| | |  Entertainment 
Celebrating Mexico With Works of Its Own
 Vivien Schweitzer - New York Times
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May 13, 2010
| | Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, conducted by Alondra de la Parra, performed a concert called “Mi Alma Mexicana” on Tuesday at Alice Tully Hall. (Hiroyuki Ito/New York Times) | |
Alondra de la Parra, the young Mexican-born founder and music director of the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, spent more than a year researching little-known scores by Mexican composers to perform for the Mexican bicentennial. But there were no identifying national characteristics in many of the works that received their United States premieres at Alice Tully Hall on Tuesday evening, when Ms. de la Parra led the ensemble in a sold-out event, “Mi Alma Mexicana.”
Gustavo Campa’s “Melodía” (1887), which Ms. de la Parra conducted in what she said was the first performance outside Mexico, sounded Schubertian. A lyrical dialogue unfolded between orchestra and solo violin, whose melodic lines were expressively performed here by Daniel Andai.
The Intermezzo from “Atzimba,” an opera by the 19th-century composer Ricardo Castro, had a Wagnerian flavor, with lush string passages and stirring climaxes. The orchestra sounded in fine form, with the spirit and enthusiasm of earlier performances now meshed with greater polish and cohesion.
Ms. de la Parra, a charismatic woman, spoke from the podium before each piece. She described Manuel Ponce’s “Concierto del Sur,” written for the guitarist Andrés Segovia, who gave its premiere in 1941, as Ponce’s best piece. Segovia credited Ponce with elevating the status of the guitar as a solo and concerto instrument.
Pablo Sáinz Villegas played the Spanish-flavored work beautifully, although his overamplified guitar skewed the balance with the orchestra, sometimes overpowering it. As a solo encore he offered a soulful rendition of “Recuerdos de la Alhambra” by the Spanish composer Francisco Tárrega.
The sandunga, a Mexican dance in a minor key, is woven into “Tropicos,” the third movement of Carlos Chávez’s “Caballos del Vapor,” given a vivacious interpretation here. The program included one work by a living composer, Federico Ibarra’s engaging and dramatically dark-hued Sinfonía No. 2, which opens with mysterious rumblings in the low strings and brasses and is punctuated by ominous beats. The United States premiere of “Imágenes,” a colorful symphonic poem by Candelario Huízar that evokes a peasant wedding with movements like “Marcha Nupcial,” concluded the regular program.
The evening ended on a lively note with the orchestra’s standard encore: Arturo Márquez’s “Danzón No. 2,” and Ms. de la Parra invited the enthusiastic crowd to clap along.
The next concert by the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas is on May 21 at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center; (212) 721-6500, poamericas.org. |
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