Philharmonic heats up with ‘Spanish Flame’
The New Mexico Philharmonic will ignite Popejoy Hall with “Spanish Flame,” a selection of Spanish music paired with Leonard Bernstein on Saturday, Nov. 3..
The musicians will perform Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla’s Bandoneón Concerto, “Aconcagua,” and “Adios Nonino,” the latter written after the death of his beloved father. The orchestra also will play Bernstein’s “Slava! A Political Overture for Orchestra” in honor of the composer’s 100th anniversary. The concert will close with Manuel de Falla’s “The Three-Cornered Hat,” featuring soprano Catalina
Cuervo.
Recognized as one of the masters of the bandoneón, Peter Soave will solo on the Bandoneón Concerto.
“This is a tango concerto,” music director Roberto Minczuk said. Piazzolla “was a bandoneón player. He had his own tango orchestra in Buenos Aires.
“He really created the New Tango style,” Minczuk continued. “It’s very modern. It has the influence of jazz. I think it is one of the only concertos for the instrument with an orchestra.”
The bandoneón resembles the accordion.
“It was invented by the Germans as a portable organ for church services,” Minczuk said.
But when it arrived in Argentina with German immigrants, it was put to very different use.
It began in the brothels. “The tango was born with this instrument,” Minczuk said. “It’s a very difficult instrument, because it doesn’t have a keyboard. It has a system of keys that have no natural pattern.”
De Falla’s “Three Cornered Hat” highlights the Spanish composer’s nationalism.
“The music is taken from the ballet,” Minczuk said.
The concert will mark the second time the Colombianborn soprano Cuervo has performed with the New Mexico Philharmonic.