Global Courant
“Le voci sottovetro” developed an attractive program in the Contemporary Subscription Cycle, within the framework of “Divina Italia”.
With the title Le voci sottovetro (crystal voices) an attractive program was presented in the Ciclo Abono Contemporáneo, within the framework of Divina Italia, held in Colón.
Le voci sottovetro is a work by the Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino, who opened the concert, continued with Francis Schreker’s Chamber Symphony and closed with Luciano Berio’s Folksongs.
As the Uruguayan conductor Martín Jorge explained in his brief introduction, the axis that runs through the program is color or timbre, the sonority that each of these composers explored with the traditional instruments of the orchestra. Each work is the result of a new way of combining orchestral sounds.
Scene from the Saturday show. Photo: Colón Theater Press / Arnaldo Colombaroli.
At the end of the nineties, Sciarrino took from the Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo two instrumental works, Gagliarda del príncipe di venosa and Canzon francese del príncipe, and two madrigals for five voices: Tu m’uccidi, o crudo (You are killing me, oh cruel). and Moro, lazo, al mio duolo (I die, oh, painfully). And he transformed them for mezzo-soprano and a particular ensemble, made up of three string instruments (violin, viola, cello), three wind instruments (flute, English horn and bass clarinet), piano and some percussion instruments.
The sound, somewhere between archaic and modern, is hauntingly beautiful. The five voices of the madrigals are distributed among the instruments, treated as soloists, and a single voice that Sciarrino also treats as one more instrument.
However, the voice was cut excessively from the ensemble, not only because of the emphatically lyrical style of mezzo-soprano Adriana Mastrángelo, the ensemble barely managed to sketch the beautiful craftsmanship and subtlety of some miniatures, full of unexpected instrumental colors and dizzying changes in perspective. sonorous.
But things got better in the Folksongs, for mezzo-soprano and orchestra, from 1964. Berio took a set of eleven folk songs from various countries – the United States, Armenia, France, Italy, Azerbaijan, and the composer added some folk tunes of his own creation. -, with a well differentiated character, and he designed an orchestral color full of nuances and subtleties for each one.
It was an attractive program in the Contemporary Subscription Cycle, within the framework of Divina Italia Photo: Teatro Colón Press / Arnaldo Colombaroli.
In Ballo, by Berio, and the French La fiolairé, Mastrángelo managed with special intensity to touch the nucleus of those songs, with the good accompaniment of the orchestra. No less expressive sounded Black Is the Color in the opening, and the mezzo-soprano delivered her energetic joy in closing with the Azerbaijani Love Song.
In the middle, Schreker’s Chamber Symphony was heard. Under the direction of Martín Jorge, the Orquesta Académica barely outlined the colorful contrasts, the layers, the deep and dark sonority of the post-romantic intensity. The tangle of details of this musical jewel from the early 20th century was presented without weeding.
It is a great bet, and necessary, that the young people of the Teatro Colón Academic Orchestra face repertoires from the 20th and 21st centuries, with an innovative program such as the one proposed. But, perhaps, it is necessary to evaluate more carefully the times to prepare the challenges and the right moment to present them in public.
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Rating: Good
Voices Under Glass
Contemporary Subscription Cycle Academic Orchestra of the Teatro Colón Director: Martín Jorge Mezzosoprano: Adriana Mastrángelo Performance: Saturday 24, Teatro Colón
