopolítico y cultural que se erigió teniendo al Porfiriato -al que Castro tanto debía- como antagonista, la obra de Ricardo Castro quedó suspendida en un gran silencio, del que poco a poco se ha ido sacudiendo.

Nacido el 7 de febrero de 1864 en el Estado de Durango, Ricardo Rafael de la Santísima Trinidad Castro Herrera, hijo del Licenciado Vicente Castro y doña María de Jesús Herrera, tuvo un comienzo temprano en la música. Se inició a los seis años en el piano, bajo la tutela de Pedro H. Ceniceros, y posteriormente en la composición, con pequeñas piezas de salón que fueron muy bien recibidas. En 1877 Ricardo Castro se muda con su familia a la Ciudad de México y continúa sus estudios de piano y composición en el Conservatorio Nacional de Música con Juan Pablo Salvatierra y Melesio Morales respectivamente, y luego con el reconocido pianista Julio Ituarte. Como resultado de una política exterior que buscaba proyectar a México internacionalmente, Ricardo Castro, quien ya era un pianista apreciado en su país, tuvo la oportunidad de mostrar su talento allende los mares hasta convertirse en “el primer pianista mexicano de trayectoria internacional y uno de los compositores más sobresalientes de su tiempo”. Un ejemplo de ello es la selección y el posterior envío a Venezuela de tres de sus obras, Norma. Fantaisie de concert pour piano sur des motif de l’Opera de Bellini, Op. 8, Aires Nacionales Mexicanos. Capricho brillante para piano, Op. 10, y Enriqueta, para la celebración del primer centenario de Simón Bolívar en 1883; y los conciertos en los Estados Unidos, en la Exposición Algodonera Internacional -World Cotton Centennial- que estuvo abierta entre 1884-1885 en Nueva Orleans, donde el compositor tocó su Fantasía. National Hymn of Brazil y Fantasía. Elegant, y después en Filadelfia, Washington y Nueva York. Con el apoyo del gobierno de Porfirio Díaz, Ricardo Castro llega a París el 28 de diciembre de 1902 y ya en 1903 empieza sus estudios de perfeccionamiento con los pianistas Teresa Carreño y Eugen D’Albert. En París permanece hasta 1906, año en el que regresa a México para ser nombrado director del Conservatorio Nacional de Música por Porfirio Díaz.

Como parte del Grupo de los Seis, Ricardo Castro y los compositores Gustavo E. Campa, Juan Hernández Acevedo, Carlos J. Meneses, Ignacio Quesada y Felipe Villanueva “se decantaron por una búsqueda de alternativas estilísticas al planteamiento del belcantístico italiano, orientándose hacia las escuelas francesas y germanas”. Si bien en una primera época la búsqueda estilística de Ricardo Castro se identificada con un romanticismo tardío plasmado en la música de salón y “definido por sus valores ornamentales, ligereza de estilo, brevedad, elegancia y un modernismo más de actitud que de concepto”, es él mismo quien transita hacia “las formas mayores del romanticismo como la sinfonía, el concierto, la ópera y el cuarteto de cuerdas”.

Esa circunstancia transitoria, la de una vida vivida entre dos siglos, del vals a la sinfonía, de la intimidad del salón a la amplitud de la sala de concierto, también se ve expresada en otros aspectos de la música de Ricardo Castro. A pesar de las claras influencias europeas modeladas por la tradición de compositor-intérprete de figuras tales como Franz Liszt, Teresa Carreño y Eugen d’Albert, la música de Castro comienza a mostrar algunos colores nacionales mexicanos. Sin embargo, no sería hasta más tarde con personajes como Manuel Ponce, Silvestre Revueltas o Carlos Chávez que el Nacionalismo se convertiría en un movimiento artístico relevante en México.

¹ Sobre la discusión alrededor del lugar de nacimiento de Ricardo Castro, se recomienda el tercer capítulo de la obra de Rogelio Álvarez Meneses citada previamente.

² Ricardo Lugo-Viñas, “El Romántico Ricardo Castro”, consultado el 30 de diciembre de 2021, https://relatosehistorias.mx/nuestras-historias/el-romantico-ricardo-castro.

³ Álvarez Meneses, El compositor mexicano Ricardo Castro (1864-1907): vida y obra, 92.

