Trans-atlantic songs of love, Spanish style

One of classical music’s most charismatic performers, soprano Ana María Martínez, is coming to Santa Fe for two concerts with the Santa Fe Symphony. Her May 19 performance of Hector Berlioz’ song cycle Les Nuits d’été with the orchestra at the Lensic Performing Arts Center is sold out, but you can enjoy a more intimate experience with her at Amor!, a chamber music event with select symphony musicians at St. Francis Auditorium on Thursday, May 16.

It’s an all-spanish language program reflecting her Puerto Rican heritage and that of Guillermo Figueroa, the symphony’s principal conductor, who will lay down the baton and pick up his violin and viola for the event. They’ll be joined by the renowned pianist Craig Terry, along with violinists David Felberg and Ruxandra Marquardt, cellist Joel Becktell, and percussionist Alexis Corbin.

Amor! is a trans-atlantic survey of music relating to love by composers from Spain, Cuba, Mexico, and Argentina, as well as Puerto Rico. “They’re all gems in their own right,” Martínez tells Pasatiempo, “but I’m particularly fond of Héctor Campos-parsi’s Songs of the Sky and Water. It’s a Puerto Rican song cycle which is very important to me because it’s not done often, and I want audiences to be more familiar with it.”

The best-known work on the program is Manuel de Falla’s Seven Popular Spanish Songs, written just before the outbreak of the First World War. Falla took the melodies of seven folk and popular tunes, then harmonized them while also at times expanding the melodic material.

“I first performed them as a 20-year-old student at Juilliard,” says Martínez. “I was working on finding my interpretive voice, without much success, until I sang them at one of the school’s Friday afternoon performances that were free for audience members to attend. “One of my peers, with whom I’m still friends and still compete for the same jobs, came up afterwards and said, ‘The you that you were able to access in that cycle is the you that we’ve all been waiting to hear come out.’”

Martínez is also excited by the prospect of being reunited with Figueroa for both performances in Santa Fe. “I’ve known him for so long I can’t even remember the exact year,” she says. “The Figueroas are a musical dynasty in Puerto Rico, and I grew up always hearing about them from my mother, who was also a classical singer.”

The concert also includes music by Joaquín Turina (his Poems in the Form of Songs, which explore a lighter and more playful side of love); Carlos Gardel (a movie matinee idol who also created the tango-canción song form); Ernesto Lecuona (the title song from his zarzuela Maria la O ), and “Monsita” Ferrer (the aunt of actor José Ferrer, who is particularly celebrated for her danzas, which are graceful songs in waltz time.)

“I hope that Amor! will whet people’s appetites and they’ll want to discover more of this music from different Hispanic composers and cultures,” Martínez says. “Plus it’s a fun, fun program!” — Mark Tiarks/for The New Mexican

Amor!

7 p.m. Thursday, May 16

St. Francis Auditorium, 107 W. Palace Avenue $52-$87

505-983-1414; santafesymphony.org