Bach reigns as ever

No musical season is complete without the major Johann Sebastian Bach sacred scores. This is a good year for his repertoire: Festivales Musicales has given us in two sessions the Christmas Oratorio conducted by Mario Videla, Artistic Director of both Festivales and its adjunct, the Bach Academy. And Andrés Gerszenzon has offered Bach's mightiest challenge, the "Saint Matthew Passion".

It is theoretically possible to play and sing the Christmas Oratorio in one long concert of almost three hours (after all, the "Saint Matthew" is longer than that if done without cuts), but as it really is a succession of six cantatas with the common theme of Christmastime, it makes sense to hear it in two sessions (this would never do in the Passions, whose narrative can't be interrupted). And it allows for more thorough preparation. In these "after the crisis" years Festivales hasn't been able to import Helmuth Rilling and his admirable ensembles as it used to, so Videla, a specialist in his own right, has undertaken the task of performing the big Bach scores. He has been acquiring more skill in conducting, although he is still more a stylist than a commanding chief; I commend his Christmas Oratorio as the best performance of the series of big Bach scores he has been giving the Festivales public in recent years. He still doesn't quite get that last measure of excitement of the great occasions and there were a few misadjustments, but no one went away dissatisfied.

The cantatas were written in 1734-5 and are based on the Gospel according to St Luke and St Matthew and some additions by Picander or by Bach himself. The first three cantatas deal with the birth of the Child and the visit of the shepherds. The other three, with Circumcision and the Arrival of the Magi. The Evangelist tells us the story ; there are wonderful choirs of jubilation and lovely arias. The Bach Academy instrumental ensemble boasted some splendid players, such as Pablo Saraví (concertino), Edgardo Zollhofer (cello), and Andrés Spiller (oboe and oboe d'amore) at the top of his form. The vocal soloists were well chosen: tenor Christophe Einhorn (debut) comes from Strasburg and made a positive impression as the Evangelist and in the tenor arias: a firm, clear voice, a sense of drama and fantastic fluency in florid singing. There was delicacy and style in the others: Mónica Capra (soprano), Virginia Correa Dupuy (mezzosoprano) and Víctor Torres (baritone). The Orfeón de Buenos Aires under Néstor Andrenacci and Pablo Piccinni made a valuable contribution to the total effect with fresh young voices singing with great accuracy. A note on the performing version: Videla shortened most of the aria da capos.

The venue was the Auditorio de Belgrano, also chosen by Gerszenzon for his account of the Saint Matthew Passion. This is the mightiest (and the longest) challenge in the sacred music repertoire. One could wish in dramatic terms for a tauter design but if you empathize with Bach's constant inspiration you grieve when arias are eliminated or given partially. Gerszenzon made some cuts, which kept the duration under three hours.

The conductor has shown in earlier seasons that he is a conscientious musician though not a charismatic one. He was certainly audacious in having chosen this enormous score and he managed to give us a respectful view of this great Baroque music. He has toiled for six months coaching the Choir and Orchestra of the UBA (University of Buenos Aires) of which he is their Director. The results were dignified and honorable, and it is of course laudable that university singers and players should tackle such a task, but there were weaknesses in vocal projection in the 46-strong choir and some substandard playing in the 32-piece orchestra (divided into two 16-piece organisms in those fragments where Bach specifies two orchestras). I would single out as especially good Roberto Rutkauskas (concertino), Pablo Angiletta (viola da gamba), the veteran oboist Pedro Cocchiararo and Manuel de Olaso (organ). In their only intervention the Coro Nacional de Ninos under Vilma Gorini sang well their chorale.

The vocal soloists were a mixed bag. Pablo Pollitzer as the Evangelist was stylish but small-voiced; the other tenor, Maico Hsiao, took on the arias with nice timbre and taste. Sergio Carlevaris is a big-voiced bass baritone but he sings rather wildly. Mariano Fernández Bustinza was a bland Jesus. Soprano Selene Lara sang replacing Andrea Maragno and did reasonably well. On the other hand, Verónica Cánaves (contralto) was weak and uninteresting, and she has some of the best music. Acceptable, no more, two singers of multiple bit parts, Armando Garrido and Javier Lezcano. In all, a worthwhile effort but not a great experience for the listeners; I have no doubt that it was quite positive for singers and players: to be in contact during six months with such imposing music certainly leaves a valuable trace in their hearts and minds.

The Capella Seicento led by Federico Ciancio gave us a valuable experience at the Bach Academy (Central Methodist Church): seven fine historicist players and five solo singers (who also made up the Chorus) offered the premiere of Bach's Cantata No. 18, "Gleichwie der Regen und Schnee" ("As rain and snow"), an early work from Weimar, and Buxtehude's well-known cycle of short cantatas "Membra Jesu nostri". Beautiful music well played and sung.

Para el Buenos Aires Herald

Study in contrasts: "Samson et Dalila" and "Clone"

The Colón at the Coliseo presented Camille Saint-Saens' "Samson et Dalila" in a concert version whose main attraction was the return of famous Argentine tenor José Cura. The CETC (the Colón's Center for Experimentation) reopened after thorough restoration effected under the Master Plan and offered Antonio Zimmerman's "Clone" (world premiere), in total aesthetic contrast to the French composer's masterpiece.

Very probably the Colón's Artistic Director Marcelo Lombardero chose "Samson..." because it is one of Cura's best roles. The controversial tenor sang at the Colón only once, when he did Verdi's "Otello" nine years ago. The last Colón "Samson..." was offered in 1997 with no less than Plácido Domingo as Samson and in a very interesting staging by Beni Montresor. At the time I felt that Cecilia Díaz was just adequate as Delilah, below the level necessary to accompany the best Samson there was. Ten years later I still feel that she doesn't create a strong character and sings it unevenly, though she grew in the part after a rather boring First Act. It would have been useful to get to know any of the outstanding European mezzos (quite a few) that haven't visited us. Not only Díaz was cast in the same role, but also Luis Gaeta as the High Priest, though in this case I must say that he was quite good then and now; in fact, he gave us the best singing of the evening (I'm writing about the first performance).

After the poor impression made by the very restricted acting seen at Boito's "Mefistofele" in the recent concert version, Lombardero understood that something better had to be attempted, and although he was uncredited, he was the author of a rather convincing handling of the singers (what he called "puesta en espacio", translatable as "setting in place"): in front of the choir (immovable, frontal and on steps) the artists acted as they sang, reacting to each other with meaningful gestures. Of course, no stage designs, and one had to imagine such things as the falling of the temple or the mill. Delilah wore an attractive dress and for the men evening clothes were avoided in favor of dark neuter garments.

And Cura? Well, he certainly has a commanding presence and always holds the interest. After nine years of absence there were intriguing questions as to the purely vocal aspects, for his Otello had ups and downs. Singing is a dicey profession and artists often veer rather widely from one performance to another; so I can only report on the one I heard. And these are my conclusions: when he sings loud and high, his tone becomes unfocussed and metallic; as decibels become lower and the music descends from the heights , Cura's singing sounds controlled and beautiful, with poetic accents.

