The subject of this article is the Colombian conductor Alejandro Posada. The inclusion of this conductor in the series “Our conductors” is a special case because Posada is the principal guest conductor of the Orquesta de Castilla y León, an ensemble that has itself worked closely on several occasions with the Cadaqués Orchestra in different concerts and on various recordings for the Tritó label, such as those we present today: two albums well worth listening to, among other reasons thanks to the eminent soloists who play on each one, the flutist Clara Andrada and the violinist Ara Malikian.

Alejandro Posada has been principal guest conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León since 2002 – you can see the details of his extensive career on his web page – and has done important artistic work for many years all over Europe and Latin America. He has conducted more than sixty orchestras in over twenty countries. In Europe he has conducted a long list of ensembles including the Belgrade Philharmonic, Sarajevo Philharmonic and Chamber Orchestra, Lower Austria Symphony Orchestra, Pro-Arte, the Vienna Residenzorchester, Szeged Symphony Orchestra from Hungary, the Vienna Mozart and the Mitteldeutsche Kammerphilharmonie (Berlin). Elsewhere, he has conducted ensembles such as the Washington and the Taiwan symphony orchestras and the major orchestras of Central and South America, where in addition to having conducted all the Colombian orchestras he collaborates frequently with the Simon Bolivar (Venezuela), Orquestas Sinfónicas Nacional and Concepción (Chile), the Orquestra de Costa Rica, the Nacional from El Salvador, and many others.

In Spain he has conducted important symphonic ensembles on numerous occasions. These include the Sinfónica de Galicia, Sinfónica de Tenerife, Filarmónica de Gran Canaria, Nacional de España, the Ciudad de Barcelona y Nacional de Cataluña,  the Sinfónica de Madrid and, as mentioned above, the Orquesta de Castilla y León.

One of the recordings made by Alejandro Posada for Tritó is the CD titled “Spanish Romantic Violin Concertos“, with pieces by Bretón and Monasterio performed by the brilliant and prestigious Lebanese violinist Ara Malikian. This CD is part of a project that Malikian himself initiated in conjunction with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León to revive and record concertos for violin and orchestra by Spanish composers. By the way, this recording is specially recommended by the reviews Audioclásica and Scherzo

The second recording has resulted in one of the most sold CDs in the Tritó shop: the flute concertos by Arturo Márquez, Xavier Montsalvatge and Joan Albert Amargós, performed by the flutist Clara Andrada. Each of these works has its own story: Montsalvatge’s concerto was composed for the current conductor of the Cadaqués Orchestra Javier Martín, Amargós adapted the original version of his concerto for recorder to the transverse flute, specially for Clara, and the piece by Márquez was a contribution suggested by Alejandro Posada himself. You can read a review in Spanish of this CD here.

• Listen to audio samples from the violín concertos conducted by Alejandro Posada
• Listen to audio samples from the flute concertos conducted by Alejandro Posada