Miguel Ángel Gómez Martínez, one of the great Spanish pioneers, died

2024-08-05 10:57:32

Monday, August 5, 2024, 12:34 | Update 12:57h.

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Mourning in Spanish music due to the sudden and unexpected death of Miguel Ángel Gómez Martínez, one of our great leaders. The director and producer died suddenly in Malaga last Sunday afternoon at the age of 74. He died in the Santa Elena Hospital after being admitted to the hospital without a definitive diagnosis but with a fatal outcome.

Considered one of the most outstanding Spanish conductors, he has a long and successful career that has led him to play great musicians around the world for more than five years. The owner of a prodigious memory that allowed him to always perform without a score, he was also a composer of symphonies, operas and plays.

Born in Granada in 1949 into a family of musicians, his hobby led him to pick up the baton for the first time at the age of seven and obtain the title of piano teacher at the conservatory of the city of Alhambra at the age of 13. He learned the piano, violin and composition in his hometown, in Madrid and in America, and performing in Vienna, as a famous student of Hans Swarowsky. He received the Distinguished Service Award from the Australian Academy of Sciences and was the youngest graduate in the institution’s history, a position he maintained until his death.

Debut

He made his debut as a conductor in 1973 in Austria, and in 1975 in Spain, at the Granada Music and Dance Festival, which led him to a brilliant career. Between 1976 and 1982 he was the conductor of the Vienna State Opera, of which he was a permanent guest conductor.

Gómez Martínez presents the RTVE concert season 2017-2018.

RTVE

In 1984 he became the chief conductor of the RTVE Orchestra, where he remained until 1987, when he took over the musical direction of the Teatro de la Zarzuela. He was then the conductor of the Euskadi Orchestra (1889-1993) and the Valencia Orchestra (1997-2004). He was also general music director of Mannheim (1990-1993), and artistic and musical director of the New Finnish Opera Helsinki (1993-1996). Also owner of the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra (1992-2000), general director of Music of the Bern Theater (2000-2004) and musical director of the Bayreuth Easter Festival Orchestra.

In addition to his activities as a choir director, he developed his role as a singer. Among his works are ‘Symphony of Discovery’, composed on the occasion of the Fifth Anniversary of the arrival of the Spanish to America, ‘Symphony of Water’, ‘Five tributes in Four Movements’ (Symphony No. 3), ‘A Spanish Requiem ‘, the opera ‘Atallah’, various concertos for piano, violin, flute, and various chamber works.

His staff led the most legendary symphony and philharmonic orchestras, such as Vienna, Berlin, London, and Hamburg. Also those of Bamberg, Bern, Helsinki, Houston, Warsaw, Denver, Mannheim, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Osaka, Oslo, Budapest or Yomiuri; the royal orchestras of London and Copenhagen, those of the Bayreuth Easter Festival and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Gewandhaus (Leipzig), Bruckner (Linz), Staatskapelle Dresden, Suisse Romande, Mo Cameristi de La Scala (Milan), English Chamber Orchestra, the orchestras of opera houses of Paris, Rome, Teatro San Carlo (Naples), Teatro Massimo (Palermo), Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), La Fenice (Venice), the orchestras of Bavarian Radio, Cologne, Berlin, Holland or Copenhagen.

An ever-smiling conductor from Granada who travels the world with his baton.

EFE

It is called by major opera houses: Deutsche Oper in Berlin, opera houses Vienna, Munich, Hamburg, Zurich, Paris, Rome, Budapest, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Convent Garden (London), Grand Theater (Geneva), Houston Grand Opera, Lyric Opera (Chicago), Teatro Comunale (Florence), la Fenice (Venice), Teatro San Carlo (Naples), Teatro alla Scala (Milan), Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), Teatro Real (Madrid), Gran Teatre del Liceu ( Barcelona) and Teatro Wielki (Warsaw), among others. He performed in Berlin, Vienna, Munich, Macerata, Granada, Santander, San Sebastián, Peralada, Savonlinna, Helsinki, Salzburg, Enescu Bucharest, Bayreuth Easter Festival and Warsaw Beethoven Festivals.

The Gómez-Martínez International Foundation created with his wife, Alessandra Ruiz-Zúñiga Macías, will undertake the future work of maintaining and disseminating his musical legacy.

“The death of Granada maestro Miguel Ángel Gómez Martínez leaves a deep absence in Andalusian music,” lamented the Minister of Culture and Sport of the Government of Andalusia, Patricia del Pozo, in his account on the X network, where the City Council of Granada joined the an expression of sadness, remembering that he is “Gold Medalist of the City and a reference for culture.”

Among his many recognitions are the Medal of Honor from the cities of Bonn, Madrid, Munich, Hamburg, Bern, Mannheim and Houston and from the State of Bavaria. Also the Commendation of the Order of the City, granted by the King of Spain. He also received distinctions for his recordings for Decca, Orfeo, RCA, Bongiovanni, Teldec, Sony, Dabringhaus and Grimm, Naxos, Hispavox and Ondine labels.

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