Tag: Repertoire

In Thursday’s (7/20) Classical Voice North America, Richard S. Ginnell writes, “One of [Los Angeles Philharmonic Music Director Gustavo] Dudamel’s most valuable accomplishments has been in championing neglected or little-played music by Latin American composers—most recently through his pandemic-interrupted Pan American Music Initiative…. There is a wealth of great music from south of the Mexican border … It may be that Latin American music will prove the most potent way to refresh the repertoire and attract audiences back to the theaters and amphitheaters after COVID … Dudamel’s marvelous all-Latin American program with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Hollywood Bowl on July 18 attracted a large, enthusiastic turnout.” Works included Francisco Cortés-Álvarez’s “La Serpiente de Colores” (2022), Arturo Márquez’s “Concierto de Otoño” (2018) with “Venezuelan trumpet wizard Pacho Flores, for whom it was written,” and “Alberto Ginastera’s complete ‘Estancia’ ballet, with a 20-member delegation from Brazil’s Grupo Corpo dance troupe on hand to make it a truly complete performance…. It’s safe to say this kind of Latin American program landed dead-center in Dudamel’s sweet spot. This is what he does best … This music needs advocates who get it as completely as he does.”

In Saturday’s (7/22) Star-Tribune (Minneapolis), Rob Hubbard writes “This weekend’s concerts were exactly what the Minnesota Orchestra had in mind when it announced its theme for Summer at Orchestra Hall as ‘Music in Motion.’ Not only is one piece built around a ballet (an Igor Stravinsky suite from ‘The Firebird’), but another is rooted in the waltzes that once wafted through Vienna, Maurice Ravel’s ‘La Valse.’ And how about some real live dancing that speaks to modern American life? BRKFST Dance Company has just the thing. Or at least the Twin Cities-based break-dancing crew did at Friday night’s first of two performances … The six-member troupe created a three-movement dance work to accompany the orchestra’s performance of Daniel Bernard Roumain’s 2010 piece, ‘Dancers, Dreamers and Presidents,’ and it proved the peak of an unceasingly exciting concert. That would likely be true even if there weren’t also a quite impressive performance of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s ‘Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini’ featuring pianist Jon Kimura Parker … BRKFST troupe members weren’t the only ones dancing, for German conductor Elias Grandy proved a gracefully athletic leader on the podium, coaxing forth strong interpretations … The concert … inspired three standing ovations.”