TRES PIEZAS LATINOAMERICANAS/ LEO BROUWER  (1939)                                               7.- Danza del altiplano    (2:59)                               8.- Triste argentino         (2:57)                             9.- Tango       (5:24)                         

*DEYÁ/ IGNACIO MARTÍNEZ MADRIGA (1975)    10.- I      (1:07)                                                            11.- II     (1:52)

12.-DANZA/JUAN HELGUERA (1932)      (2:31)  (Participación Especial de/Special Guest Appearence Juan Helguera: Guitarra/Guitar

*Primera Grabación Mundial/ World Premier Recording

Grabación/ Recording: Mayo/ May 27, 28 2003; Julio/ July 2, 4, 7, 9 2003; Abril/ April 13 2004; Septiembre/ September 17 2008. Producción Ejecutiva/ Executive Producers: Gobierno del Estado de Michoacán 2002-2008, Modesto López. Producción Artística/ Artistic Production: Fernando Mariña. Producción de las Sesiones de Grabación/ Recording Sessions Production: Ernesto García de León excepto/except tracks 10, y/ and 11 producidas por/ produced by Fernando Mariña. Grabación/ Recording: Guillermo Pous. Edición/ Edition: Pablo Abelardo Mariña Montalvo y/ and Fernando Mariña. Track 12 grabado, editado y producido por/ recorded, edited, and produced by: Alejandro Contreras Koob. Masterización/ Masterization: Pablo Abelardo Mariña Montalvo. Fotografía/ Photograph: Diego Emerith. Portada/ Cover: Victor Mariña. Diseño/ Design: Héctor Santos Mtz .Revisión de Textos y Traducción/ Text Revision and Translations: Abelardo Mariña Flores. Agradecimientos/ Thanks to: Lázaro Cárdenas Batel, Gobernador de Michoacán 2002-2008, al personal que labora en la Secretaría Auxiliar del Gobernador de Michoacán y su titular Lic. Manuel García Contreras. De igual forma quiero agradecer a/ I also want to thank Roberto Medina, Edna Elorriaga, Tania Domínguez, Cuauhtémoc Rivera, Connie Gallardo Arce y Carlos Cendejas. 

Fiesta is a work that follows the way traced by Fandangos y boleros, my previous recording. It explores the diverse expressions of the Latin American guitar repertoire; in this case from Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Cuba. As in Fandangos y boleros , the authors whose music I perform in this recording are of vital importance for the comprehension of current music in their respective countries. Furthermore, their music exalts the universal guitar of our days.

Manuel M. Ponce (Fresnillo, Zacatezas-Mexico DF, Mexico; 1882-1948), composer pianist, investigator and orchestra conductor. Among his studies, we can mention the ones he undertook at the National Conservatory of  Music in Mexico, at the Musical Lyceum in Bolonia, Italy, and at the Normal School of Music in Paris, France. He is, without doubt, one of the most important composers of Mexico. His extraordinary genius led him to create a marvelous musical production mainly inspired in Mexican folklore themes. With great talent, he enriched those simple forms taking them to the concert halls of the whole world transforming them in compositions of great aesthetic value. Ponce composed for almost all instruments and his production embraces practically all musical forms: etude, prelude, fugue, mazurka, gavotte, duet, trio, quartet, a capella chorus, symphonic works, concerto for soloist and orchestra, etc.

SONATINA MERIDIONAL was written, according to the final manuscript, in December, 1930 with Andalusian style following an express petition of the Spanish Maestro and guitarist Andrés Segovia. The style of this work is markedly impressionist, reminding us of the incursions in Spanish music of authors such as Debussy and Ravel, and daring to introduce, in the last movement, a brief bitonal passage. The programmatic subtitles of the movements of this work (Campo, Copla and Fiesta) and its programmatic title (Sonatina Meridional) were conceived by Segovia at the moment of its publication in 1939.

