Rodolfo Perez - The Scholarly Romantic
By: Brad Conroy
Mexican born guitarist Rodolfo Perez Berelleza is not only a world class performer, but he is also a researcher who has dedicated himself to the further understanding and development of Manuel Maria Ponce’s life and music, all in addition to being a record producer with his own label where he is able to bring his many avenues together. Rodolfo Perez believes that furthering the knowledge and development of Ponce’s music and life to be very important for his country, and he can arguably be considered one of the foremost scholars and ambassadors of the subject too.
Through his research work at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, his international concerts, and with his record label AdLib, Perez has produced some of the finest interpretations, recordings, and critical editions of Ponce’s music.
In addition to his teaching, performing, and research responsibilities, Perez is also the Artistic Director of the Culiacan International Guitar Festival, which is going into its twentieth year and brings some of the best names in classical guitar, as well as competitors from around the world to the Pacific Northwest of Mexico.
Rodolfo Perez recently sat down with us to discuss his role in researching the music of Manuel Ponce, the Sonata Mexicana, his close relationship with Julio Cesar Olivia, the Culiacan Guitar Festival, and more.
Rodolfo Perez Berelleza
Brad: How do you make a living as a guitarist?
Rodolfo Perez: My profession consists of three ways of doing work, or three ways to do my profession. One is teaching guitar at the Instituto Sinaloense de Cultura , where I have five students working toward a bachelor degree. I also teach a class on research and advise students who are working on their thesis. I give about ten concerts per year, and I am a producer for my own record label.
Another thing that I am doing is researching the music of Manuel Ponce, in some cases under the coordination of Paolo Mello in the Proyecto Editorial Manuel M. Ponce at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. We are working to make critical editions within this project that include the publication of original manuscripts for guitar, piano, and orchestra. An example of one such work is the Cuarteto Mediterraneo, a Quintet for guitar and string quartet. We are also researching the last work that Ponce composed, a set of six variations and a fughetta which most people know as being based on a theme by Antonio de Cabezón, but in the critical edition (that will be available during the first half of the year) we reveal who the actual author of this medieval theme is, and the edition will also include a detailed history of this work as well
Brad: What inspired you to become so involved with the research aspect of music?
Rodolfo Perez: When I was finishing my bachelor´s degree, I found a manuscript by Ponce about an unpublished work. I started to learn the piece and form its history based on anecdotes that I found in the manuscript. I took this information to the director of the Proyecto Editorial Manuel M. Ponce of the UNAM School of Music (where I was studying) and he was very interested in what I had found, motivating me to continue in my analysis. I think this really inspired me to want to fully understand the music I am playing.
Brad: How important is Ponce’s music for Mexico?
Rodolfo Perez: His music is very important, and he is an extremely important figure for both professional musicians and the people of Mexico. According to me, Ponce is one of the few composers in the history of music that composed both simple songs of popular taste as well as the great symphonic works in the complex avant-garde language that he lived. In his catalog are classic works; concertos, sonatas, piano music and guitar music that are loved around the world, but he also wrote popular music for the taste of the simplest people. Songs of love and heartbreak inspired by his own words in the soul of the people who laugh and suffer. Then, he not only wrote music for professional musicians, he also composed very simple music for people, and that is why in the minds of Mexicans, Manuel Ponce is very dear and still in force.
Brad: What is it about Ponce’s music that you connect with so well?
Rodolfo Perez: This is a very interesting question. At the time of my career, when I found his music, I immediately connected with him. It's hard to put into words what I feel when I play Ponce, but it's definitely different from playing the music of other composers. It is difficult for me to describe even in Spanish. It awakens in me a feeling that I only perceive when I play his work, it is as if the feelings that Ponce expresses in his music were the same as I have; My feelings are written in his music. Especially in his guitar and orchestra music, but not as much as in his piano works. Ponce was a virtuoso pianist and wrote differently for that instrument than for the guitar. There are deep emotions in his music that no other music seems to reach in me.
Brad: Don’t you think that he composed his guitar music at the piano?
