Only five years separate the two works on this disc and yet they are totally
different. Both are ballet scores being presented complete for the first
time although a short concert suite from Panambí has been available
previously, as have excerpts from Estancia. The London Symphony Orchestra
is conducted by the Uraguayan conductor Gisèle Ben-Dor. She was a
protégée of Leonard Bernstein and worked with him at Tanglewood
and, following in his footsteps, came to public attention as a last minute
replacement for an indisposed Kurt Masur to conduct the New York Philharmonic
without rehearsal. She is currently Music Director of the Santa Barbara Symphony
and was chosen by the Musicians themselves to become the Director of the
Boston Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra. The Los Angeles Times declared her as
" just the conductor we have been waiting for to make a really persuasive
case for Latin composer" and this is her second such disc although a third
release has simultaneously appeared of music by Revueltas (Koch 37421-2)
which, it is hoped, will be submitted for review as it supplements the Reveultas
disc already reviewed this month.
Ginastera destroyed his juvenile works so Panambí is listed
as his Opus 1. In an earlier work , Impressions of Puna, (withdrawn and then
reinstated) Ginastera had incorporated Amerindian music to evoke the rocky
landscape of Puna. Panambí was an extension of his interest
in native music and legend and has the subtitle, Choreographic legend. Completed
in 1937 it was first performed as a complete ballet in 1940 and subsequently
won him a number of prizes establishing him as a Nationalistic composer.
It is a sequence of 17 dances (some lasting only a few seconds). No synopsis
is provided but the titles probably tell it all:
Moonlight on the Paraná [4.41] - Native Festival [0.26] - Girl's round
dance [1.23] - Warrior's dance [1.57] - Scene [2.41] - Pantomine of eternal
love [3.51] - Guirahú's song [3.19] - The Sorcerer approaches
Guirahú , The water sprites appear, The Sorcerer hides [0.29] - The
water sprites play [2.08] - The Sorcerer reappears, The Sorcerer cries [0.37]
- The tribe is uneasy, Panambí's prayer [4.14] - Invocation to the
spirits of power [1.18] - Dance of the Sorcerer [2.09] - The Sorcerer speaks
[0.34] - The girl's lament [3.12] -Tupá appears, The warriors threaten
the Sorcerer [0.51] - dawn [4.58] [39.11]
This score is extremely derivative, but that does not seem to matter. There
are only passing references to South American folk rhythms and the influences
of Ravel and Stravinsky are obvious although the Bartók references
quoted by Ben-Dor in an interview with Gramophone (1/99) escape me. I will
give you some reference points: the opening moonlight scene-setter is luxuriant
with dark woodwind and brass, and is reminiscent of the Ravel of Mother Goose,
whereas the third dance with beating percussion (3 bass drums), chugging
strings and stabbing trombones has origins in the Rite of Spring. Debussy
of L'après-midi makes an appearance in Pantomima del amor eterno
(Pantomine of eternal love) which is a beautiful largo with extended passages
for flute, oboe and horn. Guirahu's song continues the same pensive mood
and opens with a flute playing a melody very similar to the trumpet opening
of Schmidt's fourth symphony, which then leads to an extended, graceful cadenza.
In track 8, the Sorcerer approaches with contra-bassoon imitating the Beast
in Beauty and the Beast from Mother Goose - and so on. These
references to other composers make for no difficulty in hearing this very
enjoyable ballet music which concludes in a glorious flowing melody in an
evocation of dawn.
Estancia (1941) was a commission from Lincoln Kirstein who was touring Latin
America with his ballet company, American Ballet Caravan. But it was never
performed by them and only existed as a four movement suite until finally
performed as a ballet in 1952. This is its recording première. The
piece is based on a typical working day on a ranch (Estancia) on the Pampas,
so reflects the daily life of the gaucho (cowboy) rather than the native
indians. It is based upon the poem Martín Fierro by José
Hernández, parts of which are recited and sung by the bass-baritone
Luis Gaeta. The ballet starts where Panambi left off with a dawn sequence.
The scenes are Dawn [2.34] - Little dance [2.07] - Morning; Wheat dance [
3.21] - The farm labourers [2.55] - The cattlemen, the entry of the foals
[2.03] - The townsfolk [2.18] - Afternoon: 'Triste' from the Pampas [3.21]
- Rodeo [2.04] - Twilight idyll [2.51] - Night; Nocturne [4.19] - Dawn [1.41'
- Final dance - Malmbo [3.32] [33.11]
Dawn opens with a riding rhythm on full orchestra based on a Gaucho dance
the Malambo, a driving rhythm that would grace the opening credits of any
Western, and Gaeta narrates the Dawn section of the poem:
Here I set myself down to sing
To the sound of the guitar
Like a man who unveils
Some extaordinary pain
Like the solitary bird
Who finds comfort in song
The accompaniment is quiet and sad as the poem recalls the end of the gaucho
way of life. There is further recitation between Little Dance and the
waltz-like,soaring Morning and wheat dance. The farm labourers dance to the
vigourous Malamba rhythm of the Dawn sequence and the cattlemen to an equally
rumbustuous version of it. The townsfolk do not know what to make of this
with their quizzically tip-toed dance. Afternoon has a sad little song:
And now for the first time we go
To that most hidden, most deeply felt region:
Though the whole of my life
Is a string of woes -
Every sorrowful soul
Likes to sing of its griefs.
All sorrows are blown away in the exciting Rodeo and we then enter twilight,
Night and finally dawn again in a series of reflective passages, ending in
a final burst of energy in the ecstatic, whirling, rousing Final Dance -
a Malambo - which is where we came in. This is a very lyrical score and I
did not detect any influences. In those four intervening years Ginastera
had quite developed his own style.
This recording was made in the Abbey Road studio and produced by Michael
Fine who had been "borrowed" from Deutch Grammophon. Technically it is one
of the best recordings I have heard. I thought on first hearing that it was
occasionally a little bass-heavy but it is a truthful realization of those
three bass drums!
Reviewer
Len Mullenger