The two bass parts of Abimelech and the Old Hebrew were quite well taken by Ariel Cazes and Carlos Esquivel, and the cast was completed acceptably by Fernando Chalabe, Gabriel Renaud and Walter Schwarz. The score has often been considered an opera-oratorio due to the abundant and serious choral music it contains; the Colón Choir under Salvatore Caputo naturally could read its parts which certainly facilitates things, but this doesn't diminish the good quality of their singing, apart from some passages that were too soft to be heard with comfort.

Rodolfo Fischer , who last year conducted at the Colón Mozart's "Cosí fan tutte", seemed comfortable in the French idiom after some initial trouble with balance and intonation. But the Orchestra sounded increasingly warm and brilliant and the final result was satisfactory. Also, there were no disfiguring cuts as had happened in "Mefistofele".

One bad point: dates were changed and the first was a non-subscription performance ("extraordinaria") instead of being as it should a "Gran Abono" night.

I was quite happy by the results of the CETC's restauration. Of course you can't change the basic architecture of this subterranean space with its vast columns which impede both stage movement and good sightlines, but a lot was done that was possible and is positive: a much improved access stairway with full lighting; comfortable toilets; new dressing rooms; modernized video, sound and lighting; better lighting in the hall and a less claustrophobic ambience; spick-and-span cleaning of the premises; much-improved fire prevention; and enhanced coloring of the brick structure.

Unfortunately, I didn't like "Clone". The idea isn't bad; it is based on Julio Cortázar's homonymous short story adapted by Alejandro Tantanian: a modern madrigal ensemble rehearses Gesualdo's Book V and a parallel to the composer's true story becomes apparent: the tenor madrigalist kills the soprano (or so it is intimated) presumably for similar motives to those Gesualdo had: the composer found his wife in bed with her lover and killed them both. It could have been dramatic and taut, but the morose and redundant music and the static and inert libretto make the 70 minutes it lasts very long. Good singers (especially Selene Lara and Ricardo González Dorrego) and players (an original combination of bandoneon and viola da gamba) compensate partially. I didn't feel that the staging by Cristián Drut did much to improve the piece. I will mention the only bit that impressed me: at the very beginning the handsome soprano wears a magnificent Renaissance dress (by Cecilia Zuvialde) whilst she sings the only theatrical music in those long minutes.

For Buenos Aires Herald

A bumpy orchestral traversal

In recent weeks the panorama of orchestral concerts as been rather bumpy. Quite apart from the scandal of the total paralyzation of all musical organisms dependent on the National Culture Secretariat –of which more below- we've had uneven concerts from the Buenos Aires Philharmonic (the Phil) and a couple of visitors of not quite first rank.

To leave behind the bad taste in my mouth, a brief reference to the cultural disaster that affects in the most Kafkian terms official national culture. It has happened before, but perhaps never in such an extended scale. A labor conflict of the technicians assigned to all national organisms has effectively stalled all activity at the National Symphony, the two big choirs (Polifónico Nacional and Nacional de Jóvenes) , two specialized outfits of social implications (Coro Polifónico de Ciegos and Banda Sinfónica de Ciegos), the Orquesta de Música Nacional Juan de Dios Filiberto and the Teatro Nacional Cervantes. And the matter is small and ridiculous: the State gave years ago to the administrative workers and the technicians the same working hours, which means that the latter can't be present at the evening shows; easy enough to fix what is a blatant idiocy, but nobody does it, neither the Labor Ministry, the Economics Ministry or the Culture Secretariat. Could some workers be hired to permit the realization of concerts? No, it would affect the sacrosanct solidarity among labor unions... Meanwhile, as much as five millions pesos have been paid this year by the State to players and singers that don't play and don't sing! And there's no solution in sight.

Back to something less sad, concerts that effectively take place. One was the visit of the Berlin Symphony prior to performing at the amazing Ushuaia Festival. This Orchestra is of course no match for the great Berlin organisms: the Philharmonic, the Deutsche Symphonie (ex Radio Orchestra) or the Staatsoper led by Barenboim. But it can be considered a very professional outfit. This was their third visit here; in the first, in 1970, Fritz Weisse offered Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis" with the Berlin Concert Choir and foreign soloists; in the second, a few years ago, they came with their then Principal Director, Eduardo Marturet. This third is rather amazing, for according to the biography in the hand programme, the young Argentine Jorge Uliarte has been recently named their Principal Conductor (and he is the "alma pater" of the Ushuaia Festival). On the basis of what I heard, I can't understand it, for Uliarte seems to me a limited musician of barely correct technique and scant communication. Apparently his powers of organization and persuasion are greater than the musical ones, for after all the founding of the Ushuaia Festival is quite a feat of imagination.

They gave a concert at the Coliseo with hackneyed repertoire: Brahms' "Academic Festival Overture", Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and Dvorák's Ninth ("New World"). All decently done, no more. I have my doubts that the Berlin Symphony has only 59 players, for such was the number listed; it probably boasts about 90 players back home. Apart from the lack of personnality and dynamism , their music making with Uliarte was acceptable, but one needs more in such overheard pieces.

I was much happier with the debut of the Denver Young Artists Orchestra led by Adam Flatt at the UBA's Facultad de Derecho Main Hall. Denver is of course home to the prestigious Colorado Symphony Orchestra, but it can be proud of this youth organism for it seems one of the best of its kind. They number 57 but in the overbright and resonant hall they sounded like a hundred, also because they play with such intensity and involvement, and with a technical quality that many adult orchestras don't have. And they are led with outstanding precision and style by Flatt, a young artist in the best American tradition. Minor blemishes hardly affected my pleasure. Both in the Overture for Sheridan's "The School for Scandal" by Samuel Barber and in Tchaikovsky's difficult Fourth Symphony they kept to a high standard. Also they accompanied well the 18-year-old Hannah Robbins in Elgar's Cello Concerto; she played nicely except for some lapses of intonation in high positions. The encore was interesting: an excellent arrangement by Kenneth Harper of Mariano Mores' "Tanguera".

The Phil completed the first section of its subscription series at the Gran Rex with a concert conducted by Ronald Zollman, who made his debut here last year and left a good impression. The session had a special attraction, the premiere of a rather strange Haydn Symphony, No. 60, "The absent-minded" ; the habitual four-movement structure is abandoned and instead we have six movements, several of them with humoristic details such as the "scordatura" in the last movement. And this is because in fact it was used as incidental music for a play of the same title as the symphony, written by Jean-Francois Regnard. I'm sorry to say that the music sounded wan in the undernourished acoustics and that Zollman didn't catch the humor, even making a pronounced pause between the two last movements when it is of the essence that both should be played without any interruption.

The rest went better: an agreeable version of Ravel's "Ma Mere l'Oye" and a professionally handled Dvorák Sixth Symphony, lacking however in the infectious gaiety of the Bohemian folk rhythms.

Para el Buenos Aires Herald

From "bel canto" to "verismo"

Two recent revivals of worthwhile Italian operas brought us from the "bel canto " period to late "verismo". The Roma Theatre (Avellaneda), after a "Luisa Fernanda" (Moreno Torroba) that I decided to skip because I had seen most of the singers in the same parts at the Parque Centenario, offered Gaetano Donizetti's "La Favorita" with astonishingly good results. And the Casa de la Opera de Buenos Aires gave us Francesco Cilea's "Adriana Lecouvreur" at the Avenida with an uneven outcome.

