Eduardo Mata

Eduardo Mata (born September 5, 1942 in Mexico City , † January 4, 1995 near Cuernavaca ) was a Mexican conductor and composer.

Life

Following private guitar lessons, Mata studied at the National Conservatory of Mexico City with Rodolfo Halffter and, from 1960, composition with Carlos Chávez and Julián Orbón . In 1964, with the help of a grant from the Koussevitzky Foundation, he went to Tanglewood / Massachusetts to take conducting lessons with Erich Leinsdorf and Max Rudolf and to continue his composition studies with Gunther Schuller . After returning to Mexico, he first became the musical director of the Ballet Clásico de México , the University Orchestra of Guadalajara and the oldest Mexican orchestra, the Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM (OFUNAM), founded in Mexico City in 1936. Mata also took on further engagements in Mexico, the USA and Europe; He was the first conductor to perform all of Gustav Mahler's symphonies in Mexico in the 1970s . In England he worked closely with the London Symphony Orchestra as Principal Guest Conductor ; in Germany he made his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1974 and conducted the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and the SWR Symphony Orchestra . From 1972 he performed regularly in the USA and was appointed Principal Conductor of the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra in 1974; From 1977 to 1993 he was chief conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra , which he shaped into one of the best orchestras in the USA and with which he went on a European tour in 1985. As a result, Mata gained the international reputation of one of the most talented conductors of his generation with both technically and musically outstanding skills. In 1976 Mata performed for the first time in Japan, and in 1987 the Sydney Symphony Orchestra selected him as Guest Conductor.

Eduardo Mata died together with his last life partner Marina Anaya in an airplane accident when his private plane, which he controlled himself, crashed on the way from Cuernavaca to Monterrey shortly after take-off due to an engine failure. He had two children from his first marriage.

Repertoire focus, discography, compositional work

Mata's discographical legacy is extensive. Mainly with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the New Philharmonia Orchestra and the Simón Bolívar Youth Symphony Orchestra, studio recordings and live recordings were made between 1968 and 1994 for the labels Dorian Recordings, EMI , Pro Arte, RCA , Telarc and Vox Recordings of works by Brazilian, French, Mexican and Spanish composers ( Villa-Lobos , Saint-Saëns , Debussy , Ravel , Chavez , Revueltas , de Falla ) as well as the 3rd Symphony by Copland , the Second Symphony by Mahler, the Carmina Burana by Orff , the Symphonic Dances by Rachmaninov , the Seventh and Ninth Symphony by Shostakovich , the Second Symphony by Sibelius and orchestral works by Strauss (tone poems Don Juan and death and Transfiguration and the Suite Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme ) and major works of Stravinsky (ballets L'oiseau de feu and Le sacre du printemps and the Symphony in Three Movements ). The pianists Joaquín Achúcarro , Emanuel Ax , Alberto Cruzprieto , Tedd Joselson , Ivan Moravec and Vladimir Viardo were Matas' artistic partners in recordings and concert recordings of piano concerts and works for piano and orchestra by Brahms , de Falla, Mozart , Orbón, Prokofiev and Rachmaninov , Ravel, Stravinsky and Schumann .

As a composer, Mata was close to twelve-tone technique and serialism and wrote three symphonies , a ballet for tape, chamber music works, a piano sonata and other piano works.

Works

• Trio for Vaughan Williams for clarinet, cello and percussion (1957)
• Piano Sonata (1960)
• Improvisation for clarinet and piano (1961)
• Symphony No. 1 'Classical' (1962)
• Dévora , ballet suite (1963)
• Symphony No. 2 'Romantic' (1963)
• The Dry Bones , ballet for tape (1963)
• Improvisation No. 1 for string quartet and piano four hands (1964)
• Aires (1964)
• Improvisation No. 2 for strings and two pianos (1965)
• Improvisation No. 3 for violin and piano (1965)
• Sonata for cello (1966)
• Symphony No. 3 (1966)

literature

• Juan Arturo Brennan: Dieciséis años. Una retrospectiva y planes para el futuro - Entrevista con Eduardo Mata . In: Pauta. Cuadernos de teoría y crítica musical . Vol. 12 (1993), No. 47/48, pp. 6-20.
• Verónica Flores: Eduardo Mata a varias voces . Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (Conaculta), Mexico City 2005. ISBN 970-35-0818-9 .
• Jaime Nualart: Eduardo Mata 1942–1995 . Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (Conaculta), Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City 1997.
• Special issue of the Quodlibet magazine (Revista de la Academia de Música del Palacio de Minería) : Eduardo Mata. 70 años , Invierno 2012–2013, Número 7. [Life history on pp. 82–90]
• Leonora Saavedra: Variación contra sinfonía. Eduardo Mata y la historia de la música en México . In: Pauta. Cuadernos de teoría y crítica musical . Vol. 16 (1998), No. 66, pp. 38-45.

Web links

• Literature by and about Eduardo Mata in the catalog of the Ibero-American Institute of Prussian Cultural Heritage, Berlin
• Works by and about Eduardo Mata in the catalog of the German National Library