Odisea: Lorenz, Grau, Tchaikovsky Jorge Glem (Venezuela cuatro); Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela / Gusavo Dudamel (conductor). Barbican Hall, London, 16.02.2025
Ricardo Lorenz Todo Tereno (2022)
Gonzalo Grau Odisea (2022)
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 (1878)
This was the second of two London concerts for the touring Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, an ensemble in the news recently for political rather than musical reasons. It is as a musical entity, though, that they present themselves here in the second of two London concerts. The Mahler Third the evening before was a mixed bag, offering insight but also marked interpretative weaknesses, particularly as regards the finale.
Venezuelan-born composer Riccardo Lorenz offered Todo Tereno (All Terrain), a sonic description of a journey of discovery, of what Dudamel calls ‘the heart of the earth‘. Although born in Venezuela, Lorenz has spent much time in the USA at Michigan State University, where he is Professor of Composition. A Blue Griffin compact disc of his music indicated a capacity for instrumental colour, and so it is here, in this vivid sketch for orchestra, superbly orchestrated and performed with passion by the young players of the Simón Bolívar orchestra. The piece is vibrantly colourful; the slower sections perhaps tend towards the filmic. This is, though, the SBSO’s bread and butter repertoire, and how they excel. It is clear the players understand the language on a deeply-rooted level, immediately identifiable as a deeper understanding than that they have of Mahler and Tchaikovsky. Lorenz’s piece ostensibly depicts the edge-of-the-seat practice of ‘off-roading” – exploring on a journey, really. The percussion-driven basis of the piece works very well and blissfully the piece did not overstay its welcome.
Here’s a performance from MSU (Michigan State) from 2023 so you can get a feel of the piece:
I do wonder if Lorenz’s journey towards an identity was not more interesting than his arrival, though. This is a fresh piece from 2022: the pieces on that Blue Griffin tend to be more stimulating, and Lorenz himself talks about the piano piece Child Poet Perfectly Contented in Foreign Lands as something of a challenge to reconcile his Venezuelan, German and American make up.
His Fluteball: A Soccer-Driven Melodrama for flute and clarinet shows his playful side while Tendril Rapture for oboe, basson, and piano is a nod to Lorenz’s lyric impulse, and a very successful one. These are more than next ports of call for the interested lisener, they are better pieces than Todo terreno.
Gustavo Grau describes the composition of his ‘concerto’ for cuatro (Venezuelan guitar) Odisea as an imagined journey by Dudamel and Glen: in Caracas, the sounds of a city, at the end, a conversation and a hug between cultures. The music journeys from the soloist’s home town, Curmaná, to Dudaml’s hometown of Baquisimeto. A golpe drum (a single-headed instrument like the conga, from Cuba) helps orient the journey, coming more and more into focus as the work progresses. Cuatro virtuoso Jorge Glem, clearly a huge star in his own right, performs with magnificent artistry: he makes the small instrument sound like a whole orchestra in itself. even the dynamic range is not just striking, but seemingly impossible. The piece is certainly atmospheric, and in its own way is another journey. Here, though, it is one that wanders somewhat. The music is certainly easy on the ear, often playful (and how the maracas fit into the sonic tapestry so well). It includes a cadenza, which found Glem extricating a remarkable variety of sounds from his cuatro. Dudamel ensured that not only were rhythms and ensemble tight, but that individual strands from the orchestra emerged in perfect balance. There is wit here, too (the stopped horns and muted trumpets in dialogue).
But Grau’s piece too often depends on long stretches of mere texture; intriguing texture at first, for sure, but the ear adjusts quickly and the novelty is short0lived. When Grau allows the music to be (a moment for cuatro and flute, for example), he is at his best.
Here’s the World Premiere from Los Angeles – the orchestra here is the LA Philharmonic:
An encore was inevitable: Glem’s fan base was out in force. He collaborates with some of the big names (including Pasquito D’Rivera, Sofia Rei and Carlos Vives). He offered Pajarillo, a wide-ranging mish-mash from Bach to Beethoven and Bizet with some Orff thrown in for good measure (there’s more, too), all great fun and magnificently played.
Here it is, in an “official” music video:
So, to Tchaikovsky. The heart-on-sleeve emotions of the Fourth Symphony offer a different way to channel Latin American passion – through Russia. As in the Mahler Third the previous evening, i was the first movement that offered the highlight, this time through a foregrounding of the world of ballet in tandem with the symphonic. Technical aspects were notable: the high cellos showed zero sense of strain and perfect unanimity of phrase; the bassoon solos were of world-lass rank. Brass offered a wall of sound, the re-appearance of the ’Fate’ motif carrying much force.
The Andantino featured a characterful oboe solo (Joseph Gonzalez is listed as principal, and who offered the same level of individuality in the Mahler the night before). The eloquence of the lower strings was notable here, with Dudamel taking some risks with phrasal indulgence and (just) getting away with them. He eschewed conducting (with his hands, at last) in much of the pizzicato of the third movement: the SBSO’s strings were technically phenomenal, as were the brass in her perfectly-balanced interactions. No concessions for tempo here: the clarinet and piccolo had their work cut out, and triumphed in minor miracles of virtuosity.
Applause between movements has seemed mandatory in the SBSO’s brief Barbican residency, so it was nice to go straight through into the fiery finale: colourful and bright, this was also a masterclass in string discipline, so together, so accurate.
But it was the first movement and its insights that linger. Encores were inevitable, and nice to have: Arturo Márquez’s Danzón No. 9, a nod back to the concert’s first half, brass in exuberant form, rhythms ever vital.
Sadly, the Blue Griffin disc is not available on Amazon or iDagio, but Spotify is provided below,
