- Ricardo Castro
Ricardo Castro Herrera (Rafael de la Santísima Trinidad Castro Herrera) (Hacienda de santa Bárbara,
Durango ,1864-Mexico City 1907) Was amexican concert pianist andcomposer , considered the last romantic of the time ofPorfirio Díaz .Life
His father Vicente Castro was a deputy congress and his mother was María de Jesús Herrera. Ricardo began his music education with Pedro H. Ceniseros. In 1879 his family moved to
Mexico City where the boy entered theNational Conservatory of Music (Mexico) and studied piano with Juan Salvatierra andJulio Ituarte ,Harmony andCounterpoint withMelesio Morales . He finished all his studies just in 5 years, when the normal was 10. He graduated in 1883.He began his musical career as a concert pianist and composer before finishing his studies and in 1882 he won two prizes. At 19, Ricardo finished his First Symphony in c minor wich had its first premiere in 1988, 81 years after his death.
In 1883 the Government of Mexico chose some of his works to send them to Venezuela for the
Simon Bolivar ´s centenary and later in 1884 he made a concert tour throughUnited States .1896 was the year of the first premiere of his opera
Atzimba . The second act is lost.He received a scholarship from the
Government of Mexico and went toEurope from 1903 to 1906 to give master clases in conservatories inParis ,Brussels ,Rome ,Milan andLeipzig . He published in Paris many mexican dances for piano in the habanera style. There in Europe he studied withTeresa Carreño .When he returned to Mexico he was appointed music director of theNational Conservatory of Music byJusto Sierra and kept that work until he died of pneumonia in January 1907.Ricardo Castro´s music for piano tends to be very colourful and sentimental with a kind of virtuosism in the style of Liszt. He often conects many musical themes in brilliant passages of virtuosism. [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.]
References
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