Rodolfo Perez: I don’t think so. When he is writing for the piano, I think he is playing the piano. Last week we were just talking about this with a conductor, and we were saying that Ponce at the piano, looks like his playing in writing, and when he writes for the guitar, we think that he really makes an intellectual work. Ponce never played the guitar, and his writing for the two instruments is much different. His piano music seems to be improvisational, and composed at the piano and then written down, where his guitar music is much more high level and intellectual.
Brad: With the Sonata Mexicana, you change the forms and add a few different passages than in the published score.
Rodolfo Perez: There are three versions that we know of for this work; the published score, the recording of Segovia, and a manuscript of Segovia, which he didn’t even record the piece the way he has written down. There are some small differences between each of these versions, and in my own recording, I used ideas from each of the three versions. After studying this work further over the past few years, I am playing it differently now in my concerts than in my recorded version, and we are now working to publish a critical edition of this work in the coming year.
Brad: Do you think Ponce was disappointed that Segovia made these edits to his works?
Rodolfo Perez: Maybe, I don’t know. We have some letters that Ponce wrote, but we also lost many of the correspondence because of the civil war in Spain, but we have a few letters where Ponce wrote to Segovia where it looks like he isn’t agreeing with some of the changes. I remember a funny anecdote that I heard from one of his biographers; Corazon Otero or Emilio Díaz Cervantes, saying that Ponce suggested to Segovia something along the lines:
“Andres, you must study some harmony.”
Little quotes like this sound like Ponce maybe didn’t agree with all of Segovia’s changes. For example, I am working on the Concerto Del Sur at the moment, and I have a manuscript that is much different than the edition of Segovia. There are scale passages that never were there before, and he wrote some very beautiful tremolo sections that Segovia erased and changed. I think in the end he assumed that he could live with some of Segovia’s changes, Ponce knew that he needed Segovia to bring his music around the world. Segovia could have also changed things because the concert or recording was very close, and he needed to make certain parts easier, or that his musical tastes were much different than what Ponce had written, but I also think that the main ideas within the music between the two are even.
Brad: Your interpretation of the Sonata has a more refined sound, where Segovia’s interpretation captures more folk elements of the music
Rodolfo Perez: The Sonata Mexicana does make use of some Mexican folk song themes and rhythms. Like the opening movement is based on the Guanajuato Christmas song, El Nino Salve, and the third movement makes use of the Vamos a tomar atole (Mexican hat dance), but also is a reference to Debussy’s Serenade Interrompue. So, this music incorporates folk tradition with a more post romantic and impressionistic tradition as well. I find that when I play it, I try to highlight and make use of both traditions.
Rodolfo Perez Berelleza
Brad: Why did you chose to study the classical guitar
Rodolfo Perez: Here in the Pacific Northwest of Mexico there is no professional school of music, and so when I was in High School, I was playing popular Mexican music, but also loved to play the Beatles music. In High School I was thinking that I would like to be a Doctor, or a Psychologist.
Brad: Sounds like you made the wrong career choice! (laughs)
Rodolfo Perez: (Laughs) Then I began to study administration and finance in university, and in my second year I went to a concert; “From Bach to the Beatles.” I had never heard the music of Bach, but I really liked it, and he was playing the classical guitar. The performer of the concert was speaking in between pieces and at one point he mentioned that he studied at the conservatory in Mexico, and I thought to myself that this is what I wanted to do too, except I was in my second year of finance. While I was finishing my finance degree I began to study with the guitarist who gave the concert. I eventually went on to Mexico City where I studied at the national school of music, but it was this concert that inspired me to pursue the classical guitar.
Brad: How did you become involved with recording and producing?
Rodolfo Perez: I started to make recordings while I was studying in Mexico City. I used to use the concert hall late at night just to make recordings for myself. I remember that when I was recording my first CD with Norbert Kraft, who was such a kind and inspirational person for me. He told me that just like me, when he first started out, he was just making recordings for himself. He gave me some tips that helped take my recordings to the next level. Norbert really motivated me and the first professional recording I produced was XXV Cuadros Mágicos (25 Magic Paintings), the music of Julio Cesar Olivia, which was inspired by the paintings of Fernando Pereznieto. Little by little I’ve been able refine my sound, and over the past few years more and more guitarists have become interested in recording with me. I really like the whole process of recording and have started my own label, Adlib Music. This is our sixth year, and two years ago we won a Latin Grammy with a recording that included the Sonata El Decameron Negro by Leo Brouwer. Currently we are working toward recording the complete guitar works of Manuel Maria Ponce.
