Ginastera's Garden

[ritter]

Trinity Wall Street, that sounds like Julian Wachner is on board; splendid!

Indeed, so it seems: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/23/arts/music/review-trinity-wall-street-and-julian-wachner-play-carnegie-hall.html?_r=0

[ritter]

A positive review of the new Ginastera disc under Karl-Heinz Steffens on Capriccio:

Nowadays the music of Astor Piazzolla is far better known than that of his one-time teacher Alberto Ginastera. But it was Ginastera who, from the 1940s onwards, gave a national identity to the music of Argentina, one that went beyond the world of tango, in much the same way that Heitor Villa-Lobos had put Brazilian music on the international map a generation earlier. The three are arguably the most significant South American composers of the 20th century.

Next year will be the centenary of Ginastera's birth. No doubt there will be more releases marking the anniversary then, but this anthology provides a very useful starting point. As in conductor Karl-Heinz Steffens's earlier disc of works by BA Zimmermann for Capriccio, pieces from different phases of the composer's development are juxtaposed, so that the staging posts in Ginastera's musical journey are clearly indicated. He started out in the 1940s as a card-carrying nationalist, keen to invigorate Argentinian music by incorporating folk tunes and popular songs into his style. The bombastic Obertura para el "Fausto" Criollo of 1943, and the rather more interesting and dramatically subtle symphonic triptych Ollantay, based on a Mayan legend, represent that period here. What the sleeve-notes writer calls the "subjective nationalism" of Ginastera's music in the 1950s, which was much more refined and understated, is represented by the large-scale Variaciones Concertantes, a kind of concerto for orchestra in which each of the 12 variations spotlights instruments in the orchestra in a way that seems elegant and never contrived.

But it's the suite that Ginastera derived from Bomarzo, the second and best known of his three operas, first performed in 1967, that is the most substantial piece here. The stage work was the centrepiece of his neo-expressionist period, an opera on the grandest, most ambitious scale which uses serialism, microtones, tone clusters and aleatoric passages to conjure up a world of murderous revenge in 16th-century Italy. Alban Berg seems the obvious musical model, and the shape of the suite recalls that of the Lulu Symphony, even to the inclusion of an optional part for soprano, sung here by María Isabel Segarra. Though the music (and the action it underpins) comes close to grand guignol at times, Steffens makes sure that no one will underestimate its expressive power.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/nov/11/ginastera-variaciones-concertantes-ollantay-bomarzo-suite-etc-review-a-timely-portrait

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[ritter]

Yet another interesting Ginastera release coming up. Gisèle Ben-Dor, who has some great Ginastera discs to her credit (now availiale from Naxos), conducts the Santa Barbara Symphony in excerpts from Ginastera's first opera Don Rodrigo  (with Plácido Domingo, who made headlines in this work back in 1966 at the NYCO and later in Los Angeles), the Cantata Milena (previously only available on CD on the Phoenix label--a recording from Denver coupled with Peter Mennin's Fourth symphony) and an orchestartion--not by the composer himself--of the Cinco Canciones Populares Argentinas, op.10.

Announced for March on Warner (no cover yet AFAIK).

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Any Ginastera box sets coming out next year? I would love to purchase one....if not I will probably just settle for the cello concertos plus some other things I might find cheap on Naxos.

[bhodges]

On Thursday at 7:30 pm, the Miró Quartet are doing all 3 of Ginastera's string quartets. The concert, sponsored by Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, will be live-streamed. Link below.

http://www.chambermusicsociety.org/seasontickets/event/the_ginastera_cycle_-_apr_7_2016

--Bruce

[not edward]

If anyone missed out, there's a new recording out of Milena under Gisele Ben-Dor. Also on the disc, some excerpts from Don Rodrigo, with Placido Domingo reprising the title role nearly 50 years after creating it.

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[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Apparently a bunch of Ginastera recoridings are due to be released on Chandos this year. Good to keep an eye out for those....

[ritter]

Cross-posted from the WAYLTN thread:

First listen to this recent purchase:

[asin]B019NU7BMM[/asin]
As mentioned by me elswhere on GMG, the Five Popular Songs, op. 10 are an orchestration by Shimon Cohen of the original with piano accompaniment. I don't really see the point of these orchestrations, but these are very nice songs, and the  orchestral verrsion is pleasant enough, and delightfully sung by Ana María Martínez.

But, caveat emptor: anyone looking for the "nationalistic" Ginastera must know that the only music in the vein of the big, early ballets (Estancia, Panambí) on this CD are the songs. Don Rodrigo and Milena are from the composer's last, "neo-expressionistic" period, where nothing remotely "Argentinian" can be detected (at least by me). The two long excerpts from Ginastera's first opera make a very strong impact. As opposed to the impressions Andrew Clements' in The Guardian (here), I believe that the success of these scenes is the superposition of soaring, lyrical vocal lines over a very dense and rather fascinating orchestration (Clements speaks of "highly wrought, anguished vocal writing"). Now, these are simply "bleeding chunks" (albeit very effective ones), and I do not  understand why they are presented here in isolation. Still, the end of the opera, with the bells ringing after the king's (i.e. Rodrigo's) death is gripping. Plácido Domingo (whose contribution was spliced in several years after the orchestral and soprano parts were recorded) is in top form, and very idiomatic.

Milena is fascinating (and, although I haven't listened to it for quite a while, appears much more succesful in this new recording with Virginia Tola than in the pioneering effort from Denver by  Phillys Curtin on Phoenix). Now, there is an extended spoken section that, for those who do not speak Spanish, can be a drawback. But once again, Ginastera's superposing of the vocal line with some really wonderful orchestral textures is masterful, and the piece as a whole is rather wonderful (top-notch late Ginastera IMHO). A very famous quaotation near the end (I won't spoil the effect for those who approach the piece for the first time) is haunting and touching. The text (extracted from Kafka's Letters to Milena in Spanish translation) fits the composer's phantasmagoric inventiveness perfectly (very much in the vein of the librettos to his three operas).

