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Revueltas Festival
Reviews:
Le Monde de la Musique
Silvestre Revueltas in Santa Barbara
The man who had time.
Departed prematurely at the age of 40, Silvestre Revueltas'
legacy to posterity consists of forty scores of sarcastic
and cubist inspiration. His reputation, however, is
submerged in an ocean of misunderstanding. Sixty years
later, what has remained of this non-conformist's music?
"Rest, my brother, your journey is over ... the American
stars are now your homeland". Was Pablo Neruda intent
in immortalizing the Mexcian musician with this eulogy,
the day after Silvestre Revueltas' death, on October
5, 1940? "From this day on, the entire Earth shall be
your home", said Neruda before the dedication: "To Silvestre
Revueltas of Mexico, in death".
Despite this tribute from a Nobel Prize in Literature,
posterity has been slow in recognizing, or even acknowledging
Revueltas. A Festival in his honor allowed us to revisit
his contribution. For the centenary of his birth, conductor
Gisèle Ben-Dor scheduled the composer's major works
in Santa Barbara. Thus, the Revueltas Festival was born
of the inveterate will of Gisèle Ben-Dor and the enthusiastic
work of an entire community. In four days, there were
nine concerts to discover all of Revueltas' facets.
Originally from Uruguay, Gisèle Ben-Dor has long championed
the works of Latin American composers. Since becoming
Music Director of the Santa Barbara Symphony in 1994,
she has become the convincing advocate of Arturo Marquez,
Miguel del Aguila, Mario Lavista, Leonardo Velasquez,
Roberto Rodriguez, Javier Alvarez, Gabriela Ortiz and,
especially, Alberto Ginastera, Villa Lobos, and, of
course, Silvestre Revueltas, whose last score, "La Coronela",
she conducted in a world premiere recording. It is not
easy to restore a composer's image, having died sixty
years ago, scarcely known and seldom played outside
of his own country. Even here (in the United States),
the social walls do not allow the Mexican community
- significant in Santa Barbara - to overcome the barriers
which separate it from the event, or to create a populist,
welcomed audience. Only the free family concert attracted
young Mexicans, thanks to the Espiral Puppet Theatre
of Mexico, a historic ensemble for whome Revueltas wrote
the delightful Sensemaya (1937). The success with this
large audience provided an element of feed-back. Elsewhere,
at the Arlington Theatre (of Hispanic inspiration),
the evening attracted a very large audience composed
essentially of elderly Americans. After Villa Lobos'
American premiere of "Amerindia", conducted by Gisèle Ben-Dor, it was the projection of the celebrated film
"Redes" ("Nets") by Fred Zimmerman, accompanied live
by the SBS, which provided the most striking experience.
The score combines urban polyrhythmic music and popular
styles like "Mariachi", where trumpets, clarinets and
tuba play an essential role. The dramatic power of the
music in "Redes" surpasses that of other film scores,
such as "Vamonos con Pancho Villa" or "La Noche de los
Mayas". In these cases, it would be interesting to judge
the impact of the music by juxtaposing the ensemble
as a big symphony.
The attending musicologists, specializing in Revueltas,
communicated their surprise that the spiritual connection
between Revueltas, Poulenc, Weill or Varese is never
mentioned. Another forte of the Festival was an evening
dedicated to Revueltas' chamber music. "Homenaje a Federico
Garcia Lorca" (1936) is a passionate score, as much
as Cuauhnahuac (1931), and particularly the delirious
"Musica para Charlar" (1938), a resonant episode depicting
a train traveling through South California.
Revueltas' music is a mosaic of ingenious motifs linked
by a discourse alternatively fluid and abrupt. His compositions,
always surprising, are brief kaleidoscopes. His four
string quartets do not exceed a maximum of 37 altogether.
This is what makes Revueltas' posterity a problematic
matter, a fact which could be noted at the Festival:
a program entirely consecrated to his works would saturate
the year with a multitude of ideas. His longest work,
"La Coronela", lasts 35 minutes, but most of his other
works do not exceed 10 minutes or so. Revueltas started
composing frantically only ten years before his death.
He believed he had time … However, as remarked by Octavio
Paz, "in Silvestre lived several interlocutors, many
passions, numerous abilities, weaknesses, but also refinement.
He gave his work a wealth of possibilities and pulsations.
The sound of a first chord is like the first ray of
light escaping from a world in formation." What shall
the future of Revueltas' music be, composed as it is,
of brief and diverse universes?
One must admire the courage of the organizers and of
the musicians, who had to assimilate a mountain of scroes,
so as to transmit Gisèle Ben-Dor's enthusiasm, her talent
as a colorist, and her sense of rhythm. Her precise
direction reflects all the joy or the tenderness contained
in this music. It would be interesteing for a European
orchestra to include some of Revueltas' works in carefully
designed programs, where the Mexican composer could
be played alongside Varese, Poulenc, and why not, Webern
and Berg. Let us not forget that Essa-Pekka Salonen
has recorded some Revueltas' works in a disc which was
awarded a "Choc" by Le Monde de la Musique in 1999 ...
BIOGRAPHY:
Born on December 31, 1899, in Santiago Papasquiaro,
a small town south of Chihuahua. His tahter gave him
a violin on his fifth birthday. Silvestre grew up during
the strains of the Mexican Revolution, during which
music was to find its national identity, just as mural
paintings did. This idea will later impregnate his entire
work. Revueltas studied violin and composition in Mexico,
and later in the US. During the early 20's, he founded
and led an orchestra in San Antonio. Composition was
for Revueltas no more than a sporadic excersise then.
He first works, "Batik" (1926) and "Piece for Orchestra"
(1929) attracted the attention of his friends (including
Carlos Chavez), who encouraged him to take a larger
step in the art of composition.
At Chavez' invitation, Revueltas became assistant conductor
of the Mexico Symphony Orchestra (1925-35). "Cuauhnahuac",
composed in 1931, was the work that launched a short
but intense creative life. In 1937, he traveled to Europe,
conducting his music there and championing the republican
cause. After a quarrel with Carloz Chavez, Revueltas
survived thanks to his movie scores. He died in 1940,
of pneumonia aggravated by alcoholism.
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