Inés Moreno Uncilla | OPUS V

Photo: Alejandro Gómez Lozano

“According to the musician, she has grown up in a family home that has always held an intimate connection to the old music of the Iberian peninsula. As a musician, she matches up to her historically diverse repertoire both musically and intellectually, and she has a deep understanding of each musical element of the respective works. Thus, she offers her audiences a 70-minute, unadulterated listening pleasure, and a valuable expansion of their musical horizon, which makes this CD a real trouvaille.”

klassik-heute.de

“This smartly and meticulously selected program consists of Spanish music from the 16^th through the 19^th century. Presented are famous composers as well as lesser-known artists, all with works of convincing quality. This CD with Inés Morena Uncilla offers fascinating experiences of contrast and is testament to the rich diversity of Spanish music for keyboard instruments of that era.”

jpc.de

Inés Moreno Uncilla’s burning passion for the cembalo was first ignited when she was seven years young. Out of this love has grown a successful career, and today, the Spanish musician is devoted to the cembalo’s long tradition in its many facets. This includes Spanish cembalo music from several centuries, as well as classical music. On her latest CD, Moreno has combined those discoveries with works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johann Christian Bach so that her listeners may likewise fall in love with the cembalo – and there is a good chance they will, given how rarely one can hear this music played with such amount of passion and, at the same time, sensitivity.

“I love him with all my heart and have great respect for him,” Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote about Johann Christian Bach, whom he valued greatly. And when Bach passed away in 1782, Mozart acknowledged his mentor with the words: “What a damage to the entire music world!” Mozart’s admiration for Bach was obvious, and vice versa, Bach also appreciated his student as a proponent of the so-called “sensitive style.” Inés Moreno Uncilla traces the connection between the two composers on her new CD, which she has recorded together with the Minué Ensemble. The album includes pieces by mentor and student for cembalo solo and ensemble. Meeting Johann Christian Bach, Johann Sebastian Bach’s youngest son, in London was a defining moment for young Wolfgang’s musical progress. In 1762, Johann Christian had come to the capital, a true metropolis with a pulsating music life, full of concert halls, with top-class musicians and attractive opera houses. Shortly after his arrival, he became the personal music teacher of Queen Charlotte.

Johann Christian Bach, in his time one of the most popular and well-known composers in London, warmly welcomed the Mozart family with open arms and took young Wolfgang under his wings. The passionate young musician Wolfgang must have noticed how much Johann Christian acknowledged his talent. And throughout his life, Wolfgang felt deep admiration for the successful composer. It is very likely that Wolfgang was studying the chamber music works which Johann Christian had published in London. At the end of 1764, he had composed six new sonatas for cembalo with accompaniment (flute or violin), which were dedicated to Queen Charlotte. Three of those are included on the present CD. Additionally, this album includes early concerts by Mozart which in their composition were inspired by Bach’s works.

Inés Moreno (born 1995 in Madrid) first began taking cembalo lessons when she was eight years old, at the Centro Integrado de Música Padre Antonio Soler in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, a school with a musical focus, first studying under Denise de La-Herrán and later under Jordan Fumadó. Afterwards, she moved to Switzerland to study cembalo and historical performance practice at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Inés Moreno received her Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees in musical performance with Andrea Marcon, another Master of Arts in music pedagogy with Jörg-Andreas Bötticher, and a complementary studies program in improvisation under Dirk Börner. She has been awarded first prize at the 92nd competition of the Juventudes Musicales España competition (2018); second prize at ex-aequo at the international music competition for clavicembalo “Paolo Bernadini” in Bologna (2019); the “Video Wettbewerb Musikgrüsse” award organized by the music academy Basel (2020); and the soloist prize of the tenth competition Música Antigua of Gijón in video format (2021). Moreno combines her practices of soloist and accompanist, in Spain as well as across Europe, in her work as a docent and teacher. She is a founding member of the ensemble Vivalma and member of the ensemble I Discordanti. Additionally, she collaborates with her father, José Miguel Morena, and her uncle, Emilio Moreno. Currently, she teaches cembalo at the Musikschule in Biel-Bienne (Switzerland) and performs concerts with the Minué Ensemble which she founded.

www.ines-moreno.com