Five Miniatures / Joaquín Turina (arr J. Krance)

Joaquín Turina Pérez was born in Seville. His music is characterized by a strong Spanish flavor contained within traditional compositional forms. After initial studies in Seville and Madrid, he spent nine years studying in Paris from 1905. It was in Paris that Turina became friends with Manuel de Falla who encouraged him to use traditional Spanish music in his work. At the start of World War I, he returned to Spain to work as a composer, teacher and critic, and was appointed as Professor of Composition at the Royal Conservatory in Madrid in 1931.

The Five Miniatures (1930) are arranged from a set of eight Miniaturas, Op. 52, for piano. The work, particularly the orchestrated version by Krance, reflects Turina’s background in and penchant for impressionism, which he learned while in Paris. Each movement is vividly evocative of its name, easily capturing the imagination with varied colors and textures.

Recorded live in concert by the Metropolitan Wind Symphony, Avi Mehta, Guest Conductor, in Lexington MA, on March 4, 2018.