Silvestre REVUELTAS (1899-1940)
La Coronela (The Lady Colonel) (1940) [33:38]; Itinerarios (Travel
Diary) (1938) [9:25]; Colorines (1932) [7:21]
Santa Barbara Symphony/Gisèle Ben-Dor; English Chamber Orchestra/Gisèle
Ben-Dor (Colorines only)
rec. 12 January 1998, Oxnard Performing Arts Center, California and 19 December
1997, Lyndhurst Studios, London (Colorines only). DDD
re-issue of KOCH 3-7421-2H (1998)
NAXOS 8.572250 [50:24]
I remember, when much younger, reading somewhere that Revueltas had died from
“over exertions and an irregular life”. This thrilled me because
we all want our heroes to die in some romantic way, and the composer of such
colourful and exciting music deserved to have had such a fate, if fate it
was, befall him. Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that Revueltas
was an alcoholic and that is what led to the pneumonia which ultimately killed
him.
I discovered Revueltas through Bernstein’s seering recording of Sensemaya
- still available on Sony 5099706057123, coupled with music by Chavez, Copland,
Oscar Lorenzo Fernandez, Mozart Carmargo Guarnieri and Villa Lobos - essential
listening. I was hooked.
In a composing career which spanned about 16 years Revueltas left a large
body of work in all genres except opera. His music gets right to the point
immediately; there’s never a note wasted, and he speaks the Mexican
vernacular. Paul Bowles called him “The Mexican Falla” but his
music is far too Rabelaisian for that. Falla was fastidious in everything
he wrote. Revueltas is manic; one feels that he barely has time to get one
idea on paper before another comes into his mind that must be used. It’s
easy to see why he has been compared to Charles Ives for, at first hearing,
one might think that here is someone who has little idea as to what he is
doing. Further knowledge of the music - and this is also true of Ives - shows
a strong hand and a strong musical mind at work.
Colorines, the earliest work here, is scored for a small orchestra
and is full of Indian drumming, bird-calls, screams might be a better word,
and it sings of the country villages and their people. You can hear all the
subsequent cowboy film scores here, but this is the real thing, not an ersatz
Mexico. Itinerarios is more serious. Huge chords for full orchestra
lead to a saxophone lament, with the chords now reduced for a few instruments.
Quite how the title relates to the music is beyond me, but that isn’t
really important for here is a landscape, empty of people, which has a surprising
ending considering what has gone before.
La Coronela is the most important piece here. The notes, in the inlay,
give the full story so I won’t dwell on it here beyond pointing out
that it is a ballet involving skeleton characters based on the engravings
of José Guadalupe Posada and a revolutionary plot around the theme
of a workers’ coup against an oppressive régime. The work is
in four episodes: Society Lady of Those Times; The Disinherited;
Don Ferruccio’s Nightmare; The Last Judgement. Left incomplete
when Revueltas died the first realisation fell to Blas Galindo with orchestration
by Candelario Huizar. This was premiered in Mexico City in 1940 after which
the score promptly disappeared. The ballet is heard here in an edition by
Eduardo Hernández Moncada (who had conducted the 1940 premiere) and
José Limantour. Limantour conducted the premiere of this version in
1962 in Mexico City. It’s a very exciting piece, having all the usual
Revueltas fingerprints and it leaves you wanting more.
This is a fabulous disk, well worth having for the marvellous music it contains
and the fact that here is a true wild card of music. Good notes, great sound.
The sheer earthiness of this music is compelling, which makes it all the more
fascinating that Revueltas’s attractive music should still be looking
for an audience.
Bob Briggs
This music is compelling.
see also the review by Len Mullenger of the original Koch release and a review of another Naxos release of the music of Revueltas