Brad: Why is it that recording is so hard for the performer?
Rodolfo Perez: I think because we are always wanting to play perfectly. This can be very risky because most of our attention is then on the technique, and not on the expression. I remember recording a very good guitarist, and he told me that if there is a little mistake, but the expressive content is there, to just leave it. Julio Cesar Olivia during the 25 Magic Paintings recordings, he made the recording of one of the pieces in six takes, and he eventually said; “Okay, no more. If I do any more takes, I will not play it expressively.”
Brad: What is your relationship with Julio Cesar Olivia?
Rodolfo Perez: It is a very close relationship. We are very close friends, and he is almost like a musical father for me. When I was in Mexico City for school, he lived very close by and I would play for him quite often. He said that he loved how I played his works, and he really helped me to refine my playing and interpretation. Julio has written many works for me, and in the coming year I will present a new CD which will feature his Love Concerto that he has written for guitar and string orchestra. My plans are to always play the music of Julio Cesar Olivia in my programs. He writes very romantic music, music from a period where the guitar didn’t have very many composers, and Olivia’s music represents this era for me.
Brad: Is he still playing?
Rodolfo Perez: Yes, he is still playing very well, and Olivia is a person like his music. If you know him, he is a like a person straight out of the 19th century. He is dressed like a romantic, his hair is in such a way, and in Mexico we give nicknames to everything, his nickname is Dulce Cesar Oliva, which means that he is a very sweet person, like a candy.
Brad: Can you tell us about the Culiacan Guitar Festival and Competition?
Rodolfo Perez: Yes, this coming year we will be celebrating twenty years of the festival. When we first started the festival, we didn’t have anything, and we now have a school of music which offers many degrees, and because of the festival the public interest in the classical guitar has grown quite a bit, and this is something that we are very proud of. The festival will take place in the first week of March 2020, and there will be concerts, lectures, masterclasses, and a competition which attracts performers from all around the world.
Brad: What are your thoughts on the Classical Guitar in 2020?
Rodolfo Perez: I think that the classical guitar has been growing quite a bit over the past few years. I remember when I was first starting out, there were barely any festivals, opportunities to perform, or even that many concerts to attend. I remember the few times that I was able to see one of the giants of the classical guitar world, just being so impressed by their level of play. Today, there are many guitarists, so many festivals, and the level of play of the young generation is so high that I cannot note a big difference technically between their playing and that of the leading performers twenty years ago.
I think that the distance between the very highest level of playing between the high-level student and the professional is much shorter than it was twenty years ago. At the Culiacan Festival I am sometimes surprised that a few students who performed in the masterclasses were playing better than some of the professionals giving a concert. I think it is good that there are so many good guitarists, and all around the world performing, and performing in different schools of guitar and musical thought. No matter what your musical tastes are, there is inevitably a performer who will speak directly to them. I really like in Italy a school of music with Paolo Pegoraro. He has a real fineness to his interpretations and I like how he plays, but this is my taste. The Cuban school of music has a lot of wonderful things and ways of playing music, and of course the Mexican school of music I just love. I think it is a very big movement that is growing in some new directions.
Brad: What can we look forward to in 2020?
Rodolfo Perez: I am finishing up my latest recording which will feature the Love Concerto by Julio Cesar Olivia, and will also include the Concertino Mexicano by Ramón Noble, and another brand-new work; Concertino de Culiacan by Simone Ianarelli, whiich is a dedication to twenty years of the Culiacan Guitar Festival. I will also be putting together a tour celebrating the 80th anniversary of Ponce’s Concerto Del Sur. There is a lot of work to be done and many exciting things to look forward to in the coming year.