Ponces Concierto del sur

The story of the 1941 premiere in Montevideo

by John Patykula

he great Mexican composer Manuel M. Ponce (18821948) began the earliest sketches of his guitar concerto
in 1926 in Paris. Although the Italian Mario CastelnuovoTedesco (1895-1968) was the first major composer to actually
produce a guitar concerto in the twentieth century, Ponces
Concierto del sur was finally completed in 1941, the premiere
taking place on October 4 in Montevideo with Andrs Segovia
as soloist. Why did it take so long for Ponces guitar concerto
to be completed? In many of his letters to Ponce, Segovia
brings up the progress of the concerto: How is the concerto
going? Have you worked on it? (1928); And my concerto,
how is it? (1929); Are you continuing with the concerto?
When will we be able to work on it? (1930).

In a December, 1929, letter, Segovia even enticed Ponce

with the opportunity to have his guitar concerto premiered in
Barcelona with the great cellist Pablo Casals as the conductor.
Segovia wrote,
I was with Casals, whom I told you were writing a concerto for guitar and small orchestra for me, and immediately
he asked me to reserve the premiere for his orchestra in
Barcelona, which I so promised, with supreme pleasure,
naturally. I told him that it should be worked up for next
fall, and that I would send him the score as soon as you
have finished it.

The Orquestra Pau Casals, established in 1919, was considered one of the finest orchestras in Europe, with Casals as its
principal conductor. Casals made it a point to include works
of contemporary composers. The orchestra also attracted the
worlds finest soloists and guest conductors. Unfortunately,
the orchestra disbanded in 1936 at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Any possibility of having Ponces concerto
premiered in Spain under Casals baton vanished.
Segovia would later explain why Ponce delayed completing his concerto for guitar.
From the spring of 1926 the principal themes of this work
were germinating in his (Ponces) spirit, but the circumstances of my errant life, which separated us for long years,
prevented him from continuing it and bringing it to a finish.
It must be admitted that this delay was also due in part to
a certain skepticism in both of us. We feared that the tenuous and expressive sound of the guitar would be swallowed
up by the orchestra, or that its delicate and poetic timbres
would fade before the sonorous mass, like small lanterns of
the night before the invasion of day.

Manuel Mara Ponce

In 1937, Segovia left Spain to escape the ravages of the

Spanish Civil War. He relocated to Montevideo, Uruguay.
While bringing a high level of sophistication to the guitar
community and concert scene of the Rio de la Plata, he continued to maintain some level of touring in Europe for the
next two years. In 1939, Castelnuovo-Tedesco completed
his guitar concerto. Segovia had initially hoped to have this
new work premiered in London by the BBC Orchestra in a
Soundboard, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 1