Baroque & Beyond Festival opens with exhibit
By Bob Kelly February 15, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Baroque & Beyond Festival The Marvel of Strings exhibit Juan Luis Garcia Orozco, harpsichord Fri, Feb 15, noon Bellas Artes Hernández Macías 75 Free Full schedule is on page 36 of the print edition.

The second Baroque and Beyond Festival opens February 15 with an exhibit of the type of string instruments that will be used by musicians from five countries to play the works of composers from the Baroque period (1600–1750).

The exhibition runs through February 23 and is sponsored by the Escuela de Lauderia (Luthier School) in Querétaro, the only school in Latin America that offers a bachelor´s degree in the art of building and restoring bowed-string instruments. The National Institute of Fine Arts created the school to enhance Mexico’s classical music tradition. 

Juan Luis Garcia Orozco, a master harpsichord builder from Mexico City, will give a demonstration and lecture on the largest of the string instruments at noon, also at Bellas Artes. The exhibition and the demonstration have free admission.

Appearing during the festival will be the Camerata Ventapane of Houston, the Capella Guatajuanensis of Guanajuato and five guest artists. The festival is co-sponsored by the Camerata and Pro Musica San Miguel el Grande. 

The festival is being recognized by the Texas Commission on the Arts for its contribution to international cooperation and exchange in the arts. Commissioner Dr. Dorothy Caram will represent the commission at both the festival in San Miguel and at performances in Mexico City. Dr. Caram will present certificates from the commission to all artists participating in the festival.

Bellas Artes also will be the location February 23 for the final event in San Miguel. The German harpsichordist Sebastian Knebel will present a free recital at noon, “Music at the Dresden Court.”

In between, the festival will present four matinee concerts and five evening programs in San Miguel and an encore concert in Querétaro. Members of the Camerata and Knebel also will present two concerts the following week in Mexico City.

Individual tickets are on sale at Casa de Papel, Mesones 57, 154-5187;

La Conexión, Aldama 3, 152-1599; and the House & Garden Tour, at 11am, Sunday at the Biblioteca Pública, Insurgentes 25. To purchase ticket packages, email the festival at ontheplaza@comcast.net. For more details, consult www.promusicasma.com. 

Have You Heard?
By Doug Robinson

Paul McCartney still won’t slow down

At the end of 2007’s final column, I signed off with the promise that last November’s Jazz Festival would be a good one. With so many concerts and clinics covering such a wide range of styles, I knew it was unlikely that every event would be a perfect ‘10,’ but I think we came a lot closer than even I expected. One of our goals was to impress the musicians enough to get them to spread the word about San Miguel to their colleagues. Not only did everything go smoothly enough when they hit the stage (thanks to our behind the scenes volunteers), the musicians were also knocked out by the generosity of their hosts and hostesses, the quality of the restaurants, and the beauty of our city. I know I speak for Antonio, Teri and Glenda when I say thank you all for your amazing support during that important time. Our volunteers weathered changes in direction with a smile. Our donors and sponsors gave till it hurt. And you, the audience, did exactly what we wanted: you showed up in healthy numbers for every single concert. I’m glad it’s over, but I confess that I’m starting to look forward to the 2008 version.

Now that that’s out of the way, I want to remind you what the purpose of these “Have You Heard” columns is. To say it as simply as possible, once a month I try to shine a light on music that deserves wider recognition. Even as the major record labels report their worst sales year ever, with drastically diminished numbers due to a worsening economy and their own bad judgment combined with the tidal wave of internet piracy, there is still too much high quality music being released for any of us to stay on top of it all.

I can’t really explain why I care so much about what’s happening in the world of music, but I’m always in search of something approaching exceptional. Most of what I’ve truly loved over the last few years has come from the land of independent labels. There are thousands of independent labels releasing music alongside the majors. In the old days, the goal of most musicians was to sign with a major label in the hopes that it would take over all aspects of one’s career. Today, with the majors jettisoning even well-known acts in order to stay afloat, the dream is to do it all yourself. Musicians record and release their own albums for a fraction of the cost incurred by a major label. They might enjoy a huge cult following or they might only sell a few hundred copies, but in the end the art is controlled 100 percent by the artist as opposed to a committee and a focus group as so much of today’s popular music is.