Among the enormously fecund output that Donizetti produced between 1816 and 1844 (about 70 operas), "La Favorita" is amongst the most valid dramatic pieces. It has many good points, among them some admirable arias for Fernando and Leonora, several duets and ample concertantes. It started life as a French opera, "La Favorite", a transformation of an earlier incomplete opus, "L'ange de Nisida"; the librettists were Alphonse Royer, Gustave Vaez and Eugene Scribe and it was premiered at the Paris Opéra in December 1840; as was imperative at that theatre, it included a ballet. The story was based on a triangle formed by Alfonso XI, King of Castile (1311-1350), his lover Leonora de Guzmán (who had nine children with the King!) and the young Fernando, who falls in love with her ignoring her status as "la bella del Re".

When it was translated into Italian, the rigid Austrian censure intervened, several Italian librettists successively rewrote the lines (Calisto Bassi, Francesco Jannetti and Fausto Broussard) and some facts were ridiculously twisted around: what was logical in the French version became incoherent in the Italian (the Prior Baldassarre –of the Santiago de Compostela monastery - is also the father of the cuckolded Queen!). Still, this is the version given nowadays. With big roles for mezzo, tenor, baritone and bass and lovely melodic lines, it is still a pleasure to hear, though I wish I could get to know the original .

The Colón last offered "La Favorita" in 1995 and 1967 (with Kraus and Cossotto!). For the Roma it is a first, and I'm glad to say it's one of the best things I've seen there. The small old theatre has resonant acoustics and the voices sounded juicy and big, for the cast was well chosen and everyone was in very good shape. Carlos Duarte's voice is as expansive as his physique; he is a sanguine singer with a beautiful, Mediterranean timbre. He had a couple of uncomfortable moments, and his "Spirto gentil" was too lacrymous, but I liked most of what he did. María Luján Mirabelli has been uneven in the past, but this time all was right, her registers firm and expressive, her demeanor convincing and intense. I've never heard Enrique Gibert Mella sing with so much line and strength; his Alfonso had presence and he was up to the big climaxes. And Oreste Chlopecki sang with command and well-controlled shaping of phrases, his timbre not as black as I've heard him in earlier years. A fast vibrato diminishes the merits of Ana María Siniscalco (Inez). Correct jobs from dry-voiced tenor Pablo Gaeta (Gasparo) and the baritone Fabián Frías (Gentleman).

The Orquesta Sinfónica Municipal de Avellaneda certainly leaves much to desire, but it was led with vigor and style by the 29-year-old Sebastiano De Filippi, also known as a baritone. And although the voices of the Choir of the Instituto Municipal de Música de Avellaneda are of disparate quality, the young choristers were eager and responded well to their director, Ricardo Barrera. Producer Eduardo Casullo respected the laws of melodrama and of the historic environment evoked and was clear as well as dramatic in his indications; as stage designer a few columns were enough to give a feeling of monastery and castle, though the wrinkled white wall should have been improved. Fine costumes from Mariela Daga and Azelio Polo brought us to Medieval times. The lighting plot by Ernesto Bechara was traditional.

A shorter notice on Cilea's "Adriana Lecouvreur", for it was revived just a couple of years ago by Buenos Aires Lírica with Myriam Toker and Gustavo López Manzitti. The opera dates from 1902 and represents an attenuated "verismo" with a good deal of eighteenth-century pastiche. The story of the poisoning of actress Lecouvreur by her rival, the Princess of Bouillon, involves their lover Maurice of Saxony; there's an admixture of political intrigue and of the unrequited infatuation for Adriana by Michonnet, the manager of the theatre. The music is very well written and tasteful, with some fine melodies. Now I wish somebody remembered his other good opera, "L'Arlesiana" on Daudet, the one with the famous "Lamento di Federico".

Unfortunately there were grave vocal problems in both protagonists, Adelaida Negri and the young tenor Rodrigo Mora, quite green yet; the soprano as always has her moments but they weren't enough, and I found her spoken recitations too rhetoric. I liked Marina Biasotti as the Princess and Leonardo López Linares was outstanding as Michonnet. Eduardo Ayas as the Abbé of Chazeuil and Víctor Castells as the Prince of Bouillon were satisfactory. The others were in the picture. I didn't enjoy the choreography of Guido De Benedetti in a pseudo-Greek style. But Alejandro Atías was an attentive producer who respected the historical ambience both in the movements and in the stage designs (his own) and there were nicely designed dresses by Mariela Daga.

Para el Buenos Aires Herald

"Rodelinda": a major Handel event

I have no hesitation in pronouncing the production of George Frideric Handel's "Rodelinda" by Buenos Aires Lírica at the Avenida the most important event of the operatic season. It isn't saying as much as it seems, for the context gives us an astonishingly poor season as far as renovation is concerned. The Colón does works it has offered within the last fifteen years, Juventus Lyrica can only boast of a revival of Ravel's two short operas, even Adelaida Negri's Casa de la Opera (generally a source of interesting material) opts this year for well-known pieces, there's nothing new at the Roma (Avellaneda) and frankly I have little hope for a Bacalov opera which will be premiered at the Argentino (La Plata), a theatre that otherwise gives us the rankest repertoire. So the Argentine staged premiere of "Rodelinda" is a major occasion. Mind you, a condensed concert version was offered some years ago at the Salón Dorado (Colón) by that theatre's Institute of Art advanced students. And it isn't –as announced- a South American premiere, for Caracas did that under Philippe Herreweghe in 1985.

The history of Handel opera performances in Buenos Aires is shamefully short and incomplete, if you consider that he is the greatest Baroque opera composer and we have forty titles to choose from. Curiously one opera has been offered thrice: "Giulio Cesare" . Otherwise we can only mention a second Richter-conducted opera, "Serse", in 1971, also with Schreier, and then we jump to "Agrippina" in 2005 by Buenos Aires Lírica! Thirty-four years without Handel...

"Agrippina" was a vivid success; with the same conductor, Juan Manuel Quintana, we now have "Rodelinda". It is a good choice for most specialists consider it amongst the half-dozen best; for future years I certainly root for "Alcina" and "Rinaldo", splendid and fantastic, for "Tamerlano" and for a "Giulio Cesare" revival. Of course, "Rodelinda" is an "opera seria" and has the defects of the genre: with just two exceptions, it is a succession of recitatives and arias (the duet that closes the Second Act and the ensemble at the very end bring welcome relief); the arias are "da capo" ( a main section A, a short contrasting B, and an A' that merely ornaments the same music); and the dramatic construction is patchy and stereotyped. But so much of the music is marvelous that we can hardly fail to yield to its beauties. You might feel legitimately that a lot is slow and contemplative and that sometimes you yearn for more adrenaline, but there's no gainsaying the harmonic and melodic sensitivity shown by the composer, at the service of one of those convoluted stories that mix historical occurrence with the contrasting miseries and ecstasies of love. For the record, it deals with the seventh century Longobards and proceeds via two librettists (Nicola Salvi and Antonio Haym) from Pierre Corneille's play "Pertharite, Roi des Lombards", based in turn on a "Historia Longobardorum" by Paulus Diaconus. Some cuts were made especially in recitative but the opera still lasted more than three hours.

