[dropcap]G[/dropcap]ustavo Dudamel is one of the world’s great conductors and for three nights this month, the Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo will once again host the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela for an unforgettable concert series.
After critics praised the Simón Bolívar Symphony’s take on Beethoven’s nine symphonies in 2015, the orchestra will perform the Turangalila Symphony by French composer Olivier Messaien, accompanied by soloists Yuja Wang on the piano and Cynthia Millar on the electronic ondes Martenot.
The second night delivers a very latin focus with works by Ravel (France), Villa-Lobos (Brazil) and Desenne (Venezuela). And for the closure of the three-night gala event, the symphony will perform two works by the modernist of all modernists, Igor Stravinsky, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring.
The Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela (OSSBV) was founded by maestro José Antonio Abreu and ranks at the top of the National System of Youth Orchestras of Venezuela. Its 170 members were appointed Ambassadors for Peace by UNESCO and have received master classes by world-class teachers, including Simon Rattle, Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Krzysztof Penderecki, Essa-Pekka Salonem and Lorin Maazel.
At the head of this important cultural undertaking is Dudamel, who also conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Although his duties between Caracas and L.A take up most of his time, the Venezuelan is also guest conductor to some of the most prestigious orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic.
In the first concert on Tuesday, June 28 (8:00 pm), the orchestra will perform the Turangalîla Symphony by Olivier Messaien and with two renowned soloists – pianist Yuja Wang, who has been supported since her musical start by important teachers, including Gustavo Dudamel, Michael Tilson Thomas, Charles Dutoit, and the late Claudio Abbado. Yuja is one of the most in-demand pianists of the moment and in addition to her extensive concert repertoire, is a recitalist and chamber music virtuoso.
British Chyntia Millar performs the ondes Martenot, an electronic instrument with keyboard, speaker and low-frequency generator. From the first time she played the Symphony Turangalîla at the BBC Proms in London with Mark Elder and the National Youth Orchestra of the United Kingdom, she was taken under the wing of conductors Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Andrew Davis, André Previn, Esa-Pekka Salonen, among others.
“This symphony is – after The Rite of Spring – the most important composition of our century,” said Serge Koussevitzky, director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, who in 1945 commissioned Messaien to compose Turangalîla. In 1949, it debuted with piano and the ondes Martenot in the hands of Yvonne Loriod, Messaien’s wife and Ginette Martenot, inventor of the instrument. The concert at the Teatro Mayor is a first for the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, Gustavo Dudamel and renowned Chinese pianist Wang Yuya.
On Thursday, June 30 (8:00 PM) Latin America takes center stage with a tribute to the Venezuelan composer Simon Díaz and a work by Paul Desenne, Hipnosis Mariposa. Desenne grew up in Caracas and played in the Símon Bolívar Youth Orchestra. He went on to study composition for eleven years in Paris. Then follows the Bachianas Brasileiras No.2 by Heitor Villa-Lobos, one of nine movements composed by the Brazilian between 1930 and 1940. And finally, two pieces by Maurice Ravel, Daphnis and Chloé, and La Valse.
Daphnis and Chloé is a one act ballet that tells the love story of Daphnis, a Sicilian shepherd, and Cloe, a shepherdess. La Valse was composed as a ballet, and at its debut with pianist Sergei Diaghilev of the Ballets Russes, heralded “a masterpiece….as a portrait of a ballet … a painting of ballet. ”
On Friday July 1 (8:00 PM) Dudamel presents two powerful works by Russian Igor Stravinsky – Petrushka and The Rite of Spring. The Rite of Spring is considered a rich orchestral work and one of the most influential in modern times. Stravingsky’s Petrushka, composed in 1911, is often taken as this composer’s first major break with the traditions of his Russian music education. The ballet evolves around a puppet and his “external life”, a symbiotic relationship between dance and music, the artist and his environment. A fitting finale for a conductor who continues to chart Venezuelan musical talent to new heights and frontiers.
Tickets available at the Teatro Mayor box office. Doors open at 7:30.
www.teatromayor.org
Ave Calle 170 No.67-51.
