Balance sheet of the Bariloche International Music Festival: a wide range, from cooking to classical works

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From Mahler in the Cathedral at the virtual stove by Nahuel Pennisi with his own songs and from the traditional folk repertoire at the Teatro La Baita, passing through the sophisticated songs of Fernando Cabrera, Nano Stern and a drum party, all coexisting with other music. It happened in the fourth edition of the FIMBA (Bariloche International Music Festival) which ended on Sunday 28 May.

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The closing was with a chamber concert that combined pieces by Shostakovich, Haydn and Dvorak, performed by the Argentine pianist Lorraine Eckell and the Southern Ensemblemembers of the Río Negro Philharmonic Orchestra, residing in the city of Bariloche.

The eclectic Patagonian festival took place over 8 days – between the 19th and 28th – with more than 30 free concerts and the participation of just over 150 artistswith tickets sold out at each of the venues, including Teatro La Baita, the Cathedral and Camping Musical Bariloche, where the farewell concert took place.

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Among the musicians on the program there were also Rodolfo Mederos AND Paola Bernal.

Lorena Eckell has been commissioned to close the Bariloche International Music Festival.  Photographic print

Lorena Eckell has been commissioned to close the Bariloche International Music Festival. Photographic print

nature as scenery

The large window of the room, behind the musicians, afforded andthe unbeatable environment of nature.

The camera program progressed to the beautiful accompaniment of the twilight dusk and its pink skies, turning to orange, and finally the sky darkened as the last brisk movement of the sun sounded. Piano Quartet No. 2 by Dvorak, with a distinctly folkloric character, played by Eckell, Luis Salva (violin), Mariano Videla (viola) and Carmen Levinson (cello).

The pianist introduced each of the works briefly before playing them and created a relaxed atmosphere in the privacy of the room.

Violinists Julia Bolonci and Benjamin Oyarzo accompanied her in Shostakovich’s 5 Pieces, a series of short Viennese-style dances, and created a lively atmosphere that preceded the G major Trio. Gypsy, by Haydn, with the participation of violinist Carolina Yobanolo and cellist Carmen Levinson. All the musicians joined in the encore, the Ave Maria (Many Years cousin) From Goshawk Piazzolla.

Nano Stern, the Chilean singer-songwriter.

Nano Stern, the Chilean singer-songwriter.

FIMBA is a festival that continues to consolidate with a proposal that aims to combine different musical languages, between the classic and the popular.

Over the past three days, the presence of Fernando Cabrera and the Chilean artist Nano Stern has stood out, accompanied by the string ensemble of the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Río Negro, under the direction of Martín Milstein, and by the fine drums of Facundo Catalán.

The Argentine-Chilean-Uruguayan meeting at the Teatro la Baita – on Saturday 26th we attended the second of the presentations, one at 8pm and the other at 10pm – was as vibrant as it was exciting.

Stern opened the evening with 1,500 roundscontinue with let’s invent a country – from his latest album I still believe in beauty-. With its intense version of Manifestalways accompanied by his guitar, paid homage to Victor Jara50 years after his assassination. The string ensemble joined in I still believe in beautywith a remarkable solo by violinist Martin Pike.

A good combination

Fernando Cabrera sang at FIMBA with Nano Stern.

Fernando Cabrera sang at FIMBA with Nano Stern.

Despite the urgency in Stern’s voice it is at the antipodes of Cabrera’s sober and almost declaimed styleboth achieved a good combination, especially with the earth-shattering I held you in the nightwhich featured good arrangements by Guillo Espel on strings.

Cabrera is unique in his divergent minimalism (this is how Uruguayan master Coriún Aharonián preferred to call Latin American minimalism).

He entered the stage as if asking permission, after a standing ovation, and settled down with his guitar. Generation he began his solitary stretch and followed it Livelinesswith its peculiar expressive divergence between the minimal and intimate gesture in the accompaniment (a small box of matches) and the exaltation of the extra that describes the “small” song.

In the modest space that Cabrera creates with his particular poetry and his way of singing it, the sounds move in a discreet but intense and persuasive whole.

The worn words, to which sonorous gestures and physiological vocal prowess were grafted, manage to relive in the poetics and in the unconventional voice of the Uruguayan musician. You deserve and deserve – was heard attached to Slide– rephrasing the love song, just like distant sweetness. Once again, Espel’s refined arrangement in the ensemble version remained faithful to the spirit of Acetico.

