Juan Pedro Esnaola

He began musical training as a child, under his uncle, the priest José Antonio Picasarri (1769–1843), chapel master at the cathedral of Buenos Aires.

[2] Picasarri and Esnaola could return to Buenos Aires on 29 June 1822 thanks to an amnesty law that Governor Martín Rodríguez issued on that year.

He managed to weather the storm probably by composing anthems in praise of Rosas (1841-1843); yet there is no evidence that Esnaola ever belonged to the latter's party, nor he served any significant administrative positions.

Esnaola did attend regularly the salon of Rosas's daughter, Manuelita, in Palermo, to whom he dedicated a string of songs and dances, and who may have interceded for his release.

[5] After Rosas was overthrown and went into exile with his family (1852), Esnaola occupied several official positions, including the administration of the Serenos (night watchmen), the direction of the provincial mint, the presidency of the bourgeois Club del Progreso (1858), and that of the Bank of the Province of Buenos Aires (1866).

[7] Esnaola cultivated most of the living genres in the Buenos Aires of his days, in a personal style based upon Mozart, Haydn, and Rossini, but that gradually incorporated Romantic influences.

[8] He re-orchestrated for local performance several large-scale compositions that were available only in piano-vocal scores, including Rossini's opera Otello (1827)[9] and Haydn's oratorio The Creation (1845).

[10] Piano dances that often assume the intimate and elaborate qualities of instrumental miniatures were the main object of his attention during the 1840s, including minuets, waltzes, and polkas.

Alcorta-Esnaola-Alberdi-Gianneo-Turina-Gomes-De Falla-Gilardi-Bragato, Camerata Bariloche, dirigida por Elias Khayat, Profonar SRL/Star Music - CB101 - (1995) CD Selected songs in 2 volumes: