Conciertos Románticos (1) Jorge Federico Osorio, Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería & Carlos Miguel Prieto

• Manuel María Ponce (1882 - 1948): Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 22, I. Allegro moderato (1):
• 1Ponce: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 22, I. Allegro moderato (1)07:58
• Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 22, II. Andante (1):
• 2Ponce: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 22, II. Andante (1)08:34
• Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 22 III. Polonaise: Allegro (1):
• 3Ponce: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 22 III. Polonaise: Allegro (1)07:27
• Berceuse Op. 36, No. 1 (1)
• 4Ponce: Berceuse Op. 36, No. 1 (1)03:45
• Canto de amor (1):
• 5Ponce: Canto de amor (1)06:30
• Plainte Op. 38, No. 2 (1)
• 6Ponce: Plainte Op. 38, No. 2 (1)03:10
• Piano Concerto No. 1 "Romantico," Allegro Appassionato — (1)
• 7Ponce: Piano Concerto No. 1 "Romantico," Allegro Appassionato — (1)06:45
• Piano Concerto No. 1 "Romantico," Andantino amoroso — (1):
• 8Ponce: Piano Concerto No. 1 "Romantico," Andantino amoroso — (1)11:14
• Piano Concerto No. 1 "Romantico," Finale: Allegro (1):
• 9Ponce: Piano Concerto No. 1 "Romantico," Finale: Allegro (1)04:52
• Arrulladora mexicana (1):
• 10Ponce: Arrulladora mexicana (1)03:39
• Gavota (1):
• 11Ponce: Gavota (1)04:14
• Romanza de amor (1):
• 12Ponce: Romanza de amor (1)03:34
• Intermezzo (1):
• 13Ponce: Intermezzo (1)02:36
• Total Runtime01:14:18

Info for Conciertos Románticos (1)

Celebrated Mexican-born pianist Jorge Federico Osorio, “one of the most elegant and accomplished pianists on the planet” (Los Angeles Times) performs Romantic-era concertos and solo pieces by Mexican composers Ricardo Castro and Manuel María Ponce.

A recipient of the prestigious Medalla Bellas Artes, the highest honor granted by Mexico’s National Institute of Fine Arts, Osorio is joined for the concertos by Mexican conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto, Musical America’s 2019 Conductor of the Year, and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería.

The works on this recording exemplify the highest point of the romantic musical language in vogue in Mexico at the end of the 19th century, which later initiated the musical Nationalist movement brought on by the Mexican Revolution.

Both Castro and Ponce made significant contributions to the development of classical music in Mexico, and their music reflects a synthesis of Mexican and European traditions, with influences from Chopin, Liszt, and Debussy.

Castro’s Piano Concerto in A minor exemplifies true romanticism with lavish and spectacular orchestral lines. Serving as companion pieces to the concerto, Osorio performs three of Castro’s charming and expressive solo works: Berceuse, Canto de amor, and Plainte.

Ponce’s Piano Concerto No. 1 “Romantico” simultaneously exhibits themes of great brilliance for the soloist, lyricism, introspection, virtuosity and beauty. Osorio also performs four of Ponce’s short solo piano pieces including one of his most popular works, Gavota, which captures the romantic nostalgia of Mexican society before the Revolution.

Conciertos Románticos is Osorio’s ninth recording for Cedille following his highly acclaimed The French Album, Final Thoughts – The Last Piano Works of Schubert & Brahms, Russian Recital, Carlos Chávez Piano Concerto, Salón Mexicano, an entire disc devoted to music of Ponce, a 2-CD set of Debussy and Liszt, and Piano Español.

Conciertos Románticos is produced by the Grammy-winning team of James Ginsburg (producer) and Bill Maylone (engineer). The concertos were recorded August 1 and 8, 2022 at the Sala Nezahualcóyotl in Mexico City (Bogdan Zawistowski, session director); the solo works were recorded November 11, 2022, at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago.

Jorge Federico Osorio, piano
Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería
Carlos Miguel Prieto, conductor

Jorge Federico Osorio
Recipient of the prestigious Medalla Bellas Artes, the highest honor granted by Mexico’s National Institute of Fine Arts, Jorge Federico Osorio has been lauded throughout the world for his superb musicianship, powerful technique, vibrant imagination, and deep passion. He has performed with many of the world’s leading ensembles, including the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Fort Worth, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Seattle, and the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico; the Israel, Warsaw, and Royal Philharmonics; RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra (Dublin), Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai (Torino), São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (OSESP), Moscow State Orchestra, Orchestre Nationale de France, Philharmonia Orchestra, and the Concertgebouw Orchestra. He has collaborated with such distinguished conductors as Marin Alsop, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, James Conlon, Bernard Haitink, Manfred Honeck, Mariss Jansons, Lorin Maazel, Ken-David Masur, Juanjo Mena, Jorge Mester, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Robert Spano, Klaus Tennstedt, and Jaap van Zweden, among many others. His concert tours have taken him to Asia, North, Central and South America, and Europe, where he has performed in Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Dublin, Düsseldorf, Leipzig, Stuttgart, and Torino.

Osorio has given recitals recently in Los Angeles (The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts); Mexico City and Xalapa, Mexico; Aix en Provence, France; Highland Park, Illinois (Ravinia Festival); San José, Costa Rica; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Other recitals during the past few seasons have taken place in Berkeley, California (Cal Performances), Boston, and Chicago, where he has appeared on Symphony Center’s distinguished Piano Series on four separate occasions. He has also given two recitals in New York City at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, both of which were highly acclaimed by Allan Kozinn of The New York Times. North American festival appearances have included the Hollywood Bowl, Mainly Mozart, Bard, Newport, Grant Park, and Ravinia, where he performed all five Beethoven Concerti with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Conlon in two consecutive evenings.

A prolific recording artist, Osorio has documented a wide variety of repertoire, including a solo Brahms CD that Gramophone proclaimed “one of the most distinguished discs of Brahms’ piano music in recent years.” Orchestral recordings include Beethoven’s five Piano Concertos and Choral Fantasy; both Brahms Concertos; and concertos by Chávez, Mozart, Ponce, Rachmaninov, Ravel, Rodrigo, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, and Weinberg. Osorio’s acclaimed solo recordings on Cedille Records include Final Thoughts – The Last Piano Works of Schubert & Brahms; Russian Recital with compositions by Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich; Salón Mexicano, comprising music of Mexican composers Manuel M. Ponce, Felipe Villanueva, Ricardo Castro, and José Rolon; an entire disc devoted to music of Ponce; a 2-CD set of Debussy and Liszt; and Piano Español, a collection of works by Albéniz, Falla, Granados, and Soler that received glowing reviews internationally and marked Osorio as one of the world’s great interpreters of Spanish piano music. In addition to Cedille, Osorio’s recorded work may be found on the Artek, ASV, CBS, EMI, IMP, and Naxos labels.

An avid chamber music performer, Osorio has served as artistic director of the Brahms Chamber Music Festival in Mexico; performed in a piano trio with violinist Mayumi Fujikawa and cellist Richard Markson; and collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma, Ani Kavafian, Elmar Oliveira, Henryk Szeryng, and the Pacifica and Moscow Quartets. He began studying the piano at the age of five with his mother, Luz María Puente, and later attended the conservatories of Mexico, Paris, and Moscow, where he worked with Bernard Flavigny, Monique Haas, and Jacob Milstein. He also studied with Nadia Reisenberg and Wilhelm Kempff. Highly revered in his native Mexico, Osorio resides in the Chicagoland area.

This album contains no booklet.