I've been an admirer of Ginastera's music for many, many years now--my introduction to him was the "middle-period", stunning Harp concerto--, and I find him a superb composer (in all his styles "subjective nationalism", "ojective nationalism" and "neo-expressiosm"). Listening to this CD, though, I was struck more than ever before by the "excentricity" (in the sense of "being outside the center") of his late music. Here we have a composer who abandons his Argentine "roots" to fully embrace an avantgarde idiom (even if not a cutting-edge one--the name Alban Berg often comes to mind), setting European texts (distinguished Spanish playwright Alejandro Casona for Don Rodrigo, and Kafka for Milena--and his other two operas are both set in renaissance Italy). Perhaps there is a very Argentine "malaise" and "anxiety" in his late oeuvre (cliché as this may sound), and the sun never really shines in his late music. But listening to him, I cannot help but recall (with a smile) an old joke told in most of the Spanish-speaking world: "Argentines are Italians who speak Spanish, dress like Englishmen and wish they were Frenchmen". Ginastera's late music could be defined with some sort of variation of this line.  . This, of course, does not make him any better or worse as a composer (and I insist, I think he's an excellent one).

I applaud Gisèle Ben-Dor for bringing this CD to the market (in spite of the relatively awkward programming). The orchestral contribution by her Santa Barbara band is fantastic. I'm now looking forward to two more Ginastera CDs that should appear later this year: Arturo Tamayo's world-première recording of the Estudios sinfónicos (I presume this will be on the NEOS label) and Turbae from Trinity Wall Street. 

[Maestro267]

For some reason, I had it in my mind that Ginastera's centenary was on April 22nd. But it turns out it's April 11th. Which, as I write this, is tomorrow.

Looks like it's just the Piano Concertos then...

[Kontrapunctus]

Has anyone heard this set?



I heard Sergio Tiempo with the LA Phil/Dudamel play Ginastera's 1st Concerto in January--I hope they record it. Better yet, I wish RCA would remaster João Carlos Martins' old recording and issue it on CD.

[lescamil]

I heard Sergio Tiempo with the LA Phil/Dudamel play Ginastera's 1st Concerto in January--I hope they record it. Better yet, I wish RCA would remaster João Carlos Martins' old recording and issue it on CD.

This will be broadcasted on KUSC in a month or so. You better believe I will be recording it. I heard those two play it in 2012. It was great, except for Dudamel and/or Tiempo's incessant grunting in rhythm.

Unfortunately, I think Martins' old recording should stay in the doldrums of recordings. I didn't quite like that recording and found it extremely inaccurate and full of mistakes.

[Kontrapunctus]

This will be broadcasted on KUSC in a month or so. You better believe I will be recording it. I heard those two play it in 2012. It was great, except for Dudamel and/or Tiempo's incessant grunting in rhythm.

Unfortunately, I think Martins' old recording should stay in the doldrums of recordings. I didn't quite like that recording and found it extremely inaccurate and full of mistakes.

I don't have the score, so I'm not aware of inaccuracies/mistakes. I guess it's hard to play it with that degree of intensity and also play it cleanly! Tiempo did not play the Toccata movement as fast as Martins, but it had plenty of excitement. They are taking it on tour, so perhaps DG or some other major label will record it and issue it on CD. Ideally, of course, they'd play and record both Concerti. By the way, Hilde Somer gets my award for the worst performance of No.2! (I haven't heard her recording of No.1, nor do I want to...)

[ritter]

I too wish the Martins / BSO / Leinsdorf recording of PC1 were reissued on CD (along with the Variaciones concertantes).  Ginastera himself seems to have had João Carlos Martins in high esteem, and the composer's daughter also speaks higjly of him in her book of letters from him (interspersed with memoirs). If only for documentary value (I haven't heard Martins at all, and the CD of his playing Bach's WTC1 I saw in Rio de Janeiro a couple of weeks ago was soooo outraggeously expensive, that I gave it a pass  ).

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

11th today, Ginastera centenary in Australia. I want to check local radio stations to see if there's anything programmed........

[bhodges]

Just adding to the chorus of Tiempo admirers in the Piano Concerto, which I heard when Dudamel and LAPO were in New York. And yes, if there's a god, they will record it - a performance of that caliber deserves to be archived.

--Bruce

[The new erato]

They are taking it on tour, so perhaps DG or some other major label will record it and issue it on CD. Ideally, of course, they'd play and record both Concerti.

DG these days recording something interesting? Hope springs eternal of course.

[lescamil]

Just adding to the chorus of Tiempo admirers in the Piano Concerto, which I heard when Dudamel and LAPO were in New York. And yes, if there's a god, they will record it - a performance of that caliber deserves to be archived.

--Bruce

Agreed. It's the best I have heard any combination play it, except for possibly Rolf Hind and Leonard Slatkin.

[pjme]

Luis Ascot :

https://youtu.be/vndswsbD3OQ

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

11th today, Ginastera centenary in Australia. I want to check local radio stations to see if there's anything programmed........

A lousy 7 and a half minutes in total was programmed for today on our national classical station.

[Mirror Image]

A lousy 7 and a half minutes in total was programmed for today on our national classical station.

Well it's not like Ginastera is a well-known composer and is very much one of those composers existing on the fringe. I mean people who are serious about classical music have heard of him and, depending on their own tastes, have heard at least a few of his works.