Inspirational guest conductor debuts with the Orchestre Métropolitain

Perseverance is an admirable trait; professional musicians possess it in spades. Glass Marcano's path to making it as a professional conductor also involved financial hardship as well as racial and gender prejudices. Her saga has the lure of a rags to riches fairy tale. This conductor's musical training began as a violinist in Venezuela's El Sistema program, which provides music lessons free of charge to all interested youths. At a young age her ambitions shifted from the violin to conducting. She realised that gaining recognition at a prestigious conducting competition could be the launch pad to international opportunities. 

Overcoming obstacles such as not being able to afford an entry fee, lacking the resources to produce a video of her directing an orchestra, and an inability to speak French or English, Marcano was ultimately not only accepted as a participant in Paris' La Maestra competition, but earned the Orchestra Prize from a bowled over Paris Mozart Orchestra. Currently a conducting student at both the Paris Conservatoire and a Venezuelan university, Marcano guest conducts professional ensembles in Europe and the Americas.

At this concert with Montreal's Orchestre Métropolitain, Marcano began with Latin American music, the Obertura festiva of Orrego Salas, Silvestre Revueltas' Janitzio, and Moncayo's Huapango. The gentler sections of Huapango were a highlight, dancing along with restrained yet intense exuberance. The solo clarinet work of Simon Aldrich was impressively expressive. Each composition was preceded by a poem from either Latin America or Quebec that spoke to the tribulations of the emigrant experience. These readings were staged and dramatically read by Victor Andrés Trelles Turgeon.

From music that was new to OM players and audience alike, we transitioned to Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony, a familiar crowd pleaser. This reading benefited from a well considered interpretation characterised by a ‘big picture’ approach. Marcano's gestures shone light on the inner layers of this richly orchestrated composition. Her phrasing was judiciously nuanced and arced, the OM unwaveringly attentive and responsive, although the articulation of the woodwind and brass sections needed to be better matched. 

In both the symphony's opening fanfare as well as with respect to melodic material that is handed off to various sections of the orchestra in the final movement, more uniformity of attack and release was needed. Loosening the reins of those playing solos would have fostered more elasticity and spontaneity, particularly in the Andantino. Tone quality was sacrificed to achieve extremes of dynamic range, problematic in both the very soft passages in the pizzicato material of the Scherzo and the fortissimo restatement of the opening theme in the Allegro con fuoco.

Nonetheless, the musicality achieved by this emerging artist was nothing short of sensational. The charismatic Marcano clearly has the potential to ascend to the top tier ranks of world class conductors. Hopefully this was the first of what will prove to be many appearances in Montreal.