Ernesto Halffter Escriche

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Ernesto Halffter Escriche (born January 16, 1905 in Madrid ; † July 5, 1989 there ) was a Spanish composer and conductor.

biography

Halffter came from a Spanish family of musicians and was the younger brother of the later composer Rodolfo Halffter . His father Ernesto Halffter Hein was a jeweler and came from Königsberg , his mother Rosario Escriche Erradón from Catalonia . Ernestos and Rodolfo's nephew Cristóbal is also a well-known composer and conductor today.

Initiated by their mother, Ernesto and Rodolfo learned to make music as children. As a teenager, Ernesto began composing piano pieces, including "Crepúsculos" in 1920.

The fact that in 1923 the music critic Adolfo Salazar sent the composer Manuel de Falla a copy of Halffter's score of “Hommages, Petite Suite pour Trio” (1922), a long-term friendship developed between De Falla and Halffter. Halffter also received composition lessons from De Falla. Like his brother Rodolfo, Ernesto belonged to the "Grupo de los Ocho" ( German : Group of Eight ) in Madrid, which belonged to the Generación del 27 . In 1924 he was appointed head of the Orquesta Bética de Sevilla by Manuel de Falla .

Ernesto Halffter's breakthrough came in 1925 with “ Sinfonietta ”, one of his early works and one of his best known. For the composition he was awarded the Spanish National Prize for Music for the first time as well as a scholarship for a study visit to Paris . In Paris, Maurice Ravel had a strong influence on his compositional work. On his return he married the Portuguese pianist Alice Cámara Santos in 1928 . In 1932, in addition to the composition of “Sonata per pianoforte”, he conducted several concerts at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires , in Lima and Havana . In 1934 he became director at the Conservatory of Seville and in 1936 he received a scholarship from the Graf von Cartagena Foundation of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando to Lisbon , where he composed the opera “La muerte de Carmen”. His son Manuel was born in Lisbon in 1938 , who received his first name in honor of his friend De Falla. "Rapsodia Portuguesa", written in 1940 for piano and orchestra, was strongly influenced by French impressionism and Portuguese folklore. In 1942 he became an associate professor at the Instituto Español in Lisbon . After De Falla's death in 1946, Ernesto Halffter completed his unfinished cantata “Atlántida” between 1957 and 1962. Halffter refused the award. In 1971 he became a member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. In honor of his friend Dalí , he wrote his "Homenaje a Salvador Dalí" in 1974 and in 1988 the "Homenaje a tres Compositores españoles" for Federico Mompou , Joaquín Turina and his brother Rodolfo.

Halffter wrote a large number of other important compositions and has received several awards.

Awards

Filmography (selection)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Halffter Escriche, Ernesto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish composer and conductor
DATE OF BIRTH January 16, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Madrid
DATE OF DEATH 5th July 1989
Place of death Madrid