Chavez: Piano Concerto / Osorio, Prieto, Mexico National Symphony
Details
- Composer
- CHAVEZ MONCAYO ZYMAN
- Artist
- Osorio, Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional De Mexico, Prieto
- Format
- CD
- Label
- Cedille
- Released
- Apr 30, 2013
- Catalog #
- CDR 140
- UPC
- 735131914024
About
Rarely performed, the Piano Concerto of 20th-century Mexican composer Carlos Chavez receives an insightful, idiomatic, and compelling performance from Mexican-born pianist Jorge Federico Osorio, the Orquestra Sinfónica Nacional de México, and conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto. Surprising tempo changes and a whirlwind of styles make the work a thrill ride for performers and audiences alike!
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REVIEWS:
Make no mistake, Carlos Chávez’s Piano Concerto is a major work. Symphonic in length and very generous in content, it poses quite a challenge to the soloist, with hyperactive allegros surrounding an intimate and evocatively scored central Molto lento. Jorge Federico Osorio has no peer in this repertoire, at least on disc. He plays the work with unflagging energy and, where called for, sensitivity, and he’s very capably accompanied by Carlos Prieto and the Mexican National Symphony Orchestra. This is an important addition to the Chávez discography, and it’s very well engineered.
The couplings make an attractive series of encores. Both Chávez’s Meditación and Moncayo’s Muros Verdes are lovely, lyrical interludes, but Samuel Zyman’s Variations on an Original Theme is a major work more than a quarter-hour long. It’s not easy listening. The music is thorny and at times highly dissonant, but there’s also no question that the work has great integrity, a wide expressive range, and an impressive level of disciplined craftsmanship, nor is it particularly difficult to follow. Osorio, as in the concerto, plays all three solo works very well indeed, and as you’re not likely to find this repertoire so convincingly done anywhere else, this disc earns an enthusiastic recommendation.
-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
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The program includes a postlude of solo piano music by Chávez and two of his younger compatriots. The Chaváz piece is a lovely youthful composition, written when he was 19, and owes as much to the influence of Grieg as it does to any New World sources. José Pablo Moncayo, a student of Chávez, contributes a beautiful and rather impressionistic work. Finally, there is the variation set by Samuel Zyman, a contemporary Mexican composer. This dark, even bleak, work is certainly the most harmonically advanced music on the CD, but makes for a somewhat jarring break from the more mellifluous material represented by Chávez and Moncayo. But the reason to acquire this recording is for the brilliant Chávez concerto, which has not been recorded for years.
Peter Burwasser, FANFARE.
Tracklist 6 tracks
-
1 I. Largo non troppo - Allegro agitato 20:17
- Track
- 1
- Title
- I. Largo non troppo - Allegro agitato
- Duration
- 20:17
- Composer
- Carlos Chávez
- Performer
- Jorge Federico Osorio
- Ensemble
- Mexico National Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Carlos Miguel Prieto
-
2 II. Molto lento 09:10
- Track
- 2
- Title
- II. Molto lento
- Duration
- 09:10
- Composer
- Carlos Chávez
- Performer
- Jorge Federico Osorio
- Ensemble
- Mexico National Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Carlos Miguel Prieto
-
3 III. Finale: Allegro non troppo 07:05
- Track
- 3
- Title
- III. Finale: Allegro non troppo
- Duration
- 07:05
- Composer
- Carlos Chávez
- Performer
- Jorge Federico Osorio
- Ensemble
- Mexico National Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Carlos Miguel Prieto
-
4 Meditacion 05:09
- Track
- 4
- Title
- Meditacion
- Duration
- 05:09
- Composer
- Carlos Chávez
- Performer
- Jorge Federico Osorio
-
5 Muros verdes 06:36
- Track
- 5
- Title
- Muros verdes
- Duration
- 06:36
- Composer
- José Pablo Moncayo
- Performer
- Jorge Federico Osorio
-
6 Variations on an Original Theme 16:00
- Track
- 6
- Title
- Variations on an Original Theme
- Duration
- 16:00
- Composer
- Samuel Zyman
- Performer
- Jorge Federico Osorio