⁴ Moreno Rivas, Yolanda, “La composición en México en el siglo XX”, (México: Conaculta, 1996) citado en “Ricardo Castro 1864-1907”, modificado por última vez el 25 de enero de 2014, https://musicaenmexico.com.mx/ricardo-castro-1864-1907/.

⁵ Moreno Rivas, Yolanda, “La composición en México en el siglo XX”.

By Natali Herrera-Pacheco, Horacio Contreras, and Germán Marcano|2024-07-05T20:08:49-04:00June 4th, 2022|Categories: Historical, Repertoire|Tags: Mexican Revolution, Oaxacan Porfirio Díaz, cello concerto, Cello Repertoire, Ricardo Castro, Latin America, José Joaquim Emérico Lobo de Mesquita|

About the Author: Natali Herrera-Pacheco, Horacio Contreras, and Germán Marcano

Natali Herrera-Pacheco is a Venezuelan artist and scholar that works on the intersection of music with other expressive forms. Natali holds a Doctorate in Latin American literature from the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain; and a Masters in Ethnohistory and a Bachelors in Art History from the Universidad de Los Andes in Venezuela.

As a scholar, her work has encompassed the study of Venezuelan musical rituals and the relationship of music and literature in the work of Dominican writer Marcio Veloz Maggiolo. She has published articles in scholarly journals in Venezuela and presented papers at conferences in France (École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales), Mexico (53 International Congress of Americanists), Venezuela (Third National Congress of Anthropology), and Spain (University of Granada).

As an artist, her activity centers in images, both still (photography) and mobile (video). Natali was an artist-in-residence of Khemia Ensemble, a music collective devoted to the presentation of contemporary concert music in innovative ways. Her character Fragile inspired the ensemble’s 2017-2018 concert season, where she collaborated in intersections of Natali’s video-art and Carolina Heredia’s music in the works Negative Image and Interludio. Her video-art has been presented at venues and festivals including National Sawdust, Strange Beautiful Music Festival, University of Missouri, MoxSonic Experimental Sonic Arts Festival, among others. In photography, her main interests has been photography of musicians and street photography. She has worked as a freelance photographer for the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theater and Dance; faculty members of the schools of music of the University of Michigan, University of Missouri, Baylor University, Lawrence University; the chamber music ensembles Khemia Ensemble and the Ivalas Quartet; and members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Her most recent project is the production of the educative video series The Voices of Latin-American Cello, hosted by The Sphinx Catalog of Latin-American Cello Works. Natali is fluent in Spanish, English and French, and lives a happy life with her two cats and her husband in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Venezuelan cellist Horacio Contreras has gained esteem through a multifaceted career as a concert cellist, chamber musician, pedagogue, and scholar. He has collaborated with prestigious institutions across the Americas and Europe as a concerto soloist, a recitalist, a chamber musician, and a master class clinician.

Highlights of his career include solo performances with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra and the Municipal Orchestra of Caracas in Venezuela, the EAFIT University Orchestra in Colombia, the Camerata de France in France, and the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra and the Music Institute of Chicago’s Chamber Orchestra in the US; chamber collaborations with members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and members of the Detroit, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras, and the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin; and master classes at Bloomington, Juilliard, Michigan, Oberlin and the ASTA National Convention, as well as at many renowned programs from Latin America. Recent collaborations include the recording of the works for cello and piano by Ricardo Lorenz, the commission and premiere of Diáspora for cello and piano by the Schubert Club’s composer-in-residence Reinaldo Moya, and the recording of Shuying Li’s World Map Concerti with the Four Corners Ensemble.

Horacio serves on the faculty of Lawrence University, the Music Institute of Chicago and the University of Michigan’s MPulse summer institute Center Stage Strings. His students have made solo recordings, soloed nationally and internationally, attended festivals such as Aspen, Orford and Domaine Forget, and won awards at international and national competitions. They have continued their education at institutions including the University of Michigan, the San Francisco Conservatory, the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne in Switzerland, and the Hochschule for Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Mannheim, Germany. Some of his former students have pursued successful careers as orchestral musicians, chamber musicians, teachers, and freelancers. Others have devoted their energies to grow in other professional areas and enjoy a meaningful connection with music through the cello.