Heitor Villa-Lobos (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; 1887-1959), composer and investigator. He also conducted orchestras when they played his music. It is said that he performed as a café musician playing violoncello, being also an occasional guitar, clarinet and piano performer. His first musical instruction was provided by his father. Later, he studied at the National Institute of Music in Rio de Janeiro , and in 1923 he continued his instruction in Paris.  His music was always very personal and idiosyncratic, nourished by the popular tradition of Brazil. He also was an excellent educator. He elaborated a complete system of musical instruction based in the rich musical culture of Brazil. Among his musical production we can mention the Bachianas Brasileiras, choros, concertos for soloist and orchestra, symphonies, orchestral works including scores for ballet, chamber music, string quartets, operas, movies, etc.

SUITE POPULAIRE BRÉSILENNE was published in 1955, although its individual parts were composed between 1906, 1908, and 1923. This work is a reflection of the author's youth when he participated in "choro" groups, playing this form of Brazilian popular music. Similar to jazz musicians who are capable of "jazzing" a spiritual canticle or a blues song, Villa-Lobos makes brushstrokes, taken from the popular street or ballroom music of Brazil, and inserts them in the dance forms of European music creating one of his most lyric guitar works.

Leo Brouwer (Havana, Cuba; 1939), composer, guitarist and conductor, has performed in the whole world. He studied guitar in Cuba with Isaac Nicola. Additionally, he studied composition and conduction at Hartford University and at Julliard Conservatory in New York. He has taught guitar master classes all over the world. He is the author of the musical scores of over one hundred Cuban movies. He has composed music for guitar, symphonic and chamber orchestra and coral music. He has composed works for the Lieja, Toronto and Volos guitar festivals, and for the London BBC, among others. He is a honorary member of UNESCO and the Arts Academy of Berlín. Also, he has been Chairman of the Havana International Guitar Festival.

TRES PIEZAS LATINOAMERICANAS were composed in 1962 inspired on themes of South American folklore. Danza del altiplano is based on the Andean tune "Viva Jujuy", Triste Argentino was elaborated from a song by the Argentinean composer Carlos Guastavino; and Tango was inspired on a piece by the also Argentinean composer Astor Piazzolla. In these pieces we can observe an ingenious harmonic and rhythmic treatment. Also to be noted are the diverse interpretation possibilities of this work, inasmuch as the author gives space and liberty to the performer writing ad Ibitum passages or inviting to improvise, as in the case of the Tango.

Ignacio Martínez Madrigal (Morelia, Michoacan , Mexico; 1975), composer and organist. He studied at Las Rosas Conservatory in Morelia, Michoacan under the guidance of Dr. Emil Awad Abed. He attended courses for composition refinement in Spain with Antón García Abril, in the National Council for the Arts in Mexico with Mario Lavista and in Brazil with José Antonio de Almeida Prado. Since 1995 he has premiered chamber and orchestral works such as "Ecos" and "Canción de la Muerte Pequeña". Recently, at the Contemporary Music Festival of Morelia the "Homenaje a Pasolini" for soprano soloist was premiered. He has collaborated with some newspapers publishing musical texts and with some magazines such as PAUTA and LA GACETA ALTERNATIVA. Nowadays, he is professor at Las Rosas Conservatory teaching theoretical and composition courses and organ professor at the Superior Institute of Sacred Music in Morelia. Also, he is organist of the Sr. San José Parish Church.

DEYÁ written in 1999 and premiered in 2001 at Buenos Aires, Argentina by Nahuel Laviola. Its two movements are of a marked briefness, on which part of its aesthetics is based, being this a constant in the composer's work. The melodic outlines and its harmonic reposes and impulses rest on an expressiveness with a tendency towards a non tonal language, without being too rough. The result is a pleasant piece whose title comes from a series of poems by the Mexican poet Jaime Sabines.

Juan Helguera (Merida, Yucatan, Mexico; 1932), guitarist, composer, and studious that documents the national and international happenings of the guitar. He is frequently invited to national and international guitar festivals. For more than three decades he has produced and conducted the program La Guitarra en el Mundo from the radio station of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Among his works, we can mention: Homenaje a Satie, Círculos, Homenaje a Silvestre Revueltas, 12 Estudios, Mangoreana, Dos Cantos a Villa-Lobos, Impresiones, De Poetas, etc.

