CARMEN LINARES AWARDED SPAIN'S NATIONAL MUSIC PRIZE FOR 2001

The singer shares the distinction with avant-garde composer Mauricio Sotelo

Silvia Calado Olivo

'Locura de Brisa y Trino' revalidated. If last year it was Manolo Sanlúcar who was awarded the 'Premio Nacional de Música' [national music prize], in this edition it was the singer Carmen Linares who received the distinction from the Instituto Nacional de las Artes Escénicas y de la Música [national institute of dramatic arts and music], a branch of the Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte [education, culture and sports ministry]. In the specialty of composition, the prize went to Mauricio Sotelo, an avant-garde musician who, far from disdaining flamenco musical forms, has created symphonies to which not only Carmen Linares, but also Enrique Morente, Esperanza Fernández, Eva Durán, Marina Heredía and Arcángel have lent their voices.

Carmen Linares (Photo: Anahí Carmody)

Once again flamenco rises to the highest point of Spanish music. The Instituto Nacional de las Artes Escénicas y de la Música has awarded the cantaora from Jaén, Carmen Linares (Linares, 1951), the 'Premio Nacional de la Música 2001', in the specialty of interpretation. With this distinction the jury recognizes, as stated in the official announcement, "her dedication and contributions to a flamenco of high content and artistic quality, with permanent activity in widening interpretive horizons".

And this can be seen as much in her discographic work such as 'Carmen Linares en antología, la mujer en el cante', 'Cantaora' or 'La luna en el río', as in her live recordings among which the most noteworthy is her performance at Lincoln Center together with New York's Philharmonic Orchestra, her interpretations of creations by Manuel de Falla together with Rafael Frühbeck and Josep Pons, or her participation in a concert in honor of the tenor Plácido Domingo in Washington. A career which is also studded with earlier awards such as 'Premio de la Academia Francesa', the 'Medalla de Plata de la Junta de Andalucía', or the 'Ícaro de la Música'.

The prize rounds out the musical recognition of the record 'Locura de Brisa y Trino', fruit of the musical collaboration between Carmen Linares and the guitarist Manolo Sanlúcar, the latter who was the winner of the 'Premio Nacional de Música 2000', and as such was a member of this year's jury. A joint venture which Sanlúcar justifies in the record's accompanying booklet pointing out "I didn't want to compose for cante differently than for the guitar, but how would a voice react to this strange new style? Long before I had already promised Carmen a composition, and here was the opportunity. From the very first moment I was aware of the challenge this represented for her. And she threw herself into it with religious fervor, like someone who must learn the oracle of a new religion. Any sort of difficulty provoked her enthusiasm".

Carmen Linares (Photo: Anahí Carmody)

Flamenco at the symphonic forefront

The winner of the 'Premio Nacional de Música 2001' for composition, without actually being flamenco, is not foreign to this art either. And so the jury abstractly acknowledges upon recognizing in Mauricio Sotelo (Madrid, 1961) "the strength and poetry of his compositional work, his international projection and his integration with other artistic and literary manifestations". In all of his work the avant-garde musician has shown the results of having studied the musical forms of flamenco.

The first experience was in 'Tenebrae Responsoria', a work which premiered in 1993 with the collaboration of the singer from Granada, Enrique Morente. Carmen Linares herself, and the singer from Seville Esperanza Fernández were the next voices that Sotelo borrowed from cante jondo for his symphonic projects. By 1999 he was already wrapped up in his most ambitious work, the opera 'De Amore' which debuted in the German city of Munich with the singers Eva Durán and Marina Heredia. The most recent collaboration was with the singer from Huelva Arcángel with whom he premiered his most recent work 'Si después de morir' last October in Madrid after winning the Premio de Composición Reina Sofía.

Translation: Estela Zatania