* ALBERTO GINASTERA: Popul Vuh, Op. 44; Cantata para América Mágica, Op. 27– Rayanne Dupuis, soprano / Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo /Ensemble S / Schlagzeugenensemble der Musikhochschule Köln / WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln / Stefan Asbury – NEOS multichannel SACD 10918, 49:46 [Distr. by Naxos] *****:
The work of Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera ranges over three distinct periods that, according to Wikipedia, he designated “Objective Nationalism” (1934–1948), “Subjective Nationalism” (1948–1958), and “Neo-Expressionism.” The first is his nativist period; it features such foot-stamping, popular works as the ballets Estancia and Panambi and the Overture to the Creole Faust. Their debt to Argentine folk music is obvious. The second period is more cosmopolitan; it features works of technical refinement, such as the Variaciones concertantes, and of driving Bartókian rhythms as in the Piano Sonata and the superb Harp Concerto. For many listeners, this period produced Ginastera’s finest music. The last period is his internationalist period, when he cultivated the style of latter-day serial composers such as Boulez, Stockhausen, and Xenakis. For some listeners, in this period Ginastera moved too far away from his cultural roots.
It is the period of Canjelebrate, Ginastera’s Latin American heritage through native literature. In the case of Cantata para América Mágica, the literature in question is “apocryphal pre-Columbian sources, recast in modern form by his first wife Mercedes de Toro. . . .” For Popul Vuh, Ginastera turned to a Mayan epic narrative that charts the creation of the world. As Ginastera said of Popul Vuh—and it’s true of the Cantata as well— “I am evolving. . . . The change is taking the form of a. . .reversion. . .to the primitive America of the Mayas, the Aztecs, and the Incas. This influence in my music I feel as not folkloristic, but. . .as a kind of metaphysical inspiration. . . .”
Cantata para América Mágica is scored for dramatic soprano and an odd array of percussion instruments, celesta, and two pianos. Thirteen percussionists hammer away at more than fifty instruments, many of them indigenous to Latin America. The soprano voice is an instrument itself, pitted against the vast jungle of percussion, and is called on to perform herculean feats of vocal strength. The soprano howls, declaims, jabbers, and at the close fades out in a hissing soto voce. Small wonder, given the resources required, the work is rarely performed.
As the dates of composition indicate, Popol Vuh waylaid Ginastera; he was still working on it at the time of his death. Despite lacking a final section, it was pieced together from the surviving materials and debuted by the Leonard Slatkin and Saint Louis Symphony six years after the composer’s death. Like the Cantata, Popol Vuh shows that Ginastera had slim regard for orchestra or recording company budgets: it calls for a mammoth orchestra with triple winds and quadruple brass, plus pianos, harps, two sets of timpani, and four percussionists playing more than fifty instruments.
Both are wild, noisy, otherworldly creations that capture the myth and magic of Ginastera’s literary sources. For me, this is breathtaking music; I was instantly thrust into a world of sound that was not always comfortable but always fascinating. The performances by the forces involved are nothing less than breathtaking also, including the tour de force effort by soprano Rayanne Dupuis. She’s a specialist in contemporary music performance, and it shows. This is an incredible performance, but I have to say that the vibrato she employs, either characteristically or as directed by the score, is something you can’t listen to very long without wearying. But then the experience of hearing both these works is draining (in a good way, of course); I can’t imagine what it’s like for the put-upon musicians.
About the recording: it’s what audiophiles live for. That array of percussion placed in a large surround with pinpoint accuracy and the soprano voice suspended in its own distinct space, at a believable remove from the listener—it’s all pretty mesmerizing. Yes, as you can gather, this one really grabbed me.
Asteroid City – Original Soundtrack – ABKCO Records
This is a unique soundtrack to Wes Anderson’s latest film.
