20:30 hrs. Teatro Degollado
12:30 hrs. Teatro Degollado
Program 4
Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco
Enrique Radillo, Guest Conductor
Toccata para Percusiones | C. CHÁVEZ
Homenaje a Cervantes | MONCAYO
Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta | BARTOK
SYNOPSIS: Click on "View event details".
Thursday, July 8th, 8:30 PM
Sunday, July 11th, 12:30 PM
Second Orchestra Season 2021, Teatro Degollado
*Tickets range from $90 to $250 pesos, available at the Teatro Degollado box office and through the Ticketmaster system.
SYNOPSIS:
The curtain opens on our fourth program in the second OFJ orchestra season of 2021 with the Toccata para Percusiones by renowned Mexican composer Carlos CHÁVEZ. The work was written in 1942 for six percussionists. In the words of the composer, “It was written as an experiment with standard percussion instruments” and it constitutes an enduring example of melodic and thematic writing for a family of instruments that would seem incapable of tuning (or tunefulness)1. On account of the incredibly long rolls performed by various members of the ensemble in the first movement (an insuperable challenge for the first percussionists who attempted the work), the piece has become a part of the basic repertoire for percussion ensemble, and is performed frequently. It has three movements: No.1: Allegro, sempre giusto is characterized by layers of long drum rolls, interspersed with syncopated rhythms. The second movement, begun without pause after the first, No. 2: Largo, features tranquil melodic fragments in the glockenspiel, tubular bells, etc. No. 3: Allegro un poco marziale, with its energetic theme in the tympani, also begins without pause after the second movement.
What follows? Homenaje a Cervantes by beloved Guadalajara-born composer José Pablo MONCAYO… “The score calls for two oboes and string orchestra, a sweet, precise ensemble. With a minimal melody in the strings punctuated by more animated passages in the oboes, Moncayo communicates a profound dignity. “This short work is finalized by an effect of infinite vastness suggested by the sudden disappearance of sound, leaving a return of the principal melody unfinished. In the mind of the listener the inertia of the phrase remains momentarily, begging for completion, as if to involve us irresistibly in the ‘Homage’…2
We finalize our program with one of the Crown jewels of the twentieth century orchestral repertoire: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta by Hungarian composer Béla BARTÓK. The four-movement work “occupies a special place among his compositions, not just for the composer’s audacious and independent choice of instruments (two string orchestras and a battery of percussion which includes piano and celesta), but also for the intense expressiveness and vitality of the material.”3
“The opening of Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta breathes an atmosphere of covert mystery, as the violas of both groups present a theme that turns out to be the subject of a fugue. This creeping, irregular motif not only dominates the whole movement but also figures prominently in all subsequent movements.”3 The fugue develops among the strings with ever-increasing intensity until the tympani and cymbals join in and with the boom of the bass drum, we reach a “chilling” climax, after which the strings continue quietly, with an unearthly aura contributed by cascades on the celesta. The movement ends with whimpering fragments of the fugue.
The second movement, Allegro, maximizes the impact of the antiphonal distribution of the combined string orchestras, punctuated by tympani entrances. The tympani, piano, and harp “contribute to a sonorous and impulsive tapestry that explodes with vital energy, briefly retreats to a playful episode and then resumes its initial propulsion.”3
The third movement, “Provocative, chilling, eerie, is the antithesis of the sweet romantic nocturne… A single-note xylophone incantation, coupled with timpani glissandos, is a harbinger of the extraordinary sonorities Bartók was capable of conjuring. The fact that the material for this movement derives from the first movement fugue subject, adds to our enormous regard for the inventiveness of Bartók.3
The final movement, Allegro molto, introduces a melody of asymmetric rhythm derived from the folk dances of Bartók s native eastern Europe. Later, the first-movement fugue subject returns, leading to a surprisingly romantic moment as we approach the end of the work, followed by the finishing gesture, quick and brilliant.
Enjoy this concert!
*References: 1https://es.laphil.com/musicdb/pieces/4308/toccata-for-percussion; 2SILVANOCANTU en Fughetta, Julio 2019, Fughetta #3: Vuelta a lo elemental. Sobre el “Homenaje a Cervantes” (1947) de José Pablo Moncayo – Revista Palabrerías (revpalabrerias.com); 3 https://es.laphil.com/musicdb/pieces/2390/music-for-strings-percussion-and-celesta