CONDUCTOR’S NOTE: David Chase
The Dove was mistaken. Meaning to go north, he went south. --- Se equivocó la paloma (with apologies to Guastavino/Alberti)
In summer of 1992, an intrepid ensemble from La Jolla Symphony Chorus went to the little mill town of Powel River, British Columbia – “two ferry rides north of Vancouver” – to participate in an international choral festival called Kathaumieuw (from the Salish word for “coming together”). It was a strange choice of destinations, made mostly by a Choral Director who was feeling a little desperate to get outside of his comfort zone. It was the musical equivalent of “the bear went over the mountain to see what he could see.”
Like all our chorus tours, it was a wonderful cultural experience and a chance to improve our performance chops. But there was one life-changing discovery. By going north, we discovered the warmth and vibrancy of South America, because the chorus in residence at the festival was Schola Cantorum de Caracas. With them were both of their directors, the estimable Alberto Grau, founder of the Schola, and his brilliant wife Maria Guinand, who was just beginning her stellar international career.
The Venezuelan group was stunning. Their sound was elemental, not purified. Their presence on stage was celebration not ceremony. For me, the world changed when I got to know these musicians and their music. The rhythmic vitality, of course, appealed to me immediately. But there was still more in the soul of this music; there was a political and social reality.
Eventually, I learned about the massive choral education movement that Alberto and Maria created in their country, inspiring a great web of choruses in that economically- and politically-torn nation. This national program parallels the El Sistema orchestral program that has become so famous as a result of Gustavo Dudamel’s appointment as Music Director of the LA Philharmonic. Both programs make music that builds a better society, music that matters deeply.
As a result of our first encounter in British Columbia, I invited Maria to guest- conduct LJSC in an all-Latin American choral program we called “Viva la Cultura” in 1995. She invited me to attend the America Cantat, an international choral festival in Caracas in 2000, and to travel to some of their choral outposts around that vast country.
Since then, Maria has conducted all around the world, premiering major works by composers such as John Adams, Osvaldo Golijov and her own son, Gonzalo Grau, an accomplished young composer.
When I asked if she would share the podium with me on this, my 40th anniversary with LJSC, she was flatteringly accommodating. So, after a number of programming challenges (some of which explain the difference between the season brochure listing and the present program), Maria and I, together, bring you this program. “Life … is made for sharing!”
We begin with Ginastera’s Malambo, a perfect curtain-raiser. A fast and fun gaucho dance, it reminds us that we follow early 20th-century musicians like Aaron Copland (e.g., Salon Mexico) in our exploration of joy in the music of Latin America.
The second work on the program, Intrada, is a very personal choice. It is a ritualistic setting of a melody well-known to our chorus members: Hanacpachap is the earliest-known Peruvian polyphonic music. We have used the original tune often as a processional on various tour programs. This instrumental and spatial setting takes the ancient melody’s intrinsic ritualism and gradually blows it up to cosmic size.
Those two introductory pieces allow me a chance to conduct and, in a sense, to introduce our guest, who will take the podium for the rest of the program. In a gesture toward our original relationship with Maria Guinand, what follows are two short a capella arrangements, chosen from the vast repertoire of such pieces that her choirs have made so popular: Guastavino’s beloved Se equivocó la paloma and a painful song of lost love, Allá va un Encobija’o (by Venezuelan composer Antonio Lauro).
Then we push into the most recent repertory: Oceana by Osvaldo Golijov, a composer with whom Maria has collaborated closely. She premiered this work at the Oregon Bach Festival in 1996. Like so much of Golijov’s music, this is a genre- bending admixture of styles combining jazz and avant-garde gestures written for a “classical” ensemble. Based on a sensual poem by the great Pablo Neruda, Oceana follows a 20th-century tradition dating back to Debussy, which attempts to portray the many moods of the sea.
Golijov is only the most recent proponent of Latin American boundary-busting. Our concert ends with Choros #10 a famous example of Villa-Lobos’s notorious refusal to forswear his gritty street-music roots in order to become a serious orchestral composer. As Intrada did with a small melody from ancient times, Choros #10 uses bits and pieces of pop tunes and ambient jungle noises, building a throbbing organism and finally blowing the roof off the building.
It’s an exciting program, but more important it is a celebration of the mutual influence of our cultures. For me, Maria Guinand and her music symbolize the best part of my forty years of discovery. I’m pleased to be able to share this with my favorite ensembles and audience! And I’m glad that, like the dove, the paloma, in the lovely Guastavino song, I ended up in South America when I thought I was going north.
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Life*... made for sharing,
Famed Venezuelan choral conductor Maria Guinand joins David Chase in a program of Latin American music. The concert opens with David Chase conducting the swaggering Malambo followed by Intrada 1631, a processional scored for symphonic brass choir with field drums. We conclude with two exciting works for chorus, orchestra and soloists conducted by Maria Guinand. Pre-concert lecture one hour prior to concert time.
March 15-16, 2014
Maria Guinand and David Chase conduct
- Malambo (Alberto Ginestera)
- Intrada 1631 (Stephen Montague)
- Oceana (Osvaldo Golijov)
- Chôros No. 10 (Heitor Villa-Lobos)
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