Encantamiento - Music of Daniel Catan

Daniel CATAN (1949-2011)

Encantamiento: Music of Daniel Catán

Encantamiento for flute and harp (1)

Antonieta Songs (2)

Mariposa de Obsidiana (3)

Escúcharme from Florencia en el Amazonas (4)

Salpy Kerkonian, flute (1)

Andrea Puente-Catán, harp (1)

Cynthia Clayton, soprano (2)(3)(4)

Cecilia Duarte, mezzo-soprano (2)

Hector Vásquez, baritone (2) 

Joel Love, piano (2)

Texas Music Festival Orchestra and Chorus (3)(4)

Franz Anton Krager, conductor (3)(4)

The esteemed Mexican/American composer Daniel Catán (1949-2011) is best known for his opera Florencia en el Amazonas, which was premiered by the Houston Grand Opera in 1996. His first opera, Rappaccini's Daughter, was the first opera by a Mexican composer to be premiered in the United States. Catán enjoyed an international career and is probably best known for his operas and works for voice, for which he had a special affinity. This recording includes one of the arias from Florencia as well as a work for flute and harp; the Antonieta Songs, and Mariposa de Obsidiana, a work for voice, orchestra and chorus, based on a prose-poem by Octavio Paz. The performers include Cynthia Clayton, who has performed with the New York City Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Ft. Worth Opera and many others. She is on the faculty at the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston. Clayton is joined by Mexican mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte; flutist Salpy Kerkonian; harpist Andre Puente- Catán; baritone Hector Vásquez and the Texas Music Festival Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Franz Anton Krager.

"…The longest work by far on the disc is Mariposa de Obsidiana, written to a prose poem by Octavio Paz…This is where one really realizes the stature of Catan as a composer. The text encompasses a wide range of emotions, including sensuality and violent images of Nature. The orchestral contribution is masterly: Catan requires great intensity to be prolonged over a near half-hour span, and here under Franz Anton Krager's baton it never drops…The pacing of the work over the long scale is masterly, the chorus a vital, and magnificent, part of the final stages.…Warmly recommended." (Fanfare)