Spectral Sounds Ginastera on Naxos - by ROBERT ANDERSON 'Dora De Marinis is at once mistress of the situation ...'

In this postmodern world it is not only Ariadne who is to be found on Naxos. She must now be accustomed to the greatest and most exhilarating variety of company, and Bacchus might have a tough task to tempt her away. Even if we may never know what she thinks of Ginastera, there is less and less reason why anyone should wish to desert the admirable Naxos. Like Gaul or Beethoven, who crops up in the Second Piano Concerto, Ginastera's composing life can be divided up into three parts, and we have his own authority for saying so. His six solo concertos all date from his third period starting about 1960, in which he was neo-expressionistic, 12-noted, and fascinated by ghostly avant-garde sounds. Piano Concerto No 1 (1961) was commissioned by the Koussevitsky Foundation, dedicated to the memory of the Koussevitskys, and first performed in Washington DC. Divorce, creative sterility, and a second marriage to the cellist Aurora Natola separate the two concertos. No 2 (1972) was commissioned by the Indianapolis SO and dedicated to Hilde Somer, who gave the première in Indianapolis. The First Concerto looks back a bit to Ginastera's earlier styles. No 2 looks straight ahead.

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