Believe it or not, some of the above actually applies to the one and only Paul McCartney. His eclectic 2004 album, Chaos and Creation In the Backyard, was enough of a hit to finally stop all the ‘Paul Is Dead (At Least Creatively)’ jokes once and for all. From there, he could have leveraged his track record and leaned on a major label to help him promote his next album, the superb Memory Almost Full, but instead he chose to be the first-ever release on Starbucks’ fledgling proprietary label, Hear Music. As a result, the album was only available in limited release at first. But the buzz was good enough to get the album placed on Rolling Stone’s Best of 2007 list, and it is still selling well several months later.

How does it fare compared to Paul’s innovative work with the Beatles, or his catchy pop work with Wings, or his occasionally-inspired solo work? Pretty damned well. McCartney is the king at crafting melodies that fit a song so well that you might swear you’ve already heard it. Of the 13 tracks on Memory Almost Full, only one melody has failed to work its way into my subconscious. This is extremely tuneful stuff, expertly sung by Paul whose voice seems to defy gravity in the way that Stevie Wonder’s does. When describing this album, the unavoidable word is ‘catchy.’ The album rocks pretty hard at times, and then shrinks down to a “Blackbird”-like minimalism with just guitar and some vocal harmonies. There are some other musical echoes too: “Mister Bellamy” is another snapshot of an eccentric person a la “Admiral Halsey/Uncle Albert,” “See Your Sunshine” sounds like a mid-70s make-out hit complete with some pseudo-Motown production touches, and “Ever Present Past” reminds me of “Band On The Run”-era Wings.

Aside from the fact that Paul still cares enough to put out one of his best pieces of work at this late stage of his career, the biggest surprise is the quality of his lyrics. Even in the Beatles, he always combined some great lines with goofy British music-hall rhymes that felt like he might have hit his beloved herbal therapy a bit too often. (Silly love songs, so to speak.) But while he’s not exactly transformed into Bob Dylan overnight, these new lyrics are clear and concise while still being poetic. In several spots he refers to his time as a Beatle without surrendering to cloying sentimentality. In the song “That Was Me,” he sings “That was me, sweating cobwebs, under contract, in the cellar, on TV—that was me.” One can just picture him and John Lennon as two kids on a deadline, cranking out a classic hit like “Hard Day’s Night” in the time it takes most other bands to tune up their guitars. He makes another reference to the old days in his song “Vintage Clothes,” when he sings “Don’t live in the past, 
don’t hang onto something that’s changing fast—what we are is what we are, and what we wear is vintage clothes.” While this might sound as if he’s resigned to being a relic of another time, he turns it around in the same song by adding “Check the rack—what was out is coming back.”

I love this album, plain and simple. As he has in the past, he plays most of the instruments on several tracks and sounds great on everything. He might never move the world like a Beatle again, but times have changed, and the dynamic of those four kids and their producer George Martin isn’t something that can be replicated by studio weasels with dollar signs in their eyes. But as long as Paul keeps aiming for the fences like he obviously did with Memory Almost Full, he’s going to keep scoring.

Doug Robinson is a composer and multi-instrumentalist living in San Miguel with his wife and three dogs.

Music to My Ears
By John Bills

Pro Musica presents Trio Nova Mundi

Piano trios, since Beethoven’s time at least, give the violin, cello and piano more or less equal stature within the composition, making collaboration among the musicians of major importance. ProMusica presented Trio Nova Mundi in a pair of concerts this weekend at St. Paul’s Church which proved the point: remarkable unanimity of purpose, combined with style, technique and sheer delight in the music.

Saturday’s program began with an early Beethoven work, one of the first to carry an opus number, the Trio No. 3 in C minor, Op. 1 No. 3. How remarkable that Beethoven, the young piano virtuoso, seems already fully formed as a composer, creating a mature work in full-blown Sonata form, while sensing that the piano should complement, and not overwhelm the strings. Trio Nova Mundi played crisply and with due emphasis on Beethoven’s rhythmic energy.

The remainder of the program fulfilled the trio’s artistic mission, which is to promote music from all the Americas. First was an atmospheric performance of Trio No. 2 of Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, notable for the haunting harmonics and swaying rhythm of the second movement barcarolla, the jazzy humor of the scherzo and the lushly romantic final movement. Here, though each musician had moments to shine, we heard the beginnings of Villa-Lobos life-long affinity for the cello, beautifully played here by Kathryn Bates. The evening’s highlight followed with an arrangement by pianist Rodrigo Ojeda of Piazzolla’s Cuatro estaciones porteñas or The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires (porteño being the local name for residents of that city). Astor Piazzolla was the Argentine composer who took the tango from its earthy, sensual, often disreputable roots, combined it with jazz idioms, classical forms and twentieth century harmonies, and raised it to sophisticated art. Using his whole repertoire of snaps, pops an
d glistening glissandi, Piazzolla even interweaves quotations from Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, causing delightful moments of recognition in what is a thoroughly ingenious work. Violinist Maureen Conlon Gutiérrez had her finest moments here, rising to Piazzolla’s multiple challenges magnificently, with full tone and energetic percussive effects. Pianist Rodrigo Ojeda melted the audience with his mournful solo in the Winter movement. The evening closed with a delicious encore, La Bella Cubana by Cuban composer José White.

Sunday’s return performance gave each member of Trio Nova Mundi a moment in the spotlight. Characteristic of pre-Beethoven piano trios, Mozart’s Trio in B flat allows the piano to dominate the proceedings, and Ojeda did not disappoint, playing with assurance and sparkling passage work. Then it was Conlon’s turn, a vivid and fiery performance of the Sonata Breve for Violin and Piano by Mexican composer Manuel Maria Ponce (of Estrellita fame). Bates followed with the aptly titled Le Grand Tango by Piazzolla, playing with abandon and earning cheers in the process.

The latter part of the program featured two more tangos by Piazzolla, arranged for piano trio by José Bragato: the hauntingly played Oblivion, capturing all its melancholy and the blazing Revolucionario (complete with an appropriate sound and light show provided by a passing thunderstorm). The evening closed with American composer Paul Schoenfield’s exuberantly jazzy Café Music, leaving the audience cheering for more. My wish? That a return visit include Ponce’s poetic Trio Romántico.

John Bills has sung over 5,000 performances with The Metropolitan Opera. He writes about music and classic film. Contact him at FliksRUs@aol.com. 

Traditional folklore harp and flamenco guitar concert series continues
By José Luis Mendoza

Concert
Sergio Basurto Valencia
Mon, Feb 18, 7:30pm
Sala Quetzal
Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50A
150 pesos

The Sala Quetzal of the Biblioteca Pública will present an extraordinary musician, Sergio Basurto Valencia, recognized and acknowledged in San Miguel for more than 20 years. Sergio Basurto’s musical career started in Mexico City when, at 16, he studied the Andean flute known as quena. This expertise allowed Sergio to become part of the most prestigious Latin American folklore groups of the 70s. While with the group he learned to play the multiple syncopated rhythms of Latin American folklore such as milongas, zamba, baladas, rumba, bossa nova and more. From this experience it wasn’t difficult for him to understand flamenco rhythms and interpret the most representative with mastery. Sergio has being offering this very well received and appreciated concerts in the Santa Ana theatre for the past 5 years; Sergio belongs to the selected musical community of San Miguel.

The experience of seeing such a versatile musician will give you an unforgettable evening. Don’t miss it!! Seating is limited, so please get your tickets in advance at the Teatro Santa Ana.

Opera in Mexico City

Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca will be performed in the Palacio de Bellas Artes on Sunday, February 24 at 5pm, and on Tuesday and Thursday, February 26 and 28, at 8pm. Tickets are available at the box office or through www.ticketmaster.com.mx .  

Jaramar: Music from the Sephardic Diaspora
By Isaac Toporek

Concert Jaramar Sat, Feb 23 El Viejo Topo Café-Teatro Stirling Dickinson 28

Jaramar’s music blends mysticism and sensuality, the sacred and the profane, worldliness and tradition. Judeo-Spanish traditional songs played with modern instruments and interpretations create an original sound that reflects personal and ancestral journeys.

Traditional Sephardic music is sung in ladino, a language of simple lyrical and melodic beauty central to the daily lives of Spanish Jews, particularly to those of women. Sephardic Jews were exiled from Spain by the Edict of Avila in 1492, but took with them songs from their homeland of 15 centuries, which is a mix of Moorish, Christian and Jewish traditions. They preserved their music, enriched by exile and inevitably transformed in interpretations over the centuries.

Jaramar and her musical group created a unique interpretation of this genre, which came to Mexico by way of the Conquest, defying temporal and geographical barriers. For 15 years, Jaramar, a Mexican singer based in Guadalajara, has impressed audiences in Europe and the Americas with music from eight recordings. 

In this concert, Jaramar supports her lastest recording, Que Mis Labios Te Nombren, an exploration of her cultural roots and personal history with traditional and popular Mexican songs learned in her childhood from her grandmother, father and friends. Her repertoire includes songs from the north of Mexico, Veracruz, Guerrero, Yucatan and Jalisco written by little-known composers. Que Mis Labios Te Nombren is a contemporary piece with a strong connection to traditions that resonate in Mexico.