Concierto del Sur

• Ponce composed his Concierto del Sur (Concerto of the South) in 1940 for Andrès Segovia.¹

“Large or small, they are, all of them, pure and beautiful.”

Segovia, on Manuel Ponce’s compositions for guitar.²

• Ponce traveled to Montevideo, Uruguay in 1941 to conduct this concerto’s premiere, performed by Segovia.³ 
• Manuel Ponce was very well received in Urugauy. While he was there, in addition to presented concerts with Segovia, attended a gathering of the Society of Authors and Composers of Uruguay, and he also gave a lecture on the history of Latin-American music.⁴

“Yesterday in the SODRE, before a large audience, the Mexican composer Manuel Ponce gave a lecture, as announced, on the development of the art of music in his country. He began with the Aztecs and all pre-Hispanic music, down to our own day, in the course of his interesting lecture. One can say, then, that yesterday we were present at a worthy expression of Latin-Americanism.”

La Mañana (Montevideo, Sept. 21, 1941)⁵

“God be thanked, enormous success last night. I cannot remember how often I had to go out and thank the audience. The public was delirious. You will see from the newspaper accounts what a reception they gave my music …  

You can imagine how many people came to congratulate us – myself and Andres – after the concert; ministers, diplomats, musicians, journalists, etc., etc. The President of the Republic was present … 

… A warm embrace for the girls and a thousand kisses for you from Manuel the Composer.”

Manuel Ponce, letter to his wife, Clerna Ponce (Montevideo, October 5, 1941)⁶

1. Graham Wade, liner notes to Joaquin Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez et al, Junhong Kuang, Czech Chamber Philharmonic, Orchestra Pardubice, Darrell Ang, Naxos 8.579053, CD, 2020. 
2. Quoted in Ibid.
3. Ricardo Miranda Pérez, “Ponce (Cuéllar), Manuel” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed July 28, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000022072. 
4. Corazón Otero, Manuel M. Ponce and the Guitar (Westport, CT: The Bold Strummer, 1994), 68.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid., 68-69.