Urtext
2007
Manuel M Ponce: Música Para Instrumentos De Arco
About This Album
The Cuarteto LatinoAmericano is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and to connote the occasion Mexican label Urtext has released this recording, made in 2003, of the slim number of works Manuel Ponce left behind for string chamber ensembles. Of the five works featured on Manuel M. Ponce: Musica para Instrumentos de Arco, only the Trio and the Petite Suite dans le style ancien have been recorded before, and these will come as a genuine surprise to listeners who only know Ponce through his guitar music and the popular song "Estrellita," which remains his signature piece. Ponce was very aware of international currents in music, and in 1927 (at age 45) entered into the class of Paul Dukas at the Paris Conservatoire in order to broaden his understanding of contemporary techniques. He emerged from Dukas' class able to compose music of a complexity worthy of Schoenberg or Bartók, but did not manage to misplace his cultural identity; these pieces are as serious as any chamber music written in the 1930s or '40s, but are in most cases undoubtedly Mexican even though they sound nowhere near the idioms of Chávez or Revueltas.

Ponce's only string quartet (Cuarteto) is a really odd, yet captivating admixture of Mexican folk gestures and near-serial techniques.
Track List

String Quartet
1.
2.
3.
4.
Trio For Violin, Viola & Cello
5.
6.
7.
8.
Sonate En Duo, For Violin & Viola
9.
10.
11.
Petite Suite Dans Le Style Ancien, For String Trio
12.
13.
14.
15.
Miniatures (4), For String Quartet
16.
17.
18.
19.