He is the founder and artistic director of Strings of Latin America, an official partner to the Sphinx Organization with the purpose of social engagement through the promotion of diversity in the classical music world. As a part of his efforts to help diversifying the repertoire, he coauthored The Sphinx Catalog of Latin-American Cello Works, a comprehensive database with information about works for cello written by Latin American composers created in partnership with the Sphinx Organization and CelloBello.org. His pedagogic book Exercises for the Cello in Various Combinations of Double-Stops has received recognition as a significant contribution to the instrument’s literature.

He is a member of the Four Corners Ensemble and the Reverón Piano Trio. He started his musical studies in Venezuela through El Sistema, and holds degrees from the Conservatoire National de Région de Perpignan, France, the Escola de Musica de Barcelona, Spain, and the University of Michigan. He is represented by Meluk Kultur Management and Halac Artists together with his colleagues of the Reverón Piano Trio.

Germán Marcano currently excels among the most important cellists in the Latin American music scene. His performances have received the best acclaims from musicians and the specialized critic, and his chamber music work with the Rios Reyna Quartet, has stand out as one of the most important in the continent.

A student with Maestro Stefan Popov and of the renowned British pedagogue William Pleeth, Marcano obtained his Bachelor of Music Degree in year 1983, at the prestigious Surrey University, England, where he was prized for the year’s best graduation concert. In 1979, he received by unanimity of the jury, the “Year’s Best Young Musician Award” granted by the Reading Symphony Orchestra, England, subsequently being invited to perform as a soloist with them, in addition to performing in several concerts in some cities of the United Kingdom. In the following years, he has been regularly invited as a soloist with ensembles such as the Surrey University Symphony Orchestra, the Guildford Camerata and the Surrey Philharmonia.

In year 1985, Marcano completed his cello’s superior studies at the Guildhall School of Music, in London, obtaining the “Premier Prix”, being the first cellist ever awarded with such distinction at said institution. He has taken part in master courses with Maestros Franz Helmerson, Mstislav Rostropovich, Raquel Adonaylo, Lynn Harrel and Janos Starker. Back in Venezuela in year 1985, Marcano occupied the principal cello chair with the Simón Bolívar Symphonic Orchestra, doing numerous tours and records productions with them. Since then, he has been a regular invited soloist with Venezuela’s main orchestras, counting among these invitations playing at the first concert performance of the “Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho” Symphonic Orchestra and the first performance in Venezuela of Elgar’s cello concerto. He has developed an important teaching work at the Simón Bolívar Conservatory, the Emil Friedman School, with the Simón Bolívar University Music Master Studies, and the Mozarteum Center’s Music School.

As a founding member of the Rios Reyna Quartet, he engaged in several national and international tours, a recording of Latin American string quartets and two performances jointly with the legendary Amadeus Quartet playing Johannes Brahms’ String Sextets.

In 1997, he traveled to the United States to continue studies with Maestro Uri Vardi. During his stay in this country, Marcano won the audition for the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s principal cello position, in Wisconsin, in addition to carrying out various concerts in Madison and Milwaukee as a cellist and a conductor. In May of 2001, Marcano obtained the degree of “Doctor in Music Arts” granted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the United States. Currently, his activities are split between his teaching (Simón Bolívar Conservatory, Emil Friedman School, Simón Bolívar University Music Master studies, and Mozarteum Center’s Music School) and playing, performing as a soloist with Venezuela’s main orchestras, as a member to the Camerata Criolla Ensemble, and conductor of the Simón Bolívar University Chamber Orchestra’s.

In the last years, Marcano has combined his instrument’s traditional repertoire with Latin American compositions of the past and present times, thus promoting this high quality but very little broadcasted repertoire. He has first auditioned works from renowned Venezuelan composers such as Modesta Bor and Inocente Carreño, as well as fist auditions in Venezuela from different Latin American composers as Leo Brower, Alfredo Rugeles, Juán Orrego Sálas, Alberto Ginastera and Calixto Álvarez. Recently, he performed for the first time with the Puerto Rican Symphony, the Concert for Cello and Orchestra of Puerto Rican composer Carlos Vázques, piece composed specially for Marcano. His catalog of Latin American works for cello was published in year 2004 by the Vicente Emilio Sojo Foundation (Funves), with whom ha has recently published an edition of the Suite for cello and piano by Venezuelan composer Modesta Bor. Last September Mr. Marcano released his first CD with his sister Clara, which includes works by Schumann, Beethoven, Debussy and others. A second CD, devoted to folk Venezuelan music, is already in the making. He was recently invited as a professor and lecturer to Grand Valley State University and Andrews University in Michigan.