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Articles
Classical
CD Review
February, 1999
By Len Mullenger
Only five years separate the two works on this disc
and yet they are totally different. Both are ballet
scores being presented complete for the first time although
a short concert suite from Panambí has been available
previously, as have excerpts from Estancia. The London
Symphony Orchestra is conducted by the Uraguayan conductor
Gisèle Ben-Dor. She was a protégé of Leonard
Bernstein and worked with him at Tanglewood and, following
in his footsteps, came to public attention as a last
minute replacement for an indisposed Kurt Masur to conduct
the New York Philharmonic without rehearsal. She is
currently Music Director of the Santa Barbara Symphony
and was chosen by the Musicians themselves to become
the Director of the Boston Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra.
The Los Angeles Times declared her as "just the conductor
we have been waiting for to make a really persuasive
case for Latin composer" and this is her second such
disc although a third release has simultaneously appeared
of music by Revueltas (Koch 37421-2) which, it is hoped,
will be submitted for review as it supplements the Reveultas
disc already reviewed this month.
Ginastera destroyed his juvenile works so Panambí is
listed as his Opus 1. In an earlier work, Impressions
of Puna, (withdrawn and then reinstated) Ginastera had
incorporated Amerindian music to evoke the rocky landscape
of Puna. Panambí was an extension of his interest in
native music and legend and has the subtitle, Choreographic
legend. Completed in 1937 it was first performed as
a complete ballet in 1940 and subsequently won him a
number of prizes establishing him as a Nationalistic
composer. It is a sequence of 17 dances (some lasting
only a few seconds). No synopsis is provided but the
titles probably tell it all:
Moonlight on the Paraná [4.41] - Native Festival [0.26]
- Girl's round dance [1.23] - Warrior's dance [1.57]
- Scene [2.41] - Pantomine of eternal love [3.51] -
Guirahú's song [3.19] - The Sorcerer approaches Guirahú
, The water sprites appear, The Sorcerer hides [0.29]
- The water sprites play [2.08] - The Sorcerer reappears,
The Sorcerer cries [0.37] - The tribe is uneasy, Panambí's
prayer [4.14] - Invocation to the spirits of power [1.18]
- Dance of the Sorcerer [2.09] - The Sorcerer speaks
[0.34] - The girl's lament [3.12] - Tupá appears, The
warriors threaten the Sorcerer [0.51] - dawn [4.58]
[39.11]
This score is extremely derivative, but that does not
seem to matter. There are only passing references to
South American folk rhythms and the influences of Ravel
and Stravinsky are obvious although the Bartók references
quoted by Ben-Dor in an interview with Gramophone (1/99)
escape me. I will give you some reference points: the
opening moonlight scene-setter is luxuriant with dark
woodwind and brass, and is reminiscent of the Ravel
of Mother Goose, whereas the third dance with beating
percussion (3 bass drums), chugging strings and stabbing
trombones has origins in the Rite of Spring. Debussy
of L'après-midi makes an appearance in Pantomima del
amor eterno (Pantomine of eternal love) which is a beautiful
largo with extended passages for flute, oboe and horn.
Guirahu's song continues the same pensive mood and opens
with a flute playing a melody very similar to the trumpet
opening of Schmidt's fourth symphony, which then leads
to an extended, graceful cadenza. In track 8, the Sorcerer
approaches with contrabassoon imitating the Beast in
Beauty and the Beast from Mother Goose - and so on.
These references to other composers make for no difficulty
in hearing this very enjoyable ballet music which concludes
in a glorious flowing melody in an evocation of dawn.
Estancia (1941) was a commission from Lincoln Kirstein
who was touring Latin America with his ballet company,
American Ballet Caravan. But it was never performed
by them and only existed as a four movement suite until
finally performed as a ballet in 1952. This is its recording
première. The piece is based on a typical working day
on a ranch (Estancia) on the Pampas, so reflects the
daily life of the gaucho (cowboy) rather than the native
indians. It is based upon the poem Martín Fierro by
José Hernández, parts of which are recited and sung
by the bass-baritone Luis Gaeta. The ballet starts where
Panambi left off with a dawn sequence. The scenes are
Dawn [2.34] - Little dance [2.07] - Morning; Wheat dance
[ 3.21] - The farm labourers [2.55] - The cattlemen,
the entry of the foals [2.03] - The townsfolk [2.18]
- Afternoon: 'Triste' from the Pampas [3.21] - Rodeo
[2.04] - Twilight idyll [2.51] - Night; Nocturne [4.19]
- Dawn [1.41' - Final dance - Malmbo [3.32] [33.11]
Dawn opens with a riding rhythm on full orchestra based
on a Gaucho dance the Malambo, a driving rhythm that
would grace the opening credits of any Western, and
Gaeta narrates the Dawn section of the poem:
Here I set myself down to sing
To the sound of the guitar
Like a man who unveils
Some extaordinary pain
Like the solitary bird
Who finds comfort in song
The accompaniment is quiet and sad as the poem recalls
the end of the gaucho way of life. There is further
recitation between Little Dance and the waltz-like,soaring
Morning and wheat dance. The farm labourers dance to
the vigorous Malamba rhythm of the Dawn sequence and
the cattlemen to an equally rumbustious version of it.
The townsfolk do not know what to make of this with
their quizzically tiptoed dance. Afternoon has a sad
little song:
And now for the first time we go
To that most hidden, most deeply felt region:
Though the whole of my life
Is a string of woes -
Every sorrowful soul
Likes to sing of its griefs.
All sorrows are blown away in the exciting Rodeo and
we then enter twilight, Night and finally dawn again
in a series of reflective passages, ending in a final
burst of energy in the ecstatic, whirling, rousing Final
Dance - a Malambo - which is where we came in. This
is a very lyrical score and I did not detect any influences.
In those four intervening years Ginastera had quite
developed his own style.
This recording was made in the Abbey Road studio and
produced by Michael Fine who had been "borrowed" from
Deutch Grammophon. Technically it is one of the best
recordings I have heard. I thought on first hearing
that it was occasionally a little bass-heavy but it
is a truthful realization of those three bass drums!
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