It is the Spanish Anne-Sophie Mutter. One of those rare cases of a violin prodigy who, at the age of 14 or 15, already displayed a disarming interpretative maturity. If Herbert von Karajan was in charge of discovering the renowned German violinist almost half a century ago, today it is the very young María Dueñas (Granada, 2002), winner of the Yehudi Menuhin 2021 prize, who has been launched into the world by teachers such as Manfred Honeck , with whom she has just recorded Beethoven's Violin Concerto (as an exclusive figure of Deutsche Grammophon), or Gustavo Dudamel, who even arranged for her to write a concerto for her.
The young Spanish music revelation receives this Thursday a well-deserved Princess of Girona Award for Arts and Letters from the King and Queen and Princess Leonor, which recognizes not only her executive excellence and her great emotional connection with the public, but also his discipline.
It will take place near Girona, the city in whose auditorium he made his debut in 2018, at the age of 15, when he barely had a repertoire to give a full concert. The room's programmer, Víctor García de Gomar, already saw in it a promise for the future of the violin in Spain. And in the world! A soul capable of expressing everything that at her early age it is impossible to have experienced. A virtuoso who makes music look easy. And it is not.
“I feel that he is innovating, impregnating the music with a very new personality. I predict a terrifying future for him”, Gabriela Ortiz assures La Vanguardia. The Mexican composer has written her first violin concerto for her, this Morisco chilango (because of its mix of Andalusian and Chicano air) that the Granada-born will bring on a tour of Europe with Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic (Palau de la Música Catalana, on 28 May 2024). "I've seen her performing on tour, making her Carnegie Hall debut and so on, and she's striking: she has an uncanny confidence, an uncanny maturity, and an intriguing passion for her music and her instrument."
"It is also a brutal discipline," he explains. He used to go to bed early, he rehearsed at such an hour... Have you seen Mexico City yet?, he would ask her. It's that I have to study, he told me. She is the youngest performer I have ever written for. Gustavo did not hesitate, he knew that he would make it perfect. He had no experience with contemporary music, but I heard her playing Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole... and I almost died!"
Her artistic temperament allows María Dueñas to combine her rise to stardom with her studies in Vienna, where she lives with her family –her two younger sisters also play string instruments–, trying to lead a normal life... "That seems fine to me." I lead a double life of giving concerts and, on the other hand, being a normal student who attends class and exams. I never rehearse the same thing every day, it's important to get in touch with other fields of music: chamber music, history of music... And well, I love playing sports with my sisters, I love swimming, and I also love reading. María Dueñas, the novelist? Yes, she interested me in The Time Between the Seams, although I don't know her personally.
The violinist attends La Vanguardia online from Pittsburgh where the lucky audience will hear her in that Symphonie Espagnole to which she brings all those nuances that the work requires. "Since Lalo was inspired by Sarasate, there is a lot of inspiration in our culture, he represents me a lot as an artist ... although I think I have already made it clear that I can play much more than Spanish music."
Indeed, María Dueñas plays all the styles. In full youth she is versatile, she cannot be pigeonholed. She is not the typical debutante repeating Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Mozart's five concertos. No, she records Beethoven, like Mutter did in her early days. Without further ado, Pablo Sarasate, Joan Manén –who played with Richard Strauss–, Pau Casals, Narciso Yepes (on guitar) or Nicanor Zabaleta (on harp) have become part of the historic string phenomenon in Spain. And currently, the mastery of Quartet Casals or Quiroga. But her references have been the foreign geniuses of the last generations: David Oistrakh, Jascha Heifetz, Yehudi Menuhin...
“I grew up listening to these recordings,” he says, “and it strikes me that each one has a very unique sound. I would know if it is this or that one that is playing, and that is something that I also want to achieve with my violin, to have a unique sound that differentiates me from other musicians”.
The 2021 edition of the Yehudi Menuhin Award held in Richmond, Virginia was exceptional. It took place online because of the pandemic, so Maria had to imagine that she was performing in front of the public. "Because the result is very different," she warns. “It was a great emotion to win. It is the contest that I have always followed since I was little. I would see the participants and say to myself: I wish I would play like that one day. It has meant a lot. And the fact that it was online has allowed it to spread all over the world”.
This exceptional artist is not daunted by the challenges and pitfalls that life throws at her. “You have to outdo yourself day by day. I have always been a curious person and eager to go further. I have faced everything in a very positive way, without fear: I go to what I propose. You have to fight for what you want on the front line, ”she says with as much sweetness as determination.
Receiving this award from the Princess of Girona Foundation is a responsibility for him, he explains. Well, in addition to talent, it recognizes values of discipline and work capacity that are an inspiring model for youth. “The public does not see all the work that is behind the scenes, they only see the half hour that the concert lasts and they do not know the hours you spend with the violin and other fields of music, because you have to know a lot about the composers, etc. . This is a very essential and important value that must be transmitted to children who want to start with the violin”, adds Dueñas.
He also hopes that it will serve to give music greater visibility, “that in our country it is valued as such, because unfortunately it is still seen as a hobby. I would like to send that message to other musicians who want to start: it doesn't matter where you come from or if you are not from a family of musicians to make your way in this world”.
The decision to play the violin was in his own case. Her parents are not musicians but, after the courses at the Granada Conservatory, they did not hesitate to move the whole family first to Germany, to Dresden, and then to Vienna, so that María could study with Boris Kuschnir. The three sisters share the passion. Sometimes they play together. “I have written some works and I have made some arrangements for all three”, affirms María. Oh, and learning the waltz in Vienna she has discovered ballroom dancing. "I love dancing, it is very typical there and it is practiced a lot among the youth."
However, not all his world revolves around the classical. She is also a lover of pop, or "old generation" pop, with her own voice... like Sinatra's, Whitney Houston's, Céline Dion's. And she listens to them on vinyl, she confesses. Which pop artist would she collaborate with? "With Whitney Houston, but she'd have a hard time, she's not with us anymore, and honestly, the living don't appeal to me."
This force of nature also stands out as a composer. A facet that she makes clear in the cadences that she writes for the concerts that she performs. Like Beethoven's, no less... and completely naturally. As if she were a colleague. “Well, not a colleague, obviously. For me it was important to contribute one more voice, that extra that the public has not yet heard. The main thing is to preserve the essence of Beethoven, that it can be recognized and that it is his style. I do an extensive analysis of the work, I see which themes are the most important and which he uses very often and, on that basis, I add my own ideas”.
Gabriela Ortiz herself has detected great inventiveness in María, watching her create her own cadence for Morisco chilango. “Each time she adds something new, taking the score further, communicating with the audience in a very special way,” she notes. “And in the composition process you didn't have to explain anything to her... her proposals always improved the piece. A real learning"
And what is it like to work with Dudamel?, we asked the interpreter. “I was surprised that he is a very good person. The human quality should be at the forefront because when you are on stage the important thing is the connection with the public. I feel like people understand a lot about who I am as a person when I'm on stage. Making music is a very honest way of describing himself."