A crucial decision was taken by the BAL authorities: a production in the Baroque style without Postmodernist distortions. They brought over from France a specialist, Ivan Alexandre (debut), who tackled this Handel at face value: painted curtain drops, localized light (lanterns following the singers), exposed machinery, changes of scenery done in front of the spectator, and also some matters that made me cavil. The acceptance of certain practices of the early eighteenth century can make for a feeling of absurdity nowadays, and also made me doubt if what I was seeing was strictly historical : slow silent film gestures, precious to a fault (especially Grimoaldo's), or the men dressed in garments that included short rigid open aprons: were these true historical practice, or the particular vision of Alexandre and his clothes designer, Eduardo Lerchundi? Anyway, I disliked them. But I liked very much the beautifully conceived and executed curtain drops by stage designer Santiago Elder, of true aesthetic quality and exquisite taste.

Quintana has assisted René Jacobs and Marc Minkowski in Europe, and in recent years has been acquiring a solid workmanship as a conductor, as well as forming in Rosario an admirable Baroque orchestra. I was impressed by the continuity and natural expression he obtained from his proficient group of players , and I would only wish he had taken a little faster the numerous and extended laments.

The singers were half Chilean and half Argentine; the Chileans took the main parts and did them better than well. I particularly liked Evelyn Ramírez as Bertarido, the deposed King (she sang Nero last year in Monteverdi's "Coronation of Poppea"); the part was originally for a "castrato contralto", Senesino. Claudia Pereira (debut) started too coolly as Rodelinda but then found the necessary warmth as the music proceeded. Jaime Cacompai , also from last year's Monteverdi, was musically satisfactory as the usurper Grimoaldo, though I didn't enjoy his acting. Of the Argentines the best was Norberto Marcos as the villain Garibaldo, firm and clear. Gabriela Cipriani Zec was too self-effaced, soft-grained to a fault, and Vanessa Mautner seemed in bad voice, with some croaky passages initially.

But even if the cast wasn't ideal, the total effect was certainly valuable and I can only urge BAL to keep on the good road in this repertoire in years to come.

Para el Buenos Aires Herald

Teatro Colón: Diagnóstico y Prospectiva

Para aquellos que les interese leer mi artículo: "Teatro Colón: Diagnóstico y Prospectiva", publicado en el libro " Cultura, nuestra PROpuesta", podrán hacerlo ingresando en: http://teatrocolon2007.blogspot.com/

An unfortunate "Traviata"

Certainly no production in recent years has had such an appalling series of mishaps and substitutions as the Colón's 2007 "La Traviata" at the Coliseo. Mismanagement? Bad luck? A combination of both? The habitual close-mouthed attitude of the Colón prods gossip in an industrial scale; lacking clear explanations, anything goes: I won't add to it.

The facts concerning substitutions are as follows. The press conference announcing the season told us that the protagonists in the two casts would be: Violetta: Nathalie Manfrino / Maya Dashuk; Alfredo: Darío Schmunck / Enrique Folger. But after the subscription series were sold, both Violettas disappeared; they were replaced by Natalia Ushakova and Karen Vourch; the latter was in turn replaced by María José Siri. Eventually a third Violetta was presented: Victoria Loukianetz. The first Alfredo also vanished; a new name appeared: Raúl Giménez; at the last moment he was allegedly ill, and a young Mexican made his local debut: José Luis Duval. The Germonts were unchanged: Víctor Torres and Omar Carrión; but in the smaller parts there were also many different artists than those originally publicized. All this with no explanation.

But there was another factor: producer Eric Vigié aroused irate reactions in a degree that other objectionable productions haven't provoked in recent years. Was it because "La Traviata" is so famous that people feel stronger about transpositions of time in this case? But they accepted the Suárez Marzal production at the Luna Park, to my mind as extreme as Vigié's . Or was it a part of the presumed campaign? My readers know that I am a traditionalist in the sense of defending the original work, both music and libretto, and I have certainly attacked strongly many productions that have been meekly accepted elsewhere. Why this "Traviata", transposed to the 1920s in an Art Nouveau atmosphere well evoked by the rather attractive scenery by Enrique Bordolini, was so roundly attacked in some quarters?

I didn't like it either but I've seen worse. The problem, apart from accepting or not the transposition, was in the gross lapses of taste: in the First Act the provocative dress of Violetta ; in the Second she receives Germont in underwear and leaves for Paris in a dressing gown, and in her love nest she somehow lets a painter work with two models (a total incongruity); in the Third Act (I hold to the four-act division, not respected in this production) comes the worst: four scantily clad girls "dance" an absurd choreography by Diana Teocharidis and then play the part of bulls to a dwarf toreador! Etc. Imme Moeller is generally a good clothing designer, so I presume she followed Vigié's orders in the silly situations above.

A further point: the choice of "La Traviata" had as rationale that this year we commemorate the 150 years of the original Colón Theatre, and that this was the opera heard in the opening night in 1857. We've had a surfeit of "Traviatas" in recent years and this revival was certainly unnecessary, especially considering that the Argentino put it on simultaneously (they aren't to blame, they announced the opera much earlier). (By the way, I won't be writing about the Argentino's production, for it repeats in all particulars their revival of 2005 commented in the Herald).

The singers. I went to the third performance scheduled with Ushakova; but after the first and heavily criticized appearance she departed; I got the second cast Violetta, María José Siri. The Uruguayan artist has done the role here before; she is a convincing actress and a thorough professional, but the voice is too incisive and has too much vibrato. I also saw Loukianetz in the part; this petite Ukrainian has had a good career featuring varied roles including Gilda, suggesting some flexibility in the voice; well, she too has problems of incisiveness and the First Act had some harsh moments though she managed well the highest register and the fast runs; but as the opera went on, she found her best voice and produced some moments of strong emotional projection , giving us an expressive Violetta still vocally fresh at the end.

José Luis Duval gave a rather neutral impression; the voice is good and the high notes are there, but the phrasing was boring and the acting, wooden. Enrique Folger was the opposite: an engaging, emotional Alfredo with a faulty technique leading to a fatal break in the "cabaletta". Víctor Torres sang Germont as if in a song recital, his soft-grained voice and phrasing very beautiful but un-Verdian in timbre. Omar Carrión did his aria well but was a cypher as an actor and his voice sounded weak in the low register.

The smaller parts were generally well taken. Mónica Sardi and especially Mariana Carnovali were fine Floras; Leonardo Estévez and Alejandro Meerapfel gave us dramatic accounts of Baron Douphol; both Ariel Cazes and Juan Barrile offered sensitive portraits of Dr. Grenvil. Federico Sanguinetti and Esteban Hildebrand were rather neuter as D'Obigny, Vanesa Mautner was a muted Annina, and there was some strain in Gabriel Renaud as Gaston, less so in Gabriel Centeno.

It seems that in the first performance the string intonation was shaky; by the third and the last the orchestral results were reasonably good, and Guillermo Brizzio, an old pro, knows the style . The Chorus under Salvatore Caputo sang firmly and seemed involved in the hectic action.

Para el Buenos Aires Herald

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Byways of the Baroque bring surprising experiences

Both Festivales Musicales and Nuova Harmonia have recently provided surprising experiences in the Baroque field. They are indeed byways, well apart from the Bach-Handel-Vivaldi trilogy. They show how rich and varied that era was, and why it is rewarding to explore .

