Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic accent the colors, rhythms, and passion of music by leading composers from Argentina in this invigorating evening at the Hollywood Bowl: Astor Piazzolla, the master of Nuevo Tango, who´s four tangos feature on stage the dance company Tango Buenos Aires, known worldwide as the most authentic and uncompromising representative of the tango, Alberto Ginastera, one of the most important 20th-century classical composers of the Americas and Piazzolla´s first teacher, and Lalo Schifrin, who, beside his concert music, is the composer of the famous scores of Mission: Impossible and Dirty Harry. His “Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra”, a world premiere recording, is composed for Ángel Romero, an iconic master of the classical guitar.
El Sistema at Salzburg Festival
Rarely has an orchestra enchanted and thrilled ist audience as did the National Children’s Orchestra of Venezuela at the Salzburg Festival! This astonishing group was founded in 2010 by José Antonio Abreu as part of El Sistema, and Sir Simon Rattle conducted ist first-ever concert in Caracas. At the Salzburg Festival, it was Rattle on the podium again, conducting the children’s orchestra at its international debut.
A choir for hard-of-hearing and deaf youths? Sounds like a contradiction in terms, but the one-of-a-kind White Hands Choir of Venezuela proves the opposite, and this 60-mins film documents the choir’s first tour abroad following an invitation from the Salzburg Festival. The programme features Latin-American folk songs and Piazzolla arrangements as well as choral works by Mozart and Rutter.
West-Eastern Divan Orchestra at Teatro Colón – A Tango Evening
On the occasion of the “Festival de Música y Reflexión” at the Teatro Colón, Daniel Barenboim and his West Eastern Divan Orchestra celebrate the centennials of two extraordinary Argentinian musicians in 2016: Alberto Ginastera, eminent creator of modern classical music interfused with folkloristic elements, and Horacio Salgán, whose voice was distinctive in the development of Argentine tango during the 20th century. Barenboim and the WEDO present with “solidity and agility” Ginastera’s Violin Concerto as well as three tango compositions by Salgán. “It was the most particular concert of those Daniel Barenboim and the WEDO had programmed” (La Nación).
Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela – Concert
Under the heading “Party in the Felsenreitschule,” the Munich daily Münchner Merkur boldly proclaimed: “Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra guests at the Salzburg Festival – and delivers the biggest audience hit of the summer.” Two days after the concert reviewed by the Merkur, the ensemble united its massive forces once again for a spectacular concert in the Grosses Festspielhaus – another unqualified success! Rarely has an orchestra reached out and grabbed its audience in such a visceral manner; and even more rarely has such a feat been accomplished by an orchestra of youngsters between the ages of 12 and 26! The Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, the Salzburg Festival’s resident orchestra of 2008, is a product of the “Sistema de Orquestas” set up to allow children of all social levels to learn a musical instrument and play in an ensemble.
San Francisco Symphony – Season Opening Gala 2021
Feel the energy as the great San Francisco Symphony welcomes its new music director Esa-Pekka Salonen with its 110th season Reopening Night, filled with jazz and dance from special guests. To kick of the evening, Slonimsky’s Earbox is a virtuosic piece composed in 1995 by Bay Area composer John Adams, full of cascading phrases of minimalist patterns being played with remarkable precision and energy by the orchestra. Alonzo King’s choreography for the four movements of Alberto Ginastera’s Ballet Suite Estancia is a joyride. The dancers of the Alonzo King LINES Ballet excel themselves at athletic jumps and limber, airy movements within the explosive last dance of the suite, the ‘Malambo’. Gaia, a 27-minute opus by the jazz legend Wayne Shorter forms the centerpiece of the evening and features the extraordinary bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding. The evening evolves into a true night of enchantment with ‘Noche de incantamiento’ by Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas who wrote a percussion extravaganza with his music to the film La noche de los Mayas in 1939.