Sensemaya - Music Of Silvestre Revueltas

Silvestre Revueltas (Composer), Esa-Pekka Salonen (Conductor), Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group
• Conductor: Esa-Pekka Salonen
• Composer: Silvestre Revueltas
• Audio CD (March 2, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B00000I77A
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #105,594 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Tellingly, classical albums whose liner notes are translated into Spanish--in addition to the traditional English, French, and German--tend to be those that contain music by Spanish-speaking composers and ensembles. This distinction goes to the heart of the "discovery" of the music of composer Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1940) during the mid-to-late 1990s, evidenced by a steady series of releases after decades of near silence. And silence does not suit Revueltas, who favored enthralling, brash, maximalist symphonic expression, and whose work will not sound entirely new to new audiences, even though his clout as a major cultural figure stops at the border of his native country, Mexico.

This sort of déjà entendu familiarity is generally the case with any composer who absorbs "folk" material (think Béla Bartók or, especially, Aaron Copland). To hear regional military horns bellow through Revueltas's large-scale Ventanas for Large Orchestra is to have dozens of western films flash through the mind's eye. And to hear subtle mariachi motifs inform the arrangement of the same composition, or in the countless set-piece segments of the highly varied Ocho por Radio, is to hear a thorough imagination at play. Revueltas understood foremost that simple themes magnified to an orchestral scale require additional detail to fill the space, and he achieves his goal with richly embroidered counterpoint, overlays of dissociated themes, and strong writing for single instruments, as with the woodwind patter in First Little Serious Piece. That said, conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen's renderings seem a bit removed from Revueltas; he can unnecessarily reinforce the film-music-like quality of some of the material. This is lively, at times volatile, and often humorous music, and should be played as such. --Marc Weidenbaum

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Five stars for Revueltas and Salonen!, August 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Sensemaya - Music Of Silvestre Revueltas (Audio CD)

Silvestre Revueltas was an enfant terrible of 20th century music in Mexico (compare his compositions to those of the more conservative Carlos Chavez). His works are highly appealing to the contemporary ear by virtue of their intense rhythmicity, creative orchestration and dark undertones which are often counterbalanced by brilliant Mexican motifs. After listening to this enlightening selection of some Revueltas' finest works for full orchestra and chamber ensemble, I wondered what other masterworks might have been composed by one who died too young. Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic musicians really do justice to these innovative pieces. Highly recommended!

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Salonen's Window on a 20th Century Original, March 9, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sensemaya - Music Of Silvestre Revueltas (Audio CD)

This year marks the centennial for Silvestre Revueltas, who was born on the very last day of the 19th century. When alcoholism took his life three months before his 41st birthday, it also deprived the world of the full blossoming of a remarkable talent. He left a short worklist, nearly all of it written in that most woeful of decades, the Thirties. The half dozen works on this CD reflect the gritty reality of the time--undoubtedly even grittier in Mexico than in the U.S. Based on an Afro-Cuban legend about the killing of a snake, Sensemaya is his most famous piece. For me, its pounding rhythms and brash colors are so primal, so physical, they beg to be choreographed. Were the piece longer than its seven minutes, it could stand comparison with Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. The longest work here come from one of his seven film scores, La noche de los mayas, which brilliantly showcases his talent for incorporating Mexican street music in work of the highest art. In Ventanas, quiet interludes punctuate a brassy tuba-led "window" on Mexican street life. To my mind, Revueltas' Ocho por radio is a far more evocative depiction of the existential "radio" than Stockhausen's static-bloated radio works. Both the Homage to Lorca and the Two Short Pieces exhibit the composer's skill with the neo-classical tools of the day: a skill which enabled him to wring maximum emotional content from the sparest means. At the risk of raising stereotypes, the quality that most struck me about Revueltas' music is its "machismo." In truth, however, it abounds with virility, a quality for all genders and--let us hope--for all times. ~ Larry Kohl

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Silvestre Revueltas: A Too Short Life but a Rich Musical Legacy, October 18, 2005

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sensemaya - Music Of Silvestre Revueltas (Audio CD)

MUSIC OF SILVESTRE REVUELTAS is one of those CDs that, once in the library, is a disc that enjoys frequent hearings. This is music of deep convictions by a composer who seemed on the brink of entering the highest echelon of 20th Century composers when he died from alcoholism in 1940 (at age 41!). He brought the sounds, pulsations, exotic rhythms, and folk music from Mexico to the classical concert stage in a way that is as important as what Stravinsky did for the Russian idiom, Copeland did for the American idiom, and Bartok is for the Hungarian idiom.

This superb CD includes a fine overview of Revueltas' output. Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the L.A. Philharmonic's New Music Ensemble in both large and small works. The 'La Noche de los Mayas, suite for orchestra' is as lush and gorgeous a work for orchestra as anything he wrote. But it is in 'Homenaje a Federico García Lorca for Chamber Orchestra' that the complexity and the drama of Revueltas' compositional powers are clearly evident. Also included are the now standard 'Sensemayá', 'Ocho por Radio', 'Ventanas' and two 'Little Serious Pieces'.

The performances are clear, transparent, full of bite and energy and very much in line with the quality of sound and interpretation we've come to expect form Salonen and his forces. In Salonen, Revueltas has found a solid supporter and we can only hope there will be many more recordings of this sensual and exciting music! Highly recommended. Grady Harp, October 05