Festivales started its season with a lovely concert of the Ensemble Louis Berger at the Avenida. Notwithstanding their French-sounding appellation, this is an Argentinian group that has taken for its own the name and surname of an outstanding French jesuit musician who did marvelous work in such areas as Chiquitos (Bolivia). During these last thirty years the steady work of musicologists has unveiled unsuspected treasures in remote areas and has shown there is an important Baroque repertoire, still mostly unknown though hundreds of manuscripts have been found, untouched since the eighteenth century. What we heard was a selection of the Chiquitos trove, and it was a moving event.

Their concert was entitled "Music at the Jesuitic Missions" and it included mostly anonymous works in Spanish, chiquitano, latin and guaraní. All pieces are to be found at the Chiquitos Musical Archive. The group boasts a special set of instruments; although it existed in Europe, it's very rare to hear a "tromba marina", a tall instrument with only one string played with a bow and giving out the sound of a harsh trumpet. And what's decidedly new: the "bajunes", immense Panpipes that give a beautiful effect. The ensemble also has a vocal quartet of normal constitution.

The anonymous pieces were a procession, "Jesus Christ Our Lord" (repeated at the end, it brought the artists to the foyer), a litany for two voices in chiquitano (""Ane Nupaqsiuma suchetania", or "We have a sorrowful Mother"), a "Cánite, pláudite" ("Sing, applaud") – a very brilliant piece to end the First Part-, and four pieces in guaraní ("Mother of God", "Litany", "In the great fire of Hell" and "Listen, men"). These last four had a special emotional effect. Otherwise, we had plenty of Domenico Zipoli, the Italian that died in America as a priest after an important European career: "Thanks, Our God" (authenticated) in chiquitano, with "tromba marina" and "bajunes" ; a Trio Sonata (attributed) and "In hoc mundo", a motet (attributed). And finally, an interesting "Fugued Mass" attributed to Giovanni Battista Bassani, a European author whose music was found at the Chiquitos Archive. The Ensemble Louis Berger is a committed group of high standard; I will only single out the intense expressivity of soprano Ana María Santorelli.

Some people felt that the concert by La Barroca del Suquía led by Manfredo Kraemer (also at the Avenida) had been a waste of fine talent; I didn't. The ensemble hails from our Córdoba (Suquía is the river that traverses the city) and is equal to the good European Baroque ensembles. The programme was called "Sonorous tableaux from Biber to Boccherini" and it certainly shows an excentric type of Baroque, based on the picturesque , the descriptive and the humorous. You won't find in these pieces prodigies of counterpoint but you will encounter harmonic surprises, influences of popular and folk music, special effects, etc. Nothing profound nor memorable, but often fun; some are admittedly a trifle too trivial. Kraemer presented unacademically but precisely each piece.

The concert started with the only non-Baroque score, Boccherini's "The night music of the Madrid streets" (1780), which ends with the Retreat of the soldiers . Three authors are little-known today, and they hail from Central Europe: Pavel Vejvanovsky , "Sonata a 6 Campanarum"; Johann Valentin Meder, "The Polish beggar"; and Philipp Jakob Rittler, "Harmonia Romana". More substantial were the scores by Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (1644-1704), an important musician at Salzburg's court: his "Battalia" is vivid and imaginative, and "The Procession of the peasants to the church" was acted out by the players. Encores: a sonata imitating the nightingale and the cuckoo by a Theodor Schwarzkopf, and an astonishing Telemann piece, "The Muscovites", from the suite "Peoples" ("Voelker") with almost jazzy syncopations.

The "Cappella della Pietá dei Turchini" payed us a second visit starting the Nuova Harmonia season at the Coliseo. It is a group specialized in the Neapolitan Baroque, very rich and little-known. They opted for a programme that put the accent on heavy comedy of "Commedia dell'arte" derivation. Certainly all pieces were new for our city, as was the rest of the music they played. Those that gave musical quality to the evening were written by composers of the Classicist era: two splendid fragments from Niccoló Piccinni's "Didone" ("opera seria"), and Giovanni Paisiello's Duet of Pulcinella and Carmosina from "Pulcinella vendicato". I was sorry that the two greatest Neapolitans were not included: Alessandro Scarlatti and G.B.Pergolesi. There were two good instrumental scores: "Sonata a 3 " in G minor (a concerto grosso) by Pietro Marchitelli (1643-1729) and the Second Sonata for strings by Domenico Gallo, whose first movement was adapted by Stravinsky for his "Pulcinella" (he thought it was by Pergolesi).

Apart from Paisiello, comedy was represented by Francesco Provenzale (1624-1704): the parody-lament "Squarciato appena havea"; Michelangelo Fagioli (1666-1733): cantata "Sto.Paglietta presuntuoso"; and Giuseppe Petrini's intermezzo "Graziello e Nella". There was a charming encore: José de Nebra's :Fandango". I liked soprano Maria Ercolano, intense and with a fine technique; I disliked the mincing, affected interpretations of tenor Giuseppe De Vittorio. The players under Antonio Florio were quite good.

Para el Buenos Aires Herald

The art of pianism: Anderszewski and Lavandera

Although the piano recital has lost space in recent decades -people tend to prefer bigger shows, especially symphony orchestras- the world has no shortage of outstanding young pianists keeping high the banner of virtuoso command of the instrument. We have the grand veterans still with us, such as Argerich, Brendel or Pollini, but the following two generations have magnificent practitioners of exalted pianism. From 40 to 60-years-old, I wish we could hear in BA such artists as Maria J. Pires or Andras Schiff. Between 20 and 40, two of the best have played for us recently. The Mozarteum Argentino brought us the debut of Pjotr Anderszewski at the Coliseo with two recitals (I heard the first) and Festivales Musicales gave us the opportunity to appreciate Horacio Lavandera in a session dedicated to the initial 19 Nocturnes by Chopin at the Auditorio de Belgrano. Both events were important and valuable.

Advance information on Anderszewski billed him as a specialist on Beethoven's magnificent and redoubtable "Diabelli Variations", comparing him with Glenn Gould and his obsession with Bach's "Goldberg Variations". Both sets are arguably the greatest we have, and vanquising their hurdles is only available to the best pianists. And in both cases the player must have not just an enormous technical equipment but, even more important, the acutest intellectual acumen. I won't say that Anderszewski was absolutely note-perfect, but his mechanism is surely first-rate. His stance in front of the piano is of intense concentration with no histrionism whatsoever. He holds the secret of late Beethoven: a grasp of the grand design of a 45-minute score, very contrasted dynamics (fortissimo followed by pianissimo), meditative ruminations of immense quietness followed by violent fast outbursts of savage imagination, coherence of pulse within each variation. Andersewski is of Polish-Hungarian origin and in his thirties. I certainly liked his "Diabelli" a lot and would hope to hear him in the late Beethoven sonatas.

His first concert started with J.S.Bach's English Suite No. 6. The vexed question of Bach in piano against Bach in harpsichord can't be solved here; my own personal taste is the harpsichord, for the early pianos were much too imperfect and it was written for the older instrument, even if at home he preferred the weak-sounding clavichord. However, some rules must be maintained if you play the English Suites on the piano: steady and sustainable rhythm, a feeling for the adequate ornaments and the dance forms, a perfect articulation and separation between hands, and no wilfulness and rubato (particularly in the Preludes). Gould fails in the last requirement but Anderszewski built the Prelude with a clear sense of style . He believes –and this can be argued- that Bach needs some coloring with the pedal (anathema to the school of Tureck) and shouldn't be played mimicking the harpsichord; I liked the sound and the musicality of what he did, others disliked it. I couldn't hear Anderszewski's second concert, where the "Diabelli" were preceded by Schumann's "Humoresque", frankly Romantic music. What I heard left me in no doubt that Anderszewski, at least in Bach and Beethoven, is in the front line of current players.

