| | |  Entertainment 
Via Cultural Invitation Concert of The Youth Symphony of Guadalajara
 Cecile Scriban - PVNN
May 20, 2010
If the Guadalajara Youth Symphony Orchestra's "Orchestral Fantasies" aim was to appeal to the musical yet uninitiated youth of Vallarta, the works performed that evening of May 15 at Plaza de la Hermandad (downtown, between the Villa Premiere and Buenaventura hotels) certainly filled the bill.
Under swaying palms, gentle breezes and with ocean waves breaking in the rosy twilight, the promising 28-year old Mexican conductor/composer Miguel Almaguer stepped up onto a beautifully lit stage and a full 24-member orchestra and instantly engaged a well attended audience in a concise yet in-depth introduction of each work and its composer throughout the evening's concert program.
A most interesting combination of lesser performed gems of music from around the world, the program was as broad-reaching, imaginative as it was eclectic in its variety of styles and genres.
PROGRAM:
Poet-Peasant Overture - Franz von Suppé (1819-1895)
Ritual Fire Dance - Manuel De Falla (1876-1946)
Toy Symphony - Leopold Mozart (1719-1787)
Toy Symphony - Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006)
Libertango - Astor Piazzola (1921-1992)
Conga del Fuego Nuevo - Arturo Márquez, (b. 1950)
To note, the poetic Overture of the Croatian composer Franz von Suppé was followed by the contrasting hypnotic rhythms of de Falla's "Danza Ritual del Fuego," applying the playful use of musical toy instruments for orchestral colour in both of the "Sinfonias de los Juguetes," one by the classical Austrian Leopold Mozart (young Amadeus's papa) and the other by the contemporary Englishman Sir Malcolm Arnold. Well! All eyes were transfixes on the stage and not a toe stirred even among the many youngsters in the audience, some of them just 4 years old...
Without any intermission, the enraptured crowd went tangoing to the enticing throb of Astor Piazolla's "Libertango," to finish off blazing with Mexico's own internationally famed Arturo Marquez' "Conga del Fuego" with, yes... glorious fireworks erupting intermittently around the whole orchestra!
Not over, the packed crowd, now standing, was treated, among other "encores" to one of our competent conductor's (who studied, among others, at the Caroline University in Prague, the Czech Republic) very own composition - from the soundtrack of the movie "La Playa" about his home town of Monterrey, seductively fast-paced and rhythmic, yet languid and perhaps, questioning....
Under a sliver of a moon and starry skies now, a social gathering rounded off this perfect musical event, after delighting the public with more music, but this time, samplings of vocal solo and ensemble works for future performances. |
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