DANZA for two guitars is a work in which the first guitar executes a clear and simple melodic line, while it receives a firm and expressive support by the second guitar, whose performance is structured in descending dissonant chords. It was written in 1973.

                                                                                                   Fernando Mariña, September, 2008     

FERNANDO MARIÑA, GUITAR (México, 1970)

He graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte of Cuba, as Licentiate in Music, under the guidance of Maestro Víctor Pellegrini. Additionally he has received classes from Maestros Carlos Guzmán, Marta Cuervo and Rey Guerra.

As a soloist he has developed an intense activity with performances in several cities of Mexico: III, IV, VII, and IX CNA (National Council for the Arts) International Guitar Festival in 2001, 2002, 2005, and 2007; I Guitar Festival of Yucatán in 2002; XXV, XXVI, XXVII, XXVIII, and XXIX International New Music Forum "Manuel Enríquez" in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007; II and V International Baroque Cervantino Festival of San Cristóbal de las Casas in 2003 and 2006; III International Festival "Guitarra sin Fronteras" of Chihuahua in 2005; V National Guitar Festival of Puebla in 2007. Outside of Mexico he has performed in Cuba (International Contemporary Music Festival in 1999, 2005, and 2007), Ecuador, Turkey (2nd. METU International Guitar Festival in 1998), Germany, Belgium, Barbados (Holder's Season in 1999), Nicaragua, Colombia (Music Week at Music School of the Valle de Cali University in 2004), and the United States of America (XIII Hispanoamerican Guitar Festival in 2006). His musical development has brought about that conductors such as Eduardo Sánchez Zúber (Mexico), Enrique Pérez Mesa (Cuba), Guido López Gavilán (Cuba), Irina Guerra Lig-Long (Cuba), Pablo Buitrago (Nicaragua), among others, constantly invite him to perform along with orchestras; particularly the Morelos Chamber Orchestra (Mexico), Matanzas Symphonic Orchestra (Cuba), "Música Eterna" Chamber Orchestra (Cuba), Nicaragua National Orchestra, and Michoacán Symphonic Orchestra (Mexico). 

He has had outstanding participations in contests; among them:

Middle Level Students Festival of the Escuela Nacional de Música of Cuba, in which he obtained a mention for the best interpretation of Cuban music (1990).                                    

First National Guitar Contest of Taxco (Mexico 1991), in which he obtained the 3rd prize.   

Second Classical Guitar Contest "Graziella Lassere de Chappard" of Guanajuato (Mexico 1991), in which he obtained the 1st prize.

Composers such as Ernesto García de León (Mexico), Juan Helguera (Mexico), Roberto Medina (Mexico), and Boris Díaz (Cuba) have written works dedicated to Fernando Mariña.

He has also developed an intense teaching activity, delivering master classes. Between 2001 and 2006 he coordinated the guitar career in the Escuela Superior de Musica (ESM) of the National Institute of Fine Arts of Mexico (INBA); in 2006 and 2007 he was academic head of the mentioned school, where he currently teaches guitar.

As a performer of chamber music he has played with the Argentinean guitarist Víctor Pellegrini, the Instituto Superior de Arte de Cuba String Quartet, the "Convivium Musicum" Choral Ensemble of Mexico, among others. From 1999 to 2005, he integrated the García de León-Mariña guitar Duo.

Since 2001, he is an exclusive artist of the Discographic company "Ediciones Pentagrama".

Discography:

-Fernando Mariña, Quintetos (Ediciones Pentagrama APCD 376). (www.pentagrama.com.mx)

-Doremi, Un encuentro con la música (independent Label): Tracks 34 and 35.

- Dúo García de León-Mariña, Los Espíritus de la Selva (Ediciones Pentagrama APCD 583). (www.pentagrama.com.mx)

- La Guitarra en el Mundo (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México): Tracks 12,13, and 14.

-Fernando Mariña, Fandangos y boleros (Ediciones Pentagrama APCD 633). (www.pentagrama.com.mx)