Of course, any habitual concertgoer has had plenty of opportunities to hear Horacio Lavandera since he burst on the scene in his early teens and showed a talent of world magnitude. Now in his twenties - though he still looks very young with his slight figure, long hair and baby face- Lavandera now lives in Spain but visits us with assiduity. His versatility is astounding, and he plays Bach, Beethoven and Chopin along with Prokofiev but also Stockhausen and living composers. And he does it all with wonderful command, a virtuoso of undoubted first rank who plays with astonishing ease and perfection. So it was with his traversal of Chopin's first 19 Nocturnes. A point: it was billed as the integral but it wasn't: we didn't hear No. 20, Op.posth, nor No.21, an early work only published in 1938; the concert was anyway very long (almost two hours of music), but exactness has its rights.

The music has influences from the creator of the piano nocturne, the Irishman John Field, and from Bellinian melody, but Chopin imagines poems of infinite delicacy and taste, the traceries of sound of the right hand flowing over the regular left hand accompaniment. The amount of rubato (flexibility avoiding all squareness) is of the essence to give a true account of this lovely music. If you want to hear an ideal version of this repertoire go to Artur Rubinstein: both his rubato and timbre are the authentic thing. As sheer playing you could bask in Lavandera's unerring accuracy and natural phrasing, but the hearer needs a good deal of empathy to fully enjoy such an extended amount of slow, nostalgic, melancholy music, only rarely contrasted with powerful and dramatic episodes. You need variety and this I felt wasn't in sufficient evidence in Lavandera's approach, always musical and sensitive but sometimes too monotonous to hold one's interest. Maybe the microadjustments needed for an even better interpretation will come with time. Also, the piano wasn't as good as the music needs.

I commend Lavandera for tackling such different repertoires and being able to give us extended soft lyricism or harsh percussive twentieth-century music with equal dexterity. Even if his interpretative ideas don't quite jell all the time , he's always a pleasure to hear.

Para el Buenos Aires Herald

Italian opera reigns as ever

The decades keep rolling on but traditional Italian opera is still going strong. The allegiance to Verdi, Puccini and some bel canto operas remains unchallenged, even if Mozart's main operas have gained space in the last thirty years. The reason is simple and you can appreciate it also in pop music: people are more impressed by ample melody than by another parameter in music. And the main Italian operas are gloriously melodic. Two indisputable masterpieces of very different character have recently shared the same conductor: Antonio Russo. After an unjustified absence since 1992, the Teatro Argentino (La Plata) has finally called him back to put the artist in charge of the initial opera of the season, Vincenzo Bellini's "Norma". And Juventus Lyrica, whose main conductor Russo has been since the inception of that institution, offered him Verdi's "Rigoletto".

"Norma" has always been a touchstone for a soprano and it was probably Maria Callas' greatest role, for it combines ideally strong drama with the most affecting and beautiful writing for the voice. Its libretto by Felice Romani (probably the best practitioner of that art at the time) tells with fine verses a plot that intertwines a love triangle with the politics of Gallic fury against Roman domination. It is based on a play written by a minor French author, Louis-Alexandre Soumet; pared of some of the original's exaggerations, it still has strong melodramtic aspects. The music is a never-ending flow of the most inspired melody, in arias, duos and trios. Yes, the harmonic and rhythmic aspects are relegated, but the melos is certainly of trascendent quality.

The Argentino did the work proud. Generally a theatre with local casts, they had the good idea of bringing to us the admirable Italian soprano Maria Pia Piscitelli, who had sung the part at the Colón a few years ago. She was fully up to the requirements. The role needs full command of all registers, the maintenance of vocal line vanquishing fearsome difficulties, a flexible timbre that can express contrasting emotions, and a persuasive dramatic presence. She did her own Norma, not trying to imitate Callas, and she's right: her predecessor was unique. The Argentine singers weren't in the same level, but held their own. Carlos Duarte has been in better voice as Pollione, but he's an intense singer, and Pollione needs that quality. After all, he's the Roman Proconsul and Governor. María Luján Mirabelli was an uneven Adalgisa, sometimes undervoiced and rather weak in the low register; however, she had her good moments, especially in the duets wuth Norma. Carlos Esquivel was a competent Oroveso (the High Priest) rather lacking in emotional involvement. Pablo Skrt as Flavio and María Inés Franco as Clotilde were good.

The Argentino Chorus has always been very good; it now has a new Director, Sergio Giai, who did a professional job in his first presentation. The Orchestra was generally careful and clean, saving some details, and Russo showed a fine feeling for the long melodic lines, always supporting the singers.

There was a luxury producing team: our grand old man of the specialty, Roberto Oswald, fresh from his success in "Turandot", did one of his typical jobs: a sense of spectacle, a rather excessive symmetry, the search for beauty in the fine evocation of the wood, the intercrossing stairs, the symbol of Irminsul's shield (the Celtic god), the expressive lighting, the respect for the singers' needs; he was abetted by his usual collaborator, Aníbal Lápiz, who designed fine tunics for the ladies and Roman military clothing for Pollione and Flavio, for this production, hallelujah, respected time and place.

Much less needs to be said about "Rigoletto". Juventus has the unfortunate current trait of "choosing" the titles through the vote of its associates, and they vote overwhelmingly in favor of the most hackneyed pieces. There was no need for still another "Rigoletto", we've seen half a dozen these last years. They were unlucky at Juventus: their first-cast Rigoletto, Ricardo Ortale, under normal conditions can give a good account of the part, but he was under the weather, and after two difficultous acts he was replaced by Enrique Gibert Mella, whose lean gaunt body and pronounced baldness aren't Rigoletto's habitual appearance (Ortale is true to form, a burly man), but he is an honest, dramatic performer, putting much anguish into his interpretation, though the voice is rather harsh.

The tenor, Norberto Fernández, perhaps nervous due to Ortale's problems, had a bad day and came to grief ostensibly at least twice, though elsewhere he did some nice things with his rather beautiful timbre and adequate presence. Good news now. Soprano Vanesa Aguado Benítez, very young, represents what Juventus stands for: finding new singers of quality. The voice is beautiful and the technique , sufficient to surmount the hurdles of "Caro nome". Two even younger singers were quite satisfactory as the brothers Sparafucile and Maddalena: Fernando Radó and Guadalupe Barrientos; and there was a good Monterone from Mario De Salvo. The others filled in correctly.

The strong point of the production was Ponchi Morpurgo's fine period clothes. Ana D'Anna contributed rather poor stage designs and conventional moves. The male choir under Miguel Pesce was quite acceptable, and the orchestra played below expectations under Russo, who didn't seem himself to be quite on top of things. Maybe he tackled too much work at a time.

Para el Buenos Aires Herald

Mozarteum starts season: brilliancy and controversy

The Mozarteum Argentino has a long tradition of quality. Their season this year has the Coliseo as its venue due to the Colón's closure. More limited acoustics, to be sure, but acceptable. The parting shots of its new season were certainly in the Mozarteum's tradition of high level artistry but are also open to controversy in the case of the Britten Sinfonia.

