The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Today is May 5 — Cinco de Mayo. And here is a work by Mexican composer Gustavo Campa to celebrate the holiday
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is May 5 – the colorful Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo.
If you don’t know the origins of the holiday and what events sparked it, here is a link to the Wikipedia entry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinco_de_Mayo
Usually the music that celebrates the holiday is popular music or folk music – including mariachi bands and guitar music.
But there is also a good amount of classical music by Mexican composers that can mark the occasion.
In past years, this blog has featured Mexican performing artists such as the terrific pianist Jorge Federico Osorio and the most famous Mexican composer, Carlos Chavez (below, in a photo by Paul Strand).
But there are many others.
Perhaps programming and performing more Mexican and Latin American composers and music would help attract Latinx listeners to concert halls once they reopen.
In any case, here is a link to a sampler or compilation of Mexican music found on Spotify:
https://www.classicalmusicindy.org/cinco-de-mayo-playlist/
And here, in the YouTube video at the bottom, is a lovely “Melody” for violin and orchestra, with a photo essay, by the Mexican composer Gustavo Campa (below) along with a link to his biography:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustavo_Campa
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
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Classical music: YOU MUST HEAR THIS – the “Meditation” for solo piano by Mexican composer Carlos Chavez
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By Jacob Stockinger
The solo piano repertoire is huge, but The Ear knows quite a lot of it.
Yet here is a piece he had never heard, live or recorded, until he finally did hear it this week on Wisconsin Public Radio.
It is the five-minute ”Meditacion” – or Meditation – by the 20th-century Mexican composer Carlos Chavez (below, in a photo by Paul Strand).
It is played beautifully and sensitively in a live performance by the unjustly neglected Mexican virtuoso pianist Jorge Federico Osorio (below), and was recorded — perhaps as an encore, given the applause at the end — with the Piano Concerto by Chavez for the nonprofit Cedille Records in Chicago and distributed by Naxos Records.
Listen to it and let The Ear know what you think.
Does anyone else hear echoes of the eccentric French composer Erik Satie in the music? Shades of other pieces or composers?
Do you like the Chavez piece?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: Friday is Mexican modernism night at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. New CDs from Cedille show that we should hear more Mexican modernist music by Carlos Chavez, Manuel Ponce and other composers performed here.
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By Jacob Stockinger
From 6 to 9 p.m. this Friday, Aug. 23, the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (below) in the Overture Center will host a night that focuses on the great artists of Mexican modernism. Admission is free for MMOCA members and $10 for non-members.
The event will feature an evening of Mexican paintings, prints and photographs as well as refreshments, a gallery talk 6:30-7 p.m. by University of Wisconsin-Madison art professor and artist Jim Escalante and movie screenings.
Here is a link with more details and some visuals;
http://www.mmoca.org/exhibitions-collection/exhibits/los-grandes-del-arte-moderno-mexicano
As luck or coincidence would have it, the event is happening around the same time that I received some CDs in the mail from the outstanding Chicago-based non-profit regional label Cedille. The recordings feature the works of several composers who also brought modernism to Mexican classical music.
Those composers include Carlos Chavez (1899-1978, below top), Manuel Ponce (1882-1948, below middle), Jose Pablo Moncayo (1912-1958), Jose Rolon (1876-1945) and Samuel Zyman (b. 1956) – all performed by the gifted Chicago pianist Jorge Federico Osorio (below) who possesses great tone, lyricism and drama. He plays with confidence born of natural affinity for the music and an abundance of musical talent.
I have sampled all the recordings and am both impressed and pleased.
This is not the Viennese modernism of, say, Arnold Schoenberg and the 12-tonists or atonalists. In fact much of this is much more accessible and listener-friendly. Much of that is due, my ears tell me, to the incorporation of tuneful Mexican folk songs and rhythmically catchy folk dances.
That makes it not so different from the photos of Manuel Alvarez Bravo (below top), the paintings of Frida Kahlo (below second), the expressionist style woodcuts of Leopoldo Mendez (below third), the murals of Diego Rivera (below bottom) – all of which are distinctly modern with overtones of traditional Mexican culture and society.
But for whatever reason this beautiful music has not caught on in the Northern Hemisphere and the United States, and Europe. Perhaps that is yet another expression of the inherent racism or provincialism that runs throughout Euro-centric classical music, as I touched on in recent post that drew some excellent responses form readers. Here is a link:
That is especially regrettable, given that many music ensembles would like to attract more Hispanic or Latino audiences.
It says something that even the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is giving its premiere performance of the Chavez Piano Concerto this season.
The Ear keeps thinking that it would be a smart move, and probably not too an expensive booking, for the Madison Symphony Orchestra or the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra to book Jorge Federico Osorio to play, and maybe even premiere, the spiky but accessible Chavez Piano Concerto here in Madison. It would certainly add some rarely heard repertoire and much needed ethnic diversity to the music scene.
Similarly, I think a lot of solo piano recital would benefit from the music of Manuel Ponce, who composed a lot ore than the ever-popular “Estrellita.” Once could try his Concerto Etudes and “Trozos Romanticos,” his “Mazurcas” (at bottom in a YouTube video), his “Cuban Suite” or even his two etudes written for Arthur Rubinstein. They have elements of Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Debussy and even Scrabin but with a Latin American flavor. These piano pieces certainly a more serious look than they seem to be getting.
But until this repertoire comes to you live, you can’t do better than these recordings that support Jorge Federico Osorio’s remarkable performances that are supported with great sound engineering and informative liner notes.
Tags: Arthur Rubinstein, Cedille Records, Chicago, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Compact Disc, concerto, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Jacob Stockinger, Jorge Federico Osorio, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Mexican music, Mexico, MMOCA, Northern Hemisphere, Overture Center, Piano, Piano concerto, U.S., United States, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra
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