CD "Margarida Orfila, obra pianística"

ISABEL FÈLIX, piano

[Columna Música, 2020]

After years studying and looking for unpublished scores, Isabel Fèlix presents the first worldwide recording of the complete solo piano music by Margarida Orfila. It means rescuing from oblivion and vindicating a twentieth century composer of early talent and solid training, who has fascinated her since she became acquainted with her music.

Margarida Orfila Tudurí (Maó, Menorca, 1889 - Barcelona, ​​1970) was a composer, pianist and music teacher. As a child, her family moved to Barcelona. She studied at the Escola Municipal de Música de Barcelona and she soon became a pianist and composer, and at the age of seventeen she was appointed professor at the Conservatory, where she would teach until her retirement. Barcelona cultural life was particularly lively at the beginning of the twentieth century and this promoted her career, which was also closely linked to the Orfeó Català. Contact with Menorca was common as she often visited the island to give concerts and the press echoed her triumphs. She married Frederic Alfonso, who was also composer. She was awarded the prize for the best piano pieces collection at the XII Concepció Rabell i Cibils Contest in 1934, she shared the prize ex-equo with  Xavier Montsalvatge.

Within her output, the compositions for piano are certainly the most significant, but she also wrote many songs, choral pieces, chamber music for strings and piano, a sardana and a piano concerto, most of them before the Spanish Civil War. She was a clever, well-organized, hard-working woman who did not seek fame and defined herself as a classical-romantic composer: Bach, Wagner and Beethoven were her touchstones. The high quality and individuality of her music make her worthy of a place in the repertoire of today’s pianists.

Works:

• Primer temps d’una sonata (Lema: I també lo romàntich) [1912]

• Tres Melodies per a piano [1907-1912]

I. Primera melodia

II. Segona melodia

III. Tercera melodia

• Sonata per a piano (Lema: Visca lo clàssich) [1910]

I. Senzill i sense córrer

II. Tema i 6 Variacions

III. Volant

• Scherzo Op. 22 [1929]

• Petites Semblances Op. 24 (Ofrena als meus fills) [1929]

I. Frederic

II. Margarida

III. Joan

IV. Francisco

V. Carme

• Quatre Estudis (Lema: Estudiem tot pensant en les nostres cançons) [1933]

I. Homenatge a Chopin

II. Moderat quasi lent

III. Scherzo

IV. Tema i 6 Variacions

Total time 82:01

www.isabelfelix.com