Alsop’s daring guides BSO even when she’s not there
BSO Inca Trail Concert
Strathmore
By David Cannon
Sentinel Arts Critic
Even though this is only the first season
for Marin Alsop as musical director of the Bal-
timore Symphony Orchestra, there have been
plenty of interesting developments. Take the
most recent concert at Strathmore, where Alsop
was not even on the podium. The Inca Trail
was virtually a pops concert but not like any
I’ve seen recently.
Inca Trail combines two ideas that some-
one should have put together long before this. It
is the Silk Road idea that Yo-Yo Ma has
brought to this hemisphere, that rich area that
includes Chile, Argentina and Peru. This allows
the BSO and guest conductor Miguel Harth-
Bedoya to explore a rich and curiously neglect-
ed area of music: namely several centuries of
music from South America.
It was purposefully an evening of ex-
tremes. The opening number is one of the old-
est pieces of music we know about from this
hemisphere: the Peruvian folk song “El Condor
Pasa” in an arrangement by Daniel Robles.
Most people know this song as recorded by Si-
mon and Garkunkel decades ago, but this ver-
sion adds a slightly more archaic sound and
harmony to the mix, helped by the inclusion of
folk instruments and percussion to the standard
orchestra.
But later in the concert was a piece from
the other end of the spectrum – a world premier
of “Fiesta!” by contemporary Peruvian com-
poser Jimmy Lopez. A fascinating little exer-
cise in rhythms and splashes of color, this is
definitely modern music for people who nor-
mally shy away from modern music. The ideas
of the piece are not fully developed yet, but this
symphony in miniature has exciting potential.
Plus Lopez, who was in the audience that night,
is quite young and no doubt has many years of
composing still ahead of him.
But the evening was not all about dance.
Balthasar Companon’s Collection of Vice-Re-
gal Music was written during the time of
Haydn and Mozart and sounds just like them
except for the addition of maracas and cas-
tanets in the orchestra. On the other extreme
was the moody “Mariel” for cello and orchestra
by Osvaldo Golijov. A threnody for a recently
deceased friend, “Mariel” kept soloist Ilya
Finkelshteyn in the forefront throughout, but
this is not a flashy virtuoso piece but more like
an elegiac tone poem with one sound predomi-
nating.
As with many of these “Symphony with a
Twist” concerts, there were additional elements
to the performance. In the first half, the lush
photography of Fabiana Van Lente added a lot
to the pieces being performed, even if some of
the narrative text that accompanied the pictures
was overly obvious. The second half with
arrangements of several popular dances like the
“Granada” and “La Comparsita” included two
Peruvian dancers making the most of the tango
like rhythms of the pieces.
But good music is just good music. The
first half was a little too long but it ended with
excerpts from the ballet Estancia by the great
Argentine composer Alberto Ginestera. With
its folk song-slow movement and the increas-
ingly driving rhythms of the final dance, you
didn’t need slides or dances. Ginestera’s or-
chestral magic supplied all the local color and
excitement one could wish for.
The current season of the BSO at Strath-
more is quickly coming to an end. The remain-
ing concerts include an all-Bach evening on
June 5 and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on
June 19. Then after a quick break, the BSO re-
turns on July 10 for the first of four summer
concerts, including Vivaldi’s Four Seasons on
July 10 and Leon Fleisher laying Mozart on
July 24.
Then the 2008-2009 season starts Sept. 20
with Holst’s The Planets. Other early season
highlights include works by Bernstein and
Mahler on Sept. 25, a pops concert featuring
the music of Billy Joel on Oct. 2 and NSO con-
ductor Leonard Slatkin conducting his own
piece The Raven in honor of the upcoming Poe
bicentennial on Nov. 6.
For more information, call toll free 1-877-
BSO-1444 or check out their new Web site at
www.bsomusic.org.
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