Compañía Nacional de Danza

Bilbao, 1806 – París, 1826

Bilbao composer (Bilbao, 1806 – Paris, 1826); considered the greatest Iberian exponent of late musical Classicism.
He was born into a family with a musical background, since his maternal grandfather, Miguel Balzola, had already been an organist and piano builder. Also his father, Juan Simón de Arriaga, played the organ in Berriatua (Bizkaia), before working as a “first letters” teacher in Gernika. This pedagogical work was awarded by the Royal Basque Society of Friends of the Country in 1792 and 1793, an unequivocal sign of its affinity with the Enlightenment project. In 1804 Juan Simón moved to Bilbao to take up a position as a notary, and there he would also prosper as a merchant and shipowner. Apparently, another son of his, Ramón Prudencio, was equally skilled guitarist and violinist.

The details of the early training of Juan Crisóstomo, who grew up between Somera and Ronda streets in the Casco Viejo, are unknown. In addition to the foreseeable paternal influence, he is supposed to be a student of Fausto Sanz, violinist in the Basilica of Santiago. According to all indications, his musical talent must have stood out from a very young age in halls and local philharmonic meetings. At the age of eleven he composed a triplet known as Nada y mucho (converted into an octet a century later), before signing his Overture for nonet, from 1818, as “Opus 1”. A year later he worked on The Happy Slaves (1819), semi-serious opera based on a text by Francisco Comella, of which only its overture remains complete. During this stage he also wrote some liberal patriotic hymns and marches along with instrumental pieces for strings or piano, as well as a Stabat Mater (c. 1821), possibly destined for the Bilbao musical chapel.

Encouraged by the praise of personalities such as José Sobejano, chapel master in Bilbao, the tenor Manuel García and the violinist Francesco Maria Vaccari, he moved to Paris in 1821. There he would study official studies in Harmony and Counterpoint with François-Joseph Fétis, and violin with Pierre Baillot. In 1823, after obtaining 2nd Prize in the annual Counterpoint and Fugue competition of the Conservatory, he was appointed assistant in Fétis’ classes. A year later, the editor Ph. Petit published his three String Quartets, highly appreciated by his teacher. His production expanded with the development of a Symphony “for large orchestra”, new religious works (his missing Fugue at 8 on a phrase from the Creed was described, apparently, as a “masterpiece” by the director of the Conservatory, Luigi Cherubini). , and several cantatas and secular arias. In Paris he also reviewed some of his Bilbao creations and became friends with the Riojan pianist Pedro Albéniz.