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20th anniversary season
El Universal
XXanniversario
high-res. photo
tucson review
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CUARTETO LATINOAMERICANO CELEBRATING 20TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON OPENS THEIR SERIES IN PITTSBURGH SEPTEMBER 20 PRESENTING THE WORLD PREMIERES OF THE WINNING STRING QUARTETS OF THEIR ANNUAL COMPOSERS'S COMPETITION The members of the Cuarteto Latinoamericano has announced that for the opening of their 20th Anniversary season, they will open their Pittsburgh series at the Carnegie-Mellon University on Thursday, September 20 in the newly renovated Kresge Auditorium. Their series has been presented on Saturday afternoons, but with the opening of the new auditorium, the series will be presented this season on Thursday evenings at 7:30pm. However, for September 20, it will begin at 8p.m. The program on September 20 includes three world premiere - the new quartet Groovy Fugue composed by Carrie McGlothlen, Taiwan Scenery by Mei Mi Lan, and Metropolis by Mark Fromm. The three winners of their 2001 students composers' competition. The program concludes with the Dvorak String Quintet Op.77, with Robert Skavronski, guest bassist. The series continues on Thursdays, November 21, with works by Mozart, Ginastera and the world premiere of Reza Vali's Calligraphy No. 4 for Santoor and Quartet, with guest Darius Saghafi. Starting the New Year on January 24th, 2002, the program includes works by Mozart, Diego Vega and Brahms, and concludes on April 25, with guest artist, clarinetist Joaquin Valdepenas. The program includes the Clarinet Quintet of Joaquin Gutierrez Heras, the Brahms Clarinet Quintet and Roberto Sierra's 12 Bagatelas. Tickets are normally $ 5 and available at the concert line: 412.268.2383. However, for the opening concert of September 20, all events in the campus-wide cultural Festival are free. |
CUARTETO LATINOAMERICANO
Classical Latin Rhythms
The Washington Post
March 9, 2003
Cuarteto Latinoamericano's Modern Marvels
by: Joan Reinthaler
The Cuarteto Latinoamericano's concert at the Kennedy Center's Terrace
Theater on Saturday presented not only music of uncommon interest but
performances that projected the composers' intentions with a mix of virtuosity
and restraint. The program of music by Latin American composers offered
five pieces of outstanding originality and craftsmanship.
Perhaps the most intriguing (and troubling) work was the String Quartet
No.
4 by Mario Lavista.
In a single movement of oddly disquieting and, for the most part quiet, tone clusters (the four strings producing four very different tone qualities, plucked notes, harmonics, scratchy tones, and sounds made right at the bridge of the instrument), the music does not so much progress as dwell on small bits of ritualistically repetitive figures. There are moments where intervals of open fourths and fifths sound like the earliest of Western church music, and while texture and repetition seem to take the place of harmony and rhythm, the music still feels coherent.
The program notes made clear how successful Lavista was at doing what he set out to do. The piece had been commissioned by a woman who wanted music to "accompany her soul after the death of her body." The timelessness, the ritual, the hints of ancient homophony were splendidly communicated even without the written explanation.
The short and zany "La Venus Se Va de Juerga" ("Venus
Goes Partying") by Jorge Torres Saenz was a delightful, rhythmically
disorienting romp, played
with joy and wit. Gabriela Frank's "Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout,"
the six
movements echoing the sounds of Andean panpipes and other native instruments,
needed and got a carefully balanced performance.
The quartets by Diego Vegas and Silvestre Revueltas that opened the first and second halves of the program are solid works in the mainstream of 20th-century neoclassicism.
They explore the boundaries of tonality and offer challenges to even the most well-coordinated ensemble, all of which were easily met in this performance.
Ann Summers International
43 Bright St.
Toronto M5A 3H5
tel: (416) 362-1422
fax: (416) 359-0043
e-mail: sumintl@sympatico.ca