With the sweetness of the clarinet, as went the concert of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic in Usina del Arte

The Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra performed at Usina del Arte, as part of the Colón in the City cycle, with the Brazilian Natalia Larangeira as Guest Director and the The Argentine clarinetist Eloy Fernández Rojas as a soloist

With the conventional scheme of the overture-concert-symphony, the overture of the heroes by Sigismondo Neukomm, la Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (in an orchestral version by Augusto Reinhold) by Carlos Guastavino and the Symphony n. 5 by Joseph Haydn.

Guastavino completed the Sonata in 1970 and dedicated it to the Argentine clarinetist Luis Rossi. Emotion and lyricism permeate his three movements, e the influence of different European and South American dances combine through a chromatic and counterpoint language.

Fernández Rojas and Guastavino’s lyricism

Fernández Rojas’s sound is delicate, full, and succeeded in highlighting Guastavino’s noble lyricism. The composer gives the clarinet a medium register, very close to the vocal expression. The clarinetist’s way of playing, with open eloquence, ensures that the melodic line reaches that expressiveness of a pure song.

And precisely the slow movement was the most successfulwith its character sweet, cantabile it is clear. The beginning seemed beautiful. Walking with the sound of the clarinet emerging from the ethereal atmosphere of the orchestra.

But it was not only because of the level of expressiveness that Rojas reached, supporting the phrases and the character of the theme, but also because that is where the orchestration works best: with only a harmonic support of color, the clarinet was projected without drowning in the full orchestral sonorityand the subtleties of colors or sounds in the different themes were also appreciated.

Some of the original interactions between clarinet and piano, fundamental in the development of musical discourse, he was lost on the first and third moves.

The clarinet line does not stand out in its middle register in the all orchestral and the grace of dance rhythms required more agile tempos. However, the sweet and colorful melody, with a dance character, in the coda at the end of the first movement sounded more balanced.

The opening

The concert opened with a fresh and subtle performance of the overture the heroes de Neukomm, a pupil of Joseph Haydn, who lived between 1816 and 1821 in Rio de Janeiro, and became one of the pioneers in the use of Brazilian melodies in classical music.

The music flowed lightly in the first Symphony No. 5 by Haydn, with which he closed the night the splendor of the orchestra’s wind rowunder the direction of Natalia Larangeira.

The good acoustics of the hall enhanced the transparency of the orchestral sound and the minimal expressive details of the meticulous reading of the director. Although, at times, the detail has subtracted some of the tension and vertigo in the movements of a lighter nature, as in the final movement, with its grandiloquent rapid and dramatic changes.

File

Philharmonic Orchestra of Buenos Aires

Qualification: Good

Director: Natalia Larangeira Soloist: Eloy Fernández Rojas, Usina del Arte clarinet, Thursday 23 June.

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