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Gallic Elegance
Alexandra Soumm joins Juanjo Mena and the
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra for music by
Ginastera, Lalo, Telemann, Bizet and Ravel,
impressing MIKE WHEELER
It's almost as though the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Juanjo Mena (Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham, UK, 12 March 2015) were deliberately trying to revive the old chestnut about the best Spanish music being written by French composers (not true, of course, but these things often take a long time to fade from consciousness).
Even the one genuinely Hispanic piece on the programme was from Argentina. The Four Dances from Alberto Ginastera's ballet Estancia made an earthy curtain-raiser to the Gallic elegance that followed. The opening 'Land Workers' and the final 'Malambo' had energy and weight, 'Wheat Dance' was engagingly cool and limpid, while in 'The Cattle Men' conductor and orchestra pointed up the influence of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring...
Copyright © 19 March 2015
Mike Wheeler,
Derby UK
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