Cabrera and Stern joined in, still accompanied by strings, to sing I go upby Rolando Valladares, and they greeted each other with an ovation.

Paola Bernal was present at the Bariloche International Music Festival.  Photographic print

Paola Bernal was present at the Bariloche International Music Festival. Photographic print

symphonic hour

Saturday 27 in the afternoon it was the turn of symphonic music. Audience filled Cathedral of Nuestra Señora del Nahuel Huapi, designed by Alexander Bustilloto hear the Shenandoah Conservatory Symphony Orchestra (SCSO), a youth ensemble that, under the leadership of Jan Wagner, is dedicated to traditional and contemporary repertoire.

Like college basketball teams, in these orchestras a special energy and adrenaline is played.

Rodolfo Mederos, luxury bandoneon player at the Bariloche International Music Festival.  Photographic print

Rodolfo Mederos, luxury bandoneon player at the Bariloche International Music Festival. Photographic print

After a long bus ride from Bahía Blanca, part of a tour that the SCSO made in Argentina, it offered a preview Queen of Bohemiaan energizing and eclectic work by the Brazilian Clarisa V. Assad (1978) for trumpet and string orchestra.

The three-movement work is inspired by Chicago bohemian artist Gertrude Abercrombie (1909-1977), friend of Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Sarah Vaughanfor which he organized memorable parties.

In the last movement of the song, enlivened by swing and jazz harmonies, Assad tried to recreate one of those unforgettable parties. The first two movements, based on two paintings by Abercrombie, are more lyrical and concertante. The orchestra and virtuoso soloist Mary Bowden excelled, under Wagner’s baton.

Antique Cámara, at the Bariloche International Music Festival.  Photographic print

Antique Cámara, at the Bariloche International Music Festival. Photographic print

in the monumental Symphony n.5 of Mahler, which was heard in the second part, Jan Wagner and the orchestra gave a correct reading with exceptional moments in the brass (one of the most challenging writings in the repertoire for that section) and an inspired interpretation of the Adagietto, the most famous music of the Symphony.

One we all know

A few hours later, Nahuel Pennisi lively Saturday night. With his usual charisma, he invited the audience to imagine a stove, he created a special atmosphere with his voice and his guitar, and his singing soon joined that of an excited audience who filled the capacity beyond belief the Teatro La Baita in both performances, one at 7.00pm and another at 10.00pm

Nahuel Pennisi had everyone singing at the Bariloche International Music Festival.  Photographic print

Nahuel Pennisi had everyone singing at the Bariloche International Music Festival. Photographic print

The musician alternated his own songs Deviation, Push forward AND World– with a folk block. The string ensemble of the Río Negro Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Milstein, has begun its collaboration with the laurel patch, by Armando Tejada Gómez and Cuchi Leguizamón.

A drumming party was organized at the Municipal Center for Art, Science and Technology. Trepún opened with four very well chosen works: they are bulerías by Miguel Cruz; Trio for one by Nebojša Zivkovic; ascent of the thrush by Mark Ford E niano 3 by Pio Chang. They started with a trio of Peruvian cajons, then interplayed with marimba and ended up with drums.

The percussion group is made up of Facundo Catalán, Carla Jensen and Antonella Lardani, and they are all part of the Río Negro Philharmonic Orchestra. The rave atmosphere gradually increased with La banda rotata, MuTa (Mujer drum), and the already consolidated party atmosphere ended up intensifying with Metatambó and La Nube Percusión.

The Río Negro Philharmonic Orchestra, under the command of Martin Friar Milstein (current artistic and musical director), in addition to being a hostess, is the link of the festival, which has the support of the government of Rio Negro and the city of Bariloche, and works, among other things, as a projection space for artists from the region such as Graciela Novellino, Mariana Gonzalez, Camerata Juvenil de Bariloche, Metatambó and Patagonia Tango, among others.

MUTA (Mujer Tambor) threw a party at the Bariloche International Music Festival.  Photographic print

MUTA (Mujer Tambor) threw a party at the Bariloche International Music Festival. Photographic print

Milstein created the orchestra in 2014 -after the festival- with a decentralized system, a model that avoids bureaucratisation and allows the orchestra to be present in large and small cities, and in semi-rural areas, developing dissemination activities through educational programs.

In addition, eleven regional chamber ensembles were formed as orchestra detachments, which participate in the Festival, interacting with the invited musicians.

Source: Clarin

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