Some years ago the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Ivan Fischer made a very good impression in its first visit here. Their return was certainly impressive: after twenty years together the conductor and the organism he founded form an indissoluble unity of very convincing technical and interpretative standard. In two quite different programmes they never put a foot wrong. There are two special characteristics worth stressing: their brio and concentration, the homogeneity and beautiful intonation of strings and winds. Concerning Fischer, he's a no-nonsense conductor of great drive and a clear view of the overall picture, but also a polisher of details and phrasing .

Their first programme offered two fine works. First Part: the Concertante Symphony K. 297b for winds and orchestra by Mozart; some consider the work doubtful but I don't: only Wolfgang could have written this wonderful music.Conducted with impeccable taste and played with superlative accuracy and tone by oboist Dudu Carmel and hornist Zoltan Szoke and very well by clarinettist Akos Acs and bassoonist Tamás Benkócs, the score was sheer delight to hear. Second Part: the mighty Bruckner Seventh Symphony, maybe his best and the one least revised by the composer. The music unfolds with majestuous amplitude, rich in melodic and harmonic beauty. Certainly the Fischer approach was rather swift; it lasted about an hour, whilst most versions clock about 65 to 70 minutes. There was plenty to impress and attract in the careful moulding of phrases and in the contrasted intimacy of chamberlike passages with others of granitic strength, but I did miss some mysticism, a mysterious aura that the best interpretations have. Encore: an exhilarating performance of Bartók's fast final Romanian Dances.

The second concert was as satisfactory as the first in its two dissimilar parts: the first brought us rarely heard works by Weiner and Schumann, the second to famous and dense creations by Beethoven. Leo Weiner (1885-1960) was a Hungarian contemporary of Bartók and Kodály but his music is lighter and conservative in style, though written with excellent workmanship and some fine ideas. His four-movement Serenade op.3 goes like a breeze, and it felt that way in the hands of Fischer. The Schumann "Concertstueck" (Concert Piece) is scored for the unlikely combination of four solo horns and orchestra; it is fiendish to play and very Romantic, in three connected movements. The Hungarians were able to field four very able players who justified the election of the score: Zoltán Szoke, András Szabó, David Bereczky and Zsombor Nagy. Only a very good orchestra and a forceful conductor can make it worthwhile for me to hear yet again Beethoven's "Coriolan" Overture and his massive Fifth Symphony: both conditions were met and I found myself enjoying the music. Encores: a very inflected interpretation of the Gavotte from Prokofiev's "Classical Symphony", and a marvelous one of that dynamic fast polka by Johann Strauss Junior with the complicated name: "Vergnuegungszug", translatable as "Train of Pleasure".

I said that the Britishers were controversial: I'm writing about the Britten Sinfonia, conducted by Joanna MacGregor, who also leaves a generous part of the programming to her piano playing. The lady's appearance is exotic for the classical music scene, with her Rasta dreadlocks veiling half her face , but this is anecdote: what matters is the variability of her musical taste. The Britten Sinfonia was formed in 1992 and is a 24-player string ensemble of undoubted professionalism, boasting fine soloists in Jacqueline Shave (concertino) and Martin Outram (viola).

Johann Sebastian Bach was in both concerts, in the first with Concerti 1 and 5 for harpsichord, in the second with No. 1 (only repeated work). I was bothered in each session by the high level of amplification, redolent of popular music. This made the piano sound metallic, perhaps in agreement with very mechanical though accurate playing by MacGregor. I found pretty terrible the arrangements by MacGregor of three John Dowland pieces which sounded twentieth century instead of the world of the greatest lutenist of Elizabeth I's time. "Lachrymae" is a set of variations by Britten for viola and strings on a Dowland piece, and this is real composing, though a trifle arid (good work from Outram). On the basis of what I heard in this concert, Osvaldo Golijov is overpraised: "Levante" is based on a chorus from his own "St Mark Passion", "where a drunken priest is stimulated by Latinamerican dance rhythms"; it sounds like a banal tango. And so is also "Last round", marked "macho" (!) . For me they are crossover pieces. In the Second Part I heard the saving grace of this evening, Stravinsky's lovely Concerto for strings, impeccably done. Back to crossover with two Gismonti pieces: "Forrobodo" and "Frevo".

I preferred the second concert due to the presence of Arvo Part's "Cantus in memory of Britten" and Britten's own Prelude and fugue op.29 (premiere), strong and imaginative. James MacMillan's Piano Concerto No.2 was also premiered: combining Scottish reels with waltzes, clusters and "Lucia di Lammermoor" quotes, it's fun but very minor.

Para el Buenos Aires Herald

Our varied musical life

BA and its area of influence are rich in classical musical life. There are many more concerts than those who get to be reviewed, for reasons of space and ubiquity. Hereby a personal selection from recent weeks.

Pilar Golf has entered its third year of subscription concerts and it will probably be quite successful both in artistic and in social terms. The spectacular clubhouse has a good hall of reasonable capacity and pleasant acoustics and it was quite full on opening night celebrating the Camerata Bariloche's fortieth anniversary. Being so, I disagree with the unilateral approach to programming: I'm quite ready to accept the merits of Astor Piazzolla and Néstor Marconi in the field of stylized tango but I do think that the Camerata means much more than that, and the repertoire should have reflected their versatility; a First Part with Bach, Vivaldi and Mozart and a Second with fewer Piazzolla pieces, leaving of course Marconi's world premiere for the grand finale, would have been right. But in fact we heard no less than seven Piazzolla pieces, where I enjoyed particularly "Oblivion" with its fine oboe solo by Andrés Spiller, the sole remaining member of the original Camerata team. Fernando Hasaj played correctly many solos, and there was fine work from cellist Viktor Aepli.

Marconi is perhaps the best bandoneon player we have; his true virtuosity blends with a very sensitive approach to phrasing; he can be moving in slow, melancholy phrases, or dazzling in fast passages. As a composer he has a good technique and an uneven inspiration. His "Cameratangos", of course dedicated to the Camerata, is in fact a bandoneon concerto in the three habitual parts; I especially liked the poetic touches of the slow movement. His encore was an impressive variation on Piazzolla's "Adiós Nonino".

This initial session was followed by an ample buffet under a giant tent followed by short but brilliant fireworks and dancing; when I left at about 0,30 a.m. the party was in full swing. So it was as much a social as a musical occasion. The Camerata got a colossal anniversary cake.

The AMIJAI hall is both a Jewish temple and a splendid new concert venue in Belgrano, with the possibility of two sizes by opening an enclosure . This year it will have plenty of activity, some of it international, and no less than three subscription series have opened; they are being complemented by other musical events. I was sorry to miss (I was on vacation) the Kremerata Baltica under Gidon Kremer, not only for their undoubted quality but also for the adventurous programming including an arrangement of the Violin Sonata by Shostakovich. But I caught the Omnibus Wind Ensemble, a splendid group from Sweden; they played with stunning precision a lightish but innovative programme featuring arrangements of Mozart and Rossini operas but also true Mozart (Serenade No. 11), an agreeable piece by the Swedish composer Eje Thelin ("Circo della vita"), a fine score by the Alsatian Florent Schmitt ("Lied and Scherzo"), and four crossover works: an "Omnibus tango" by Víctor Scavuzzo , "Spain" by Chick Corea (with reminiscences of Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez") and two pieces by that unclassifiable artist, Frank Zappa.

