Latin American Gala presented by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Conductor Alondra de la Parra
Guitar Soloist Yamandu Costa
With Brisbane Girls Grammar School students
Chávez Sinfonía india (Symphony No.2)
Costa Concerto Fronteira
Guarnieri Dança Brasileira, Dança Selvagem, Dança Negra
Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasileiras No.7
Moncayo Huapango
A Wild and Raucous Musical Trip around the Americas
It was a wild and raucous journey around the Americas with our very own Latin American at the helm, Alondra de la Parra, conductor and music director of the QSO, official cultural ambassador of Mexico and a fabulous asset to Queensland. She opened the concert by introducing the already excitable audience to some of the unusual percussive instruments to be used during the concert including the teponaztli, a split drum made from a hollowed-out tree trunk with an H-shaped notch at the top. There were also various seed shakers and an exotic shaker containing the hooves of a deer!
The renowned Mexican composer Carlos Chávez’s Sinfonia india (Symphony No. 2) set the flavour of the evening, using three themes influenced by music from North Mexico from the Seri and Yacqui people and the Huicholes people of central Mexico. His music could have been mistaken as Copland’s with sounds of the Wild West, probably due to a close working relationship he had with Aaron Copland. The music was heavily latino-influenced and de la Parra slashed at the air as she bounced rhythmically with the rhythms, looking as if she were urging her horse to gallop as she bounded across the Mexican desert.
A rather baggy Jack Black look-alike then took centre stage, the revered Brazilian guitarist Yamandu Costa. His seven stringed Brazilian guitar, often referred to as a gypsy guitar, often has the open G tuning and an extra string allowed more bass notes. He enthralled the audience with his frantic and flamboyant flamenco-style of guitar playing whilst performing his Concerto Fronteira, which he composed as “an attempt to create a unique musical language that goes beyond virtuosity, in a rich and diverse style that is deeply connected with the culture of my homeland”. The music had latin tempos, but often sounded like a 50s movie soundtrack. The already hyped-up audience went wild (perhaps they had been doing tequila shots at the bar), leaping to their feet and clapping continually at the end until Costa settled down for an encore performance. And what an encore, as he free-styled a semi-improvised piece accompanied by whistling and singing. The audience could hardly contain themselves giving whoops and cries and another prolonged standing ovation.
The concert’s second half was just as wild a ride with three dances: Dança Brasileira; Dança Selvagerm; and Dança Negra by Camargo Guarnieri, known to be a founding father of Brazilian music. De la Parra’s innate skill with the syncopation of the Latin rhythms was a true asset, as she transitioned between the rhythms with ease, to recreate the unique Latin sounds with the QSO.
The baroque-styled Brazilian dance suite of Heitor from Villa-Lobos, the best known of the Latin composers, had a true Bach flavour with a Brazilian infusion concluding with a fugue to knock your socks off.
Several young musicians from Brisbane Girls Grammar School joined the QSO, as part of the Prossima education program, to play the notorious Huapango by the popular Mexican composer José Pablo Moncayo. The girls joined in seamlessly with the much respected musicians of the QSO and have bright musical careers ahead of them.
Another rapturous demand for an encore from the wild audience, encouraged de la Parra and the QSO to close the evening with Arturo Márquez’s Danzón No. 2 and she encouraged the hyped-up audience to divert their energies into clapping along until the final curtain call. The evening was broadcast live on the ABC and listeners tuning in could have been mistaken that they were listening to the crowd watching Brazil playing in the FA Cup final, such was the wild response and participation from the audience! If you missed it you can catch it again on ABC Classic FM, Friday 8th November at 7pm.
Concert Hall, QPAC
Sat 17th Aug, 2019
By Dr Gemma Regan