Venezuelan Masters of the Fin-de-Siècle

In a controversial era of Venezuelan history, full of dramatic changes in politics, customs and lifestyles, there emerged a generation of versatile composers who, from the late 1860s until the 1910s, acted in many scenarios to meet the growing demand for sophistication in the wake of that country’s biggest and bloodiest civil war since achieving independence some forty years earlier. These composers were able to write music of all types: for the church and the theater as well as for the band and the ballroom. Together with enthusiastic entrepreneurs they founded philharmonic societies in every city that were devoted to symphonic and chamber music. On their programs these societies included, along with pieces by European masters, works by local composers who surprised their audiences by their ingenuity and originality. Curated by Dr. Juan López-Maya, we are pleased to release a number of these largely forgotten works that have been carefully edited in a practical but simple manner, with the hope of delighting those instrumentalists and vocalists who, familiar with the romantic tradition, will find in them a fresh and exotic spirit.

The Masters’ Compositions