At AMIJAI I also heard the Israel Piano Trio, presented by the Tel Aviv University. The group played two standard Trios (Mendelssohn's No. 1, op.49, and Beethoven's mighty "Archduke", No. 6, op.97) preceded by an arrangement of Bruch's "Kol Nidrei", originally for cello and strings. Apart from some organizational glitches, the concert was enjoyable. The artists: veteran violinist Menahem Breuer, Austrian, ex concertino of the Israel Philharmonic; cellist Hillel Zori, in his forties; and pianist Tomer Lev, 37. Apart from some sliding from the violinist, the technical level was throughout quite high, with very sure playing by the pianist and beautiful tone from the cellist; as interpretations they were eminently sane and orthodox.

The Museo Fernández Blanco year after year keeps a very solid and extensive musical activity. Rare circumstances provoked that on a Monday they offered two concerts by foreign artists. As a result of that rather astonishing musical meeting, the Ushuaia Festival, we got to know the Porin Quartet (from Croatia). Although with a substitute viola (Trvtko Pavlin; the change should have been announced), the Quartet sounded well integrated, with an especially expressive lady cellist (Neva Begovic); correct work from the violinists Ivan Novinc and Tamara Petir; Pavlin seemed a bit abashed but was quite acceptable. After a rather dully played Mozart (Quartet No. 21, K.575) we had the premiere of an interesting score by Croat Stjepan Sulek (1914-86), his Fifth Quartet, vivid and apposite writing; this was very well played. But the greatest pleasure came from the splendid Dvorák Quintet op.77, where the Quartet was joined by a very able bass player, Niksa Bobetko. This is inspired and intense music and was played to the hilt by the Croat visitors.

The Swiss ensemble Musica Fiorita led by Daniela Dolci offered that same evening a fine Italian Baroque panorama, with rarely heard pieces by Tarquinio Merula and probable premieres from two women composers, Barbara Strozzi and Camilla de Rossi (her oratorio "Santa Beatrice d'Este"), quite attractive, and surefire Vivaldi after the interval (two Concerti from "The Four Seasons" and the Cello Concerto Rv 401). Fine chamber playing from all concerned following historicist trends, and a valuable contribution from soprano Graciela Oddone.

For Buenos Aires Herald

Recent symphonic concerts: a mixed panorama

Symphonic life has yielded some pleasure in recent weeks, along with minor and major misadventures. Let's start updating the Buenos Aires Philharmonic season at the Gran Rex. Unfortunately, some of the announced works have fallen by the wayside and programmes have been far too short. The third session of the subscription series was conducted by the talented Chilean Francisco Rettig and the main score was splendid: Witold Lutoslawski's 1954 Concerto for orchestra takes its cue from Bartók's but the great Polish composer has a lot to say that is personal and attractive in this beautifully wrought composition. The Phil responded well to Rettig's intelligent and sensitive reading. Unfortunately the First Part of the concert was utterly changed; Eduardo Vassallo, the Argentine cellist who is first desk at the Birmingham Symphony, was announced in Lalo's Concerto but for some reason didn't play; Rettig replaced this with a fine version of Mozart's Symphony No. 36, "Linz". But unfortunately he decided to eliminate the Dvorák "Scherzo capriccioso", an endlessly inventive piece far too rarely done. So he gave us a bare hour of music.

I was sorry to miss Rettig's second concert (I was on vacation) for he did the attractive Late-Romantic "Lyric Symphony" by Alexander Von Zemlinsky, heard here only once (by the National Symphony); the soloists were Adriana Mastrángelo and Víctor Torres. Here again a score was eliminated: Antonio Tauriello's "Arlecchino"; written for 16 players, I was told reliably that it had been a problem of disagreement with the players, who thought they were entitled to extra payment in that piece; it would be good to have clear rules about such matters and abide by them. Fauré's charming "Masques et Bergamasques", not played here since the Twenties, made up in consequence the too short First Part.

Alejo Pérez is a 32 year-old Argentine conductor who is having a valuable career in Europe, where he is assistant conductor to Christoph Von Dohnányi at the Hamburg NDR Orchestra. Although he has done mostly contemporary music here, his tastes are ample, with a special liking for the period 1880-1920. This time we appreciated his work in three different styles: an agreeable Argentine work, "Viñetas porteñas", written by Pompeyo Camps in 1962; an important premiere, Luciano Berio's Concerto No. 2 for piano, called "Echoing curves"; and a standard Late Romantic symphony, Tchaikovsky's No. 6, "Pathetic". There was a change of interpreter in Berio, but both pianists are great artists: our Horacio Lavandera, and Dimitri Vassilakis, who took Lavandera's place and played magisterially, with utter command of the difficult music. It was written in 1989 for Daniel Barenboim; the orchestra surrounds the soloist in two concentric semicircles and the qualities of the music are well described by Julio Palacio: "for auditors sensitive to the timbric world, the composition is an authentic feast of sonorities oscillating between steely shining sounds and diverse deliquescent touches". Pérez, as far as I can tell without a score, got good results from the Phil and was well-attuned to the soloist. In Tchaikovsky, which he conducted from memory, his gestures were sure and expressive , and his interpretation was orthodox and well-conceived. It was a pity that some of the soloists made mistakes and that the Phil seemed to lack enough concentration for this wonderful work to make its full effect. Two general remarks: a) the bad policy of eliminating biographies of the interpreters in the hand programmes; b) the need for a true acoustic chamber: that bare ugly black wall behind the orchestra just won't do.

Another short programme, but this time from its inception, was the one conducted by Arthur Fagen, the American who led Britten's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" last year at the Colón. The works were well chosen but we had barely 62 minutes of music. Fagen is a profficient conductor and gave a strong and purposeful version (arguably a bit fast) of Mendelssohn's strong Symphony No. 5, "Reform". The concert had started with Luis Gianneo's tasteful "Overture for a children's comedy" (1937), written for wind players and celesta (I counted 14 people), and then, in homage to Edvard Grieg in the centenary of his death, one of his biggest scores, the "Symphonic Dances", far too little known considering its quality. Its mixture of lyricism and brusque utterance needs an orchestra sure of itself, and the Phil sounded half-baked in this music.

The National Symphony is currently paralyzed by a Kafkian conflict involving the technicians who assist them in a concert; they are in the midst of labor conversations affecting the Cervantes as well, and there's no sign of agreement. Before disaster struck, the NS played three concerts, I believe, and I attended half of one and almost the whole final rehearsal of another. I found the Orchestra in reasonable shape, especially in a sonorous traversal of Mussorgsky-Ravel's "Pictures at an Exhibition". They did two premieres of typical avantgarde scores by Argentine composers: Marcelo Delgado's "La luz del cenit" and Eduardo Kusnir's "Golpecitos para notificar". And the valuable premiere of John Corigliano's Oboe Concerto, well played by Andrés Spiller; an uneven work, it has a specially attractive slow movement. They also offered Nino Rota's Trombone Concerto, where Henry Bay was acceptable. The conductors were Pedro Calderón and Spiller, respectively Principal Conductor and Assistant Conductor of the NS. I can only wish the NS well.

Para el Buenos Aires Herald.