Felipe Villanueva (1862-1893) was one of the greatest composers of the Porfirian period in Mexico. He made many transcriptions and reductions for the piano of the greatest opera hits of his time. He is also know for his salon music, most famous of these is his Vals Poético. He introduced, for the first time in Mexico, Bach´s works in the late nineteenth century. One of the saddest things about this composer is that only a third of his compositions are known today, because most of his manuscripts were inherited by his family and were not publish by them at the time of his death. Now they have disappeared.
There are many unknown composers out there with great music, Villanueva is one of them. His music is graceful, charming and filled with catchy melodies; overall it is very pianistic, full of difficult, but impressive, arpeggios all over the keyboard. Liszt's famous pupil Eugene D'Albert played Villanueva's Primera Mazurka and declared him to be the best artist he had known from America.
I wonder what happend to all of Bach's Music? I mean what his Family has done with them.. HUUMM!! It is sad! til l8er
ReplyDeleteGreat to read about this composer. Thanks for the info.
ReplyDeleteWhere can you find music to lesser known composers? I am trying to look for Armstrong Gibb's works, let me tell you the search is not easy!
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