The Colón Contemporary cycle and its first night of season 2022. Photo: Máximo Parpagnoli/ Teatro Colón press.
The Colón Contemporáneo cycle opened the first concert of the season with a heavy program: Sequence VIII by Luciano Berio (1925-2003) and two premieres: Kuleshov by Oscar Strasnoy (1970) and the Concert for violin and orchestra by Gyrgy Ligeti (1923-2006).
All works are combined by a common denominator: a strong gesture expression which teaches music with a uniquely important and playful force. The musical gesture is not only a movement made by a performer, it is also an activation of sonorities, including some that have been codified in the styles and genres of the past.
The Colón Contemporary cycle and its first night of season 2022. Photo: Máximo Parpagnoli/ Teatro Colón press.
The beginning of the program
Ang Sequence VIII by Berio, which opens in the first half of the program, can be heard as a development of instrumental acts. It is a composition from 1976, is inspired by the famous chaconne of Bach’s second party, and brings the performer to the limit of his abilities.
What Franceso D’Orazio did at work was bigas if with every instrumental gesture he also conveyed his awareness of history.
Violinist Francesco D’Orazio in the Contemporary Columbus cycle. Photo: Máximo Parpagnoli/ Teatro Colón press.
Strasnoy’s imagination
Strasnoy answers, in a way, what Berio and Ligeti have been doing since the ’70s: examine the expressions of the past and talk to them in the present. Towards the end of Kuleshov the Ravelian gestures of the orchestration can be heard.
In a strong imagination, the composer goes beyond the strictly musical: the title of the piece refers to the Soviet filmmaker who developed a theory about the montage. The work is inspired by the so -called “Kuleshov effect”, it maintains that the meaning of an image is more dependent on the montage effect than on itself.
Beyond its musical flexibility, everything flows in concert, the materials come and go in a single movement that is a kind of big rondo. Disturbing moments are revealed in that arrival and departure, like the magical central part, with its virtuosic exchange between the soloist and some orchestral instrument.
During the calming effect that prepared the climate of the section, the pianist placed elements on the chords that changed the sonority of the piano, more spectral, and created an enchanting atmosphere.
Strasnoy’s music invites the playful. Marcelo Balat and the orchestra, led by Pablo Drucker, they were able to give a special flight to the important impulse that guided the composer’s ideas. Even Skin is sometimes a bit shy, especially with heavy changes in tempi and is a bit limited to various contrasts and color subtleties.
The Colón Contemporary cycle and its first night of season 2022. Photo: Máximo Parpagnoli/ Teatro Colón press.
the second leg
The playful presence continued in the second part of the concert with Ligeti’s work. Ang violin concerto It is one of the most significant late works of the composer and summarizes a large part of the interests that have aroused in him since the ’70s: different tuning systems, polyrhythms and a stylistic blend.
Oscar Strasnoy on the first night of the Colón Contemporáneo cycle. Photo: Máximo Parpagnoli/ Teatro Colón press.
Like the Strasnoy concerto, it is a concertante work guided by a different logic from which governs the relationship between the soloist and the orchestra in the classical tradition.
Clashes between different tuning systems, unusual instrumentation (ocarinas and slide whistle) and unconventional playing techniques created particular dissonances throughout the five movements.
Franceso D ‘Orazio once again showed that he is an exceptional performer. While Ducker kept the orchestra always balanced and with clear sonority, D’Orazio’s virtuosity permeated the orchestral fabric.
The lyrical melody that opens with the second slow motion is beautifully realized by D’Orazio, giving way to a surreal continuation in the ocarina quartet, jagged rhythm and harmonic cloud of the chorale bringing the movement to its superb ending. .
La Passacaglia set the stage for the bewildering rhythm with a superb violinist performance. Ligeti’s funny and playful caress returned at the creative closing of the concert.
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Qualifications: Large
Cycle: Contemporary Columbus. Works by: Ligeti, Berio and Strasnoy. Music director: Paul Drucker. Soloists: Francesco D’Orazio (violin) Marcelo Balat (piano). Program: Luciano Berio (1925-2003) Sequence VIII, for solo violin (1976), Oscar Strasnoy (1970) Kuleshov, Concerto for piano and chamber orchestra (2017), Latin American premiere, György Ligeti (1923-2006) Concert for violin and orchestra (1990/92), South American premiere.
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Source: Clarin
