Pedro Ipuche Riva

Pedro Ipuche Riva was born on 26 October 1924 in Montevideo (Uruguay) to the famous poet Pedro Leandro Ipuche. During his schooldays he started to study the trumpet with Vicente Ascone and received music lessons from Carlos Giucci at the Liceo Musical Franz Liszt. But Pedro Ipuche Riva was dissatisfied with his first compositions and therefore gave up music. After becoming a lawyer he worked part-time as a legal counsellor at the General Accounting Office from 1946 to 1974, but when Carlos Estrada founded the Uruguayan National Music Conservatory in 1953, Pedro Ipuche Riva took the chance to study composition. He graduated in 1962 and finished his skills with Jean Rivier and Noel Gallon at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris.

After his return to Uruguay he worked as a lecturer at the Instituto de Profesores Artigas and the National Music Conservatory becoming its director in 1974 and refounding it as Universitary Conservatory of Music. At the end of 1970 he became artistic director of the Uruguayan national broadcasting service SODRE.

The compositional style of Pedro Ipuche Riva can be divided into four sections, each characterized by a specific compositional emphasis. The "first period" shows a neo-classical style and belongs to his time in the conservatory. After his graduation Pedro Ipuche Riva became more experimental in his works, marking the "obscure period". After attending a congress about the relation between classical and popular music, he toyed with this relation and their elements starting his "clasic pop period". After his retirement in 1985 Pedro Ipuche Riva focused on composing operas, and started his "introspective period".

Pedro Ipuche Riva died on 25 December 1996.

The work "Evocación, for violin and orchestra" was composed in 1971 and is dedicated to the memory of Carlos Estrada, the founder of the Uruguayan National Music Conservatory who died in 1970. The composition was first performed in May 1972 on the ocassion of the second anniversary of the death of Carlos Estrada by Miguel Pritsch (violin), the Orquesta Sinfonica del SODRE and Mario Benzecry (conductor).

"Evocación" is the last composition of the second composition phase of Pedro Ipuche Riva, his "obscure period". The program notes of the premiere mentioned the following description:

“The work starts with a slow introduction of very dissonant chords played by “divisi” strings. Over that accompaniment the main theme appears played by the soloist instrument. An Allegro follows developing the same themes until a first dramatic culmination played by all the orchestra instruments is reached. Calm returns and we hear the main theme again fading out pianissimo.

In his “Evocation” the composer described undoubtedly the cycle accomplished by an artist, first in his ascending career, then in his apogee until the dramatic end is reached. The pianissimo at the end of the work creates the nostalgic atmosphere brought by remembrance of a life that has extinguished, however lasting…”

The work lasts around 11 minutes.

Here is the recording of the world premiere with Miguel Pritsch (violin), the Orquesta Sinfonica del SODRE and Mario Benzeecry (conductor).