Joaquín Turina - The Circus, Op. 68

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Description

“El Circo” (“The Circus”) for piano is a suite of pieces by 20th century Spanish composer Joaquín Turina completed in 1931. The suite contains six movements, each programmatically describing the fare provided by a circus.

Throughout the suite, the Fanfare movement theme reappears frequently. After the opening fanfare with all its blazing trumpets and suspenseful drum rolls, various performers take the stage and entertain the audience with their tricks: some pin jugglers take the stage, followed by an unsaddled equestrian performing acrobatics on horseback, then comes a dainty little dog who obeys its trainer, trailed by some fearsome clowns (contrasting with Julius Fučík’s “Entry of the Gladiators”, Turina’s “Clowns” subjectively seems to be music written for clowns but sounding closer to a gladiator battle rather than the other way around; or, one may interpret the scene as a lion chasing a bunch of clowns too), and finally some trapeze gymnasts flying and dancing through the air.

The pieces are intermediate level and are often played by older children and young adults. Similar to a substantial part of Turina’s catalogue, the movements in “The Circus” are inspired by the Impressionist movement, specifically by famous artists like Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.


Date: 1931
Catalogue: Op. 68
Order:
Table of Contents: 0:00
No. 1 - Fanfare: 0:08
No. 2 - Jugglers: 1:35
No. 3 - The Bareback Rider: 3:05
No. 4 - The Trained Dog: 4:52
No. 5 - Clowns: 6:10
No. 6 - The Aerialists: 7:31


Performer: Richard Gresko on piano

Note: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes.