With the holiday season drawing near, Berlin audiences were given the chance to take a virtual trip around the Americas at the city’s Philharmonie, with a concert conducted by regular guest Gustavo Dudamel. The American evening offered a diverse picture of 20th- and 21st-century music from two continents, the Berliner Philharmoniker's programme featuring Téenek, an orchestral work by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz, Alberto Ginastera’s First Piano Concerto and Charles Ives’ Second Symphony. As with all tours, a good guide makes all the difference and there is none better than Dudamel, whose charisma and familiarity with the repertoire were optimal attributes to lead such a journey.
Scored for a large orchestra, Téenek – which is Huastec for “local man” – is structured as a series of inventions whose driving force is a vibrant, ever-changing rhythmic pulse. Through a juxtaposition of different musical events, Ortiz materialises the conviction that borders are ultimately meaningless, as they are nullified within a varied, but cohesive score. Téenek’s local man is neither alone nor domineering – rather, it only finds its identity in the coexistence of many a culture, anchored to the ground by a multiplicity of roots. The piece makes no secret of Ortiz’ main inspirations, all the while transcending them to create something personal and engaging. Having premiered it in 2017, Dudamel explored the score’s fascination with rhythmic patterns by highlighting its percussive quality – not just thanks to the four sets of percussion required on stage, but also accentuating the composer’s percussive use of other instruments. The conductor shaped the frequent crescendos with calculated precision, evoking the measured but sweeping rapture of dance.
Riding on the same fortunate wave, Ginastera’s Piano Concerto no. 1 also sizzled with tension. The concerto is no new acquaintance to pianist Sergio Tiempo, who has rightfully earned a reputation as one of its major interpreters. Confronting a score that often leaves the soloist alone or almost, Tiempo engaged in a battle with himself and won. His clearheaded, taut playing left no room for nonsense, absorbed as it was in the rhythmic flow of Ginastera’s writing. With full control over the entire keyboard, Tiempo’s interpretation was not just technically agile but also adaptable to the numerous changes of pace and tone of the concerto. Dudamel followed accordingly, enveloping the soloist with a responsive and alert, but never overwhelming, orchestral sound.
As the tour entered its North American half, it also returned to a more traditional idiom. While drawing on folk music and taking some unorthodox musical turns, Ives’ symphony is just as clearly about the composer’s European – and more precisely, German – favourites through references to Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and Wagner. Having found an outlet for his lyrical streak, Dudamel eased his percussive impetus and focused instead on the strings, whose dense, full timbre filled the hall from the very beginning of the opening Andante moderato. Even during the score’s more animated moments, its melodic richness was accentuated with a vivacious but unhurried gait, which proved a fitting follow-up to the first half of the programme. All the more surprising, then, when having played along with the audience’s placid expectations, Dudamel reached the finale’s sudden dissonance, its playful derision marking the cheerful end of our journey.
