Dudamel, symphony find new ground
Orchestra concerts have many possible virtues, from dramatic intensity to sheer expressive beauty. Novelty — the chance to hear something unlike anything you’ve heard before — rarely ranks high on the list.
That’s one thing that made the San Francisco Symphony’s concert on Friday, Nov. 24, so memorable. Guest conductor Gustavo Dudamel led the orchestra’s first performance of “Odisea” (“Odyssey”), a new concerto by Venezuelan composer Gonzalo Grau for the guitar-like cuatro.
For many members of the audience in Davies Symphony Hall, this was a whole new thing, and it left us wanting more.
The cuatro is a small fourstringed instrument with roots in Renaissance Spain. It’s reminiscent of the ukulele, but the neck is considerably longer and the playing style, to judge from Friday’s performance, is more percussive.
In his introductory remarks from the stage, Grau mentioned that the cuatro has historically been used for accompaniment, but a new generation of virtuosos has begun to uncover a wealth of interpretive possibilities.
Then he ceded the stage to one of those virtuosos, soloist Jorge Glem, and it turned out he wasn’t kidding.
With his trademark red fedora pulled rakishly down over his eyes, Glem turned his modest instrument into a ball of fire. Dense harmonies spilled out in rapid sprints. Brief, spidery spurts of melody connected the downbeats like tendrils stretching from one tree to another.
Just as remarkable was the variety of right-hand techniques Glem used to get sound from the cuatro. At times he delivered sharp downward strums; at others he grabbed all four strings in his fingers as if he were plucking a big tuft of grass. He made circular swirling motions close to the strings and beat on the body of the instrument like a drum.
All these moves were delivered at lightning speed, with Glem shifting from one to the other like a race car driver cutting in and out of lanes. It was a breathtaking display.
The driving metaphor is far from accidental. According to Grau, his concerto, which he composed last year on a commission from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, represents a 470-mile road trip across Venezuela, from