The Palau de la Música of Valencia will appoint the professors as honorary conductors of the Valencia Orchestra Manuel Galduf and Enrique Garcia Asensio during the concert that will take place this Friday, at 7:30 p.m., in the Iturbi room of the auditorium, as reported by the city hall in a press release.
The City Council highlighted the “tribute to the two Valencian musicians” thus carried out and stressed that the Councilor for Culture and President of the Palace of MusicJosé Luis Moreno will present them with a diploma and a commemorative plaque.
“We want to recognize the special bond between two Valencian directors of prestige and teaching. By Manuel Galduf and Enrique García Asensio, the two members of the Valencia Orchestra who form essential part of the history of our symphonic training and the Palau de la Música,” Moreno said.
For this tribute, the two professors will once again take to the stage in the main hall of this musical hall. Each of them will conduct the orchestra in a part of the programme planned for the aforementioned concert, composed of masterpieces of the 20th century.
In the first part, Galduf will conduct the overture to Roman Carnival by the French composer Hector Berlioz and the Háry János suite by Zoltán Kodály, while after the break, García Asensio chose Suite No. 1 from Manuel de Falla’s Tricorne and the Firebird Suite by Igor Stravinsky.
The director of the Palau de la Música, Vicente Llimerá, said that “personally and for many years” he had “the good fortune to work as a musician with these two great masters”, while affirming that “as a music lover” he could “enjoy your mastery” He highlighted the moments when it made him “vibrate and move.”
Galduf
Manuel Galduf conducted the Valencia Orchestra of 1983 to 1997 and he conducted it 370 times, including 170 at the city’s Palau de la Musique, the City Hall said. He also said he took conducting lessons from Wangheneim, then from Markevitch, whose assistant director and favorite student he was.
During his career he has also been conductor of the Instrumental Group and musical and pedagogical director of the Young Orchestra of the Generalitat Valenciana. He has also been invited by the main Spanish orchestras and has conducted numerous orchestras in Europe, Asia and America.
Galduf has collaborated with prominent national and international soloists; he has conducted opera titles and symphonic works from the Baroque to the 20th century with special attention to Valencian composers such as Palau, Asensio, Llácer Pla, Chavarri, Garcés, Blanes, Blanquer, Díaz, Cano, Orts, Mira, Gálvez Taroncher, Valero. , García, Fontcuberta, Navarro or Coll.
Garcia Asensio
For his part, Enrique García Asensio was at the head of the Municipal Orchestra of Valencia (1964-66) and 31 years old Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestra Valencia, which he conducted 163 times, including 89 at the Palau.
He is a corresponding professor of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos de Valencia and Favorite son from the Valencian capital. During his career he conducted “practically all the orchestras in Spain and was assistant to Maestro Celibidache.”
In 1967 he won first prize and was awarded the gold medal at the Dimitri Mitropoulos International Conducting Competition in New York. In addition, he won the prize for best conductor of the Madrid opera season at the Teatro de la Zarzuela and received the Mozart interpretation prize. He is the 1992 National Music Award.
Added to this is his time in the world of television, where he developed “an interesting educational task” and presented the TVE program El Mundo de la Música, from 1976 to 1980.
