Pablo
Sorozábal

Sorozábal’s artisan family moved from the Basque countryside to SanSebastián a few years before Pablo’s birth on September 18th 1897.He was something of a child prodigy on piano and violin, earning his living incinemas, cafés and fairgrounds, and playing with the SanSebastián Casino Orchestra under the influentialFernándezArbós. He always regretted having lost his ability to speak theBasque language: "because of the pressures of life and a centralised governmentpolicy we were forced to forget our language. I am ashamed of this and stillhope, even if only at the end, to speak my dying words in the same language Iused to express my first feelings"

In 1919 he moved to Madrid, joining the Madrid Symphony Orchestrawhich performed hisCapricho español (1920). His distinctivemusical personality was forged by study in Leipzig; and in Berlin, where hepreferredFriedrick Koch as composition teacher toSchöenberg, whose theories he disliked. It was in Germany that hemade his conducting debut, and the rostrum remained at the centre of hisworking life.

His Leipzig concert works include the choralSuite vasca(1923);Dos apuntes Vascos (1925) andSymphonic Variations on aBasque Theme (1927); theSieteLieder, 1929 settings of Heine for mezzo-soprano and orchestra, areperhaps the finest works he produced in Germany. The ballet suiteVictoriana (1951); and the powerful Funeral MarchGernika forchorus and orchestra (1966) date from his later Madrid days. Two short butpowerful compositions for chorus and orchestra,Maite (‘OurLady’, from the 1946 filmJai-Alai) and¡Ay, tierravasca! (1956) retain their place in the hearts of his countrymen.

Katiuska (1931) was hisextraordinarily assured stage debut. The twenty or so works which followed hisoperettaLa isla de las perlas and the one-actópera chica(opera-zarzuela)Adiós a labohemia (both 1933) combine lyric fire and inimitable orchestrationwith an unfailing sense of theatre. Best-loved are his classic madrileñocomedyLa del manojo de rosas (1934) andthe “nautical romance” set on the Atlantic CoastLa tabernera del puerto of 1936.

Sorozábal’s liberal sympathies left him somewhatisolated after the Civil War, and many of his later zarzuelas were first seenoutside the capital or in less prestigious Madrid theatres. They include theambitious, allegorical romanceBlack, elpayaso (1942), the ski-sports musicalDon Manolito (1943),La eternacanción (1945),Los burladores (1948, a version of the DonJuan story) andEntre Sevilla yTriana (1950).

His tenure as director of the Madrid Symphony Orchestra endedabruptly in 1952 when he was refused permission to conductShostakovich’sLeningrad Symphony; and though his musicalcomedyLas de Caín was premiered at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in1958, the operaJuan José still awaits stage performance after aproduction was suspended there during rehearsals in 1979. With his death inMadrid on 26th December 1988 the last chapter in the creative history of theromantic zarzuela came to an end.

Sorozábal remains the most controversial of the greatzarzuela composers, adored by manyaficionados but leaving others cold.Although his style is eclectic, exhibiting a range of influences from Debussyand Puccini through to Kalman, Gershwin and the Hollywood musical, the fusionof these disparate musical elements is very much his own. The acerbic bite andalmost shocking pugnacity of his best work can justly be compared to KurtWeill’s in Germany, but Sorozábal’s theatrical vitality andmusical wit are second to none.