{"product_id":"rodolfo-ritter-manuel-ponce-piano-music-vol-1-compact-discs","title":"Rodolfo Ritter: Manuel Ponce: Piano Music, Vol. 1 - COMPACT DISCS","description":"\u003cb\u003eTitle: \u003c\/b\u003eManuel Ponce: Piano Music, Vol. 1\u003cbr\u003e\n                                         \u003cb\u003eArtist: \u003c\/b\u003eRodolfo Ritter\u003cbr\u003e\n                                         \u003cb\u003eLabel: \u003c\/b\u003ePiano Classics\u003cbr\u003e\n                                         \u003cb\u003eProduct Type: \u003c\/b\u003eCOMPACT DISCS\u003cbr\u003e\n                                         \u003cb\u003eUPC: \u003c\/b\u003e5063758103671\u003cbr\u003e\n                                         \u003cb\u003eGenre: \u003c\/b\u003eClassical Artists\u003cbr\u003e\n                                         \u003cb\u003eRelease Date: \u003c\/b\u003e2026-05-01\u003cbr\u003e\n                                         \u003cb\u003eNumber of Discs: \u003c\/b\u003e1\u003cbr\u003e\n                                         \n                                         \u003cbr\u003e\n                                         \n                                         \n                                         While Rodolfo Ritter's repertoire encompasses many well-known and unfamiliar composers, he has made a speciality of Ponce's piano music. He recorded the two piano concertos (for Sterling) in 2013, as well as several solo pieces. Now, for Piano Classics, he embarks on a new adventure, which should win new friends everywhere for an idiom full of charm and optimism, essentially Romantic in spirit and piquantly coloured by the composer's Mexican heritage. A social and cultural revolution followed on the heels of Mexico's political revolution of 1910-1917, as a once largely rural nation became, within a matter of years, predominantly urban. Born in 1882, Manuel Ponce in some ways embodied the outward-facing spirit of that revolution, as the country's first internationally renowned composer of European-style art music ('classical'), and yet in the nostalgia-soaked language of that music evoked a romanticized past. This is the tension explored by Rodolfo Ritter as he begins a multi-volume journey through Ponce's piano output - only the second pianist to do so on record. Ponce was something of a child prodigy, already accomplished and cultivated as both a pianist and composer before he entered the national conservatoire in 1901. Take the dance for the left hand titled Malgre tout, which Ponce was inspired to write in 1900 as a homage to the sculpture of the same name by Jesús F. Contreras - a resonant depiction of a chained and defenceless woman who, \"despite everything\", looks up with hope (not so oblique as a politically charged metaphor). Earlier still is the bel-canto style lyricism of the Misterio doloroso (1899). Another pivotal work for the left hand dates from a full quarter-century later, the Prelude and Fugue which Ponce wrote in Paris while under the tutelage of Paul Dukas. No less schooled by an earlier period of study in Europe, as a pupil of Martin Krause in Berlin, comes the Variations on a Theme by Handel (1906). In the interim, Ponce channelled this classical technique through the melodies and rhythms of his home country in pieces such as the Rapsodia Mexicana No. 1 of 1911.Volume 1 of Rodolfo Ritter's survey contains all these and many more exciting discoveries. As a Mexican pianist, teacher and scholar of German heritage, Rodolfo Ritter is ideally placed to guide us through such unfamiliar territory.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTracks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Rodolfo Ritter","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42683187757127,"sku":"45972096","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2976\/0132\/files\/4491414-3523944.jpg?v=1775731750","url":"https:\/\/tower.com\/products\/rodolfo-ritter-manuel-ponce-piano-music-vol-1-compact-discs","provider":"Tower Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}