Mario
Ros Vidal was born in Barcelona in 1963. He studied composition
with C.Capdeville and C. Guinovart. In 1993 he became a member of
the Associació Catalana de Compositors. In 1994 he obtained
the Honor Prize in Superior Grade in the Superior Music Conservatory
of Barcelona. Chamber music is particularly prominent in his output,
from solo instrumental works to songs for solo voice and instrumental
ensemble.
He has been commissioned by the Juan March Foundation, the Associació
Catalana de Compositors and various interpreters. Particularly noteworthy
are his El sueño de un extraño for piano, violin and
cello (1996), the Second String Quartet (1995), Sequence for flute
(1991) and the Quintet per a l'avenir for flute, clarinet, violin,
cello and piano (1994). His most extensive work to date is the cantata
An(Dante) ne la Vita Nuova (1992-93), on texts from Dante Alighieri,
for narrator, baritone and orchestra. A devoted serialist, he made
a profound study of the works of Webern and Pierre Boulez and has
published articles and lectured on the subject. From 1993 to 1996
he taught accompanying and orchestration at the Superior Music Conservatory
of Barcelona.
To find out more about Ros, visit the website www.accompositors.com/ros/ros.html
In a note accompanying the score of El sueño de un extraño
(A Strange Man's Dream), Mario Ros Vidal writes: "El sueño
de un extraño is a work conceived from a rather particular
perspective as a trio. In reality, during the approximately 17 minutes
of music, there are few instances in which the three instruments accompany
each other in the traditional sense of the term. Each player develops,
as the basic material of his part, several thematic elements unique
to and characteristic of his instrument. The enigmatic chords played
by the piano at the opening, which might symbolize the beginning of
the ‘dream,' immediately encounter support from the strings,
until this union of the three instruments is interrupted by the piano
alone. Then, a lengthy cadenza by the cello—nearly three minutes
long—takes over the dominant role heretofore played by the piano.
The initial ‘battle' has been won. An ecstatic ‘molto
calmo' invades the sonic landscape. In the midst of a slow succession
of harmonies the violin gradually becomes the protagonist. Sonic images
already heard (or dreamed) seem to reappear and impose themselves
on the musical discourse. The dream already dreamed has returned,
although inevitably we recognize that, even though this is the same
dream, all is not equal. One suspects that the simple repetition floods
the original dream with new tensions. Images reemerge charged with
new energy until the tension breaks in a new section marked ‘molto
calmo.' Ecstatic and surely more distant. It may well be the last
moment of rest for the unconscious, before we grasp, during the accumulation
of sonic images piled up by memory and time, that our dream was in
reality A Strange Man's Dream."
