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Piano Classics

Manuel Ponce: Piano Music, Vol. 1

$19.99

Details

Composer
Manuel Maria Ponce
Artist
Rodolfo Ritter
Format
CD
Label
Piano Classics
Released
Apr 30, 2026
Catalog #
PCL10367
UPC
5063758103671

About

While Rodolfo Ritter's repertoire encompasses many well-known and unfamiliar composers, he has made a speciality of Ponce's piano music. He recorded the two piano concertos (for Sterling) in 2013, as well as several solo pieces. Now, for Piano Classics, he embarks on a new adventure, which should win new friends everywhere for an idiom full of charm and optimism, essentially Romantic in spirit and piquantly coloured by the composer's Mexican heritage. A social and cultural revolution followed on the heels of Mexico's political revolution of 1910-1917, as a once largely rural nation became, within a matter of years, predominantly urban. Born in 1882, Manuel Ponce in some ways embodied the outward-facing spirit of that revolution, as the country's first internationally renowned composer of European-style art music ('classical'), and yet in the nostalgia-soaked language of that music evoked a romanticized past. This is the tension explored by Rodolfo Ritter as he begins a multi-volume journey through Ponce's piano output - only the second pianist to do so on record. Ponce was something of a child prodigy, already accomplished and cultivated as both a pianist and composer before he entered the national conservatoire in 1901. Take the dance for the left hand titled Malgre tout, which Ponce was inspired to write in 1900 as a homage to the sculpture of the same name by Jesús F. Contreras - a resonant depiction of a chained and defenceless woman who, "despite everything", looks up with hope (not so oblique as a politically charged metaphor). Earlier still is the bel-canto style lyricism of the Misterio doloroso (1899). Another pivotal work for the left hand dates from a full quarter-century later, the Prelude and Fugue which Ponce wrote in Paris while under the tutelage of Paul Dukas. No less schooled by an earlier period of study in Europe, as a pupil of Martin Krause in Berlin, comes the Variations on a Theme by Handel (1906). In the interim, Ponce channelled this classical technique through the melodies and rhythms of his home country in pieces such as the Rapsodia Mexicana No. 1 of 1911. Volume 1 of Rodolfo Ritter's survey contains all these and many more exciting discoveries. As a Mexican pianist, teacher and scholar of German heritage, Rodolfo Ritter is ideally placed to guide us through such unfamiliar territory.

Tracklist 18 tracks

  1. 1 Rapsodia mexicana I 07:04
    Track
    1
    Title
    Rapsodia mexicana I
    Duration
    07:04
    Composer
    Manuel María Ponce
    Performer
    Rodolfo Ritter
  2. 2 Preludio y fuga sobre un tema de Handel 05:39
    Track
    2
    Title
    Preludio y fuga sobre un tema de Handel
    Duration
    05:39
    Composer
    Manuel María Ponce
    Performer
    Rodolfo Ritter
  3. 3 Tema variado mexicano 03:09
    Track
    3
    Title
    Tema variado mexicano
    Duration
    03:09
    Composer
    Manuel María Ponce
    Performer
    Rodolfo Ritter
  4. 4 Gavota y mussette 03:38
    Track
    4
    Title
    Gavota y mussette
    Duration
    03:38
    Composer
    Manuel María Ponce
    Performer
    Rodolfo Ritter
  5. 5 Preludios encadenados 06:35
    Track
    5
    Title
    Preludios encadenados
    Duration
    06:35
    Composer
    Manuel María Ponce
    Performer
    Rodolfo Ritter
  6. 6 Scherzino (Homenaje a Debussy) 03:02
    Track
    6
    Title
    Scherzino (Homenaje a Debussy)
    Duration
    03:02
    Composer
    Manuel María Ponce
    Performer
    Rodolfo Ritter
  7. 7 Scherzino mexicano 01:57
    Track
    7
    Title
    Scherzino mexicano
    Duration
    01:57
    Composer
    Manuel María Ponce
    Performer
    Rodolfo Ritter
  8. 8 Scherzino maya 00:52
    Track
    8
    Title
    Scherzino maya
    Duration
    00:52
    Composer
    Manuel María Ponce
    Performer
    Rodolfo Ritter
  9. 9 Canto maya 01:00
    Track
    9
    Title
    Canto maya
    Duration
    01:00
    Composer
    Manuel María Ponce
    Performer
    Rodolfo Ritter
  10. 10 Preludio y fuga para la mano izquierdo sola (Prelude and Fugue for the Left Hand Alone) 04:24
    Track
    10
    Title
    Preludio y fuga para la mano izquierdo sola (Prelude and Fugue for the Left Hand Alone)
    Duration
    04:24
    Composer
    Manuel María Ponce
    Performer
    Rodolfo Ritter
  11. 11 Gavota (version for piano) 03:48
    Track
    11
    Title
    Gavota (version for piano)
    Duration
    03:48
    Composer
    Manuel María Ponce
    Performer
    Rodolfo Ritter
  12. 12 Misterio doloroso 00:53
    Track
    12
    Title
    Misterio doloroso
    Duration
    00:53
    Composer
    Manuel María Ponce
    Performer
    Rodolfo Ritter
  13. 13 Danza para la mano izquierda sola (Dance for the Left Hand), "Malgré Tout" (In Spite of Everything) 03:23
    Track
    13
    Title
    Danza para la mano izquierda sola (Dance for the Left Hand), "Malgré Tout" (In Spite of Everything)
    Duration
    03:23
    Composer
    Manuel María Ponce
    Performer
    Rodolfo Ritter
  14. 14 Apasionadamente 03:20
    Track
    14
    Title
    Apasionadamente
    Duration
    03:20
    Composer
    Manuel María Ponce
    Performer
    Rodolfo Ritter
  15. 15 Marcha fúnebre 01:02
    Track
    15
    Title
    Marcha fúnebre
    Duration
    01:02
    Composer
    Manuel María Ponce
    Performer
    Rodolfo Ritter
  16. 16 Momento doloroso 01:53
    Track
    16
    Title
    Momento doloroso
    Duration
    01:53
    Composer
    Manuel María Ponce
    Performer
    Rodolfo Ritter
  17. 17 Arrulladora mexicana, "La Rancherita" 02:39
    Track
    17
    Title
    Arrulladora mexicana, "La Rancherita"
    Duration
    02:39
    Composer
    Manuel María Ponce
    Performer
    Rodolfo Ritter
  18. 18 Leyenda 05:11
    Track
    18
    Title
    Leyenda
    Duration
    05:11
    Composer
    Manuel María Ponce
    Performer
    Rodolfo Ritter