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Monday, March 25, 2019

Carlos Chávez - Symphonies (Eduardo Mata)


Information

Composer: Carlos Chávez

CD1:
  • (01) Symphony No. 1 ‘Sinfonía de Antígona'
  • (02) Symphony No. 3
  • (06) Symphony No. 4: ‘Sinfonía Romántica'
CD2:
  • (01) Symphony No. 2 ‘Sinfonía India'
  • (02) Symphony No. 5
  • (04) Symphony No. 6

London Symphony Orchestra
Eduardo Mata, conductor

Date: 1981/2014
Label: Brilliant Classics (licensed from VOX)
https://www.brilliantclassics.com/articles/c/ch%C3%A1vez-complete-symphonies/

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Review

An ideal reissue of Eduardo Mata's 1981 cycle of the numbered [symphony] symphonies of Carlos Chavez (1899-1978), Mexico's leading exponent of the form

The three shorter, titled symphonies, Sinfonia de Antigona (1932-3), Sinfonia india (1935) and Sinfonia romantica (1952), haved fared the best of the six on disc over the years, particularly the Sinfonia india, with its wonderful Indian melodies and native percussion. Bernstein knew a good thing when he heard it, but his vibrant recording is hampered by indifferent balance. Mata's Dorian account is perfectly serviceable if not in Bernstein's league or the LSO's. It is also a makeweight for works by Orbon - annotator for part of Vox's reissue - and Villa-Lobos. Batiz for ASV couples it with Ponce's Violin Concerto and Revueltas's La noche de los mayas, but it's the best recorded of all.

Sinfonia de Antigona is a concentrated, atmospheric reworking (sounding not the least bit Mexican) of incidental music to Sophocles's play. Its despairing wind solos and granitic brass chords capture the essence of Greek tragedy as does Havergal Brian's Twelfth. There are curious resonances of the latter at the start of the Sinfonia romantica - written six years before the first performance of any Brian symphony - and Shostakovichian burlesque in the finale. Nos 3, 5 and 6 are very different works in scale, serious and abstract in tone. In the Third (1951), the winds and brass unusually often drive the music along (rather than the strings) in what is Chavez's most original design. The Fifth (1953, for strings) is one of the great unknown symphonies for strings (along with Maconchy's, Schuman's Fifth and Hartmann's Fourth). The Sixth (1961) is the finest of all, its concluding passacaglia and fugue a tremendous achievement.

Overall, these discs score over Batiz's despite the latter's superior sound quality and Nos 1 and 4's attractive coupling of three excel- lent Revueltas scores. Nos 3, 5 and 6 are available only in this set, the composer's own having long been deleted. (Nos 1, 2 and 4 are available from Everest in North America.) Mata's tempos are all spot on, though generally more measured than Chavez's. The performances are excellent although No 5 clearly taxed the LSO strings at times (the composer's own electrifying account is not likely to be bettered). A set to treasure.

-- Guy Rickards, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/Sept01/Chavez.htm
https://www.amazon.com/Chavez-Symphonies-Carlos/dp/B000001K39

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Carlos Chávez (13 June 1899 – 2 August 1978) was a Mexican composer, conductor, music theorist, educator and journalist. He studied piano with Asunción Parra, Manuel Ponce, and Pedro Luis Ozagón, and harmony with Juan Fuentes. Chávez was founder and director of the Mexican Symphonic Orchestra, Mexico's first permanent orchestra. He composed six numbered symphonies; the second one, or Sinfonía india, which uses native Yaqui percussion instruments, is probably the most popular. Chávez also made recordings, conducting his own music as well as that of other composers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Ch%C3%A1vez

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Eduardo Mata (5 September 1942 – 4 January 1995) was a Mexican conductor and composer. Mata studied composition under Carlos Chávez, Héctor Quintanar and Julián Orbón at the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico. He also studied at Tanglewood with Max Rudolf, Erich Leinsdorf (conducting) and Gunther Schuller (composition). As a composer, Mata composed several works in the 1950s and 1960s, including three symphonies and chamber works. As a comductor, Mata recorded over fifty albums, most of them with the Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM, the Dallas SO, and the London SO.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Mata

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4 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. A GREAT composer, an American composer for all the Americas!

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