A symphonic panorama: renovation in repertoire at the Phil

            In recent weeks there has been a good deal of renovation in our symphonic concerts. We heard some interesting and valuable music either in premiere or in long-delayed revival. Enrique Arturo Diemecke conducted two concerts with his Buenos Aires Philharmonic at the Colón and both brought welcome novelty.

             What mattered on September 12 was the opportunity to hear again Carl Nielsen´s Flute Concerto. I was present when Gerardo Levy premiered it back in 1979 with the Phil conducted by John Carewe, and I have long treasured a vinyl disk with both that piece and the same composer´s Clarinet Concerto as played by  respectively Julius Baker and Stanley Drucker, first desks of the New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein.

            Written in 1926 when Nielsen was 60, this 19-minute score in two movements is mischievous and innovative. Rather than traditional form what we have is a mosaic of episodes that give full play to the flute´s brilliance but oppose it to the orchestra at various moments, particularly an obstreperous trombone, and all the time playing with the limits of tonality. It was very well played by Claudio Barile, who has a wide palette of sound at his disposal, and accompanied with sagacity by Diemecke.

            The rest of the concert was well-known though welcome material: the "Escenas argentinas" by Carlos López Buchardo, his solitary symphonic work composed in 1920, much liked by Weingartner who even did it here with the Vienna Philharmonic; and Dvorák´s most joyful symphony, the Eighth.  There were some blemishes (horn fluffs and  stridency) but the proper spirit was there in both cases.

            I particularly welcome the concert on Seprtember 19 for it was fully given over to South-American music. Again conducted by Diemecke with his fabulous memory and very solid technical equipment,  he was at his best and got astonishing results from a BA Phil in top shape in all sections, though the music was particularly demanding for the percussionists, who had a field night.

            I do feel that "Kalamary" (premiere) was a poor choice. We practically ignore all about Colombian classical composers, and I do hope there is better stuff than this paraphrase of melodies by Lucho Bermúdez as arranged by Wolfano Alejandro Tobar. I found it noisy and trivial.

            But the revival of Alberto Ginastera´s "Popol Vuh" soon compensated. For this score, who had an admirable antecedent in his "Cantata para la América Mágica", is surely among his major pieces. Unfortunately he wrote seven of the eight fragments in his original plan, so we missed the coronation of the scheme, who was to be "The creation of man".  But the 27 minutes we have are fantastic and reaffirm Ginastera as our greatest composer. 

            The score is based on the famous Maya book collecting legends and myths of the Quiché people.  It was commissioned by Eugene Ormandy for the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1975, but Ginastera postponed it until 1982, a year before his death; Ormandy´s successor, Riccardo Muti, wasn´t interested. Leonard Slatkin found the material deposited at the editors, Boosey & Hawkes, and decided to premiere it with his St Louis Symphony, for he felt that the seven parts coalesced and gave a feeling of completeness.  So in 1989 it was heard for the first time and recorded. Guillermo Scarabino premiered it here with the BA Phil in 1995.

            The seven parts depict "The night of Time", "The birth of the Earth", "The awakening of Nature", "The scream of Creation", "The Great Rain", "The magic ceremony of maize" and "The Sun, the Moon and the stars". Using avantgarde technique (serial harmony, clusters, clouds of sound), a telluric, visceral use of extremely varied percussion and a fascinating imagination, Ginastera manages to evoke the deepest essence of old Maya traditions in  strictly contemporary terms, going beyond another great work we heard this year, "La noche de los Mayas" by Silvestre Revueltas.

            Heitor Villa-Lobos remains the most important Brazilian composer, as well as the most exuberant and fecund. His teeming production is only partially known here, so it was good to get to know one of his last scores, "Floresta do Amazonas" ("Amazon Jungle"), written in 1958 (he died the following year). It is fact a suite taken from his film music for "Green Mansions", made by Mel Ferrer with his wife Audrey Hepburn and based on a book by William (Guillermo) Hudson; Bronislau Kaper, of "Lili" fame, following instructions from MGM ransacked the score; Villa-Lobos got angry and decided to make this suite and obtain from MGM the funds for a recording with the Symphony of the Air (ex NBC) and famed soprano Bidú Sayao.

            With some curtailment, this is what we heard, and it still lasts 47 minutes and has 14 fragments.  There are several songs and a male choir intervenes with onomatopoeic "tribal" music. Virginia Correa Dupuy is that "rara avis", a mezzo with a soprano range, and she was in splendid form. The Ensemble Vocal Cámara XXI prepared by Miguel Ángel Pesce did good work. The music is lush, beautiful, Brazilian to the core, with an ample orchestration and great tunes.

            I do hope that in the future we will also get from Diemecke a proper representation of the USA repertoire, as well as big scores from Carlos Chávez, the best Mexican composer.  Programming is a difficult art worthy of some extra polish.

For Buenos Aires Herald