The 9 Symphonies

Description

Who will be surprised that at last we discover outside of Brazil or Mexico, the composers of Latin America? Luis Humberto Salgado, father of modern classical music in Ecuador, virtuoso pianist, renowned pedagogue, is he a good catch? Folklore is an obligation for him, his language would probably be even harsher, his brass more European, if they did not have the concern for local color. This reductive alliance will find its acme with the 4th Symphony whose Vivo could be the emblem. I listen without conviction to an art that takes refuge in its craft. How it lacks breath! One must not hear a few notes of Villa-Lobos or Chavez in comparison…. Alas, when Salgado abstracts himself from nationalist contingencies, it will be to fall into modernist esperanto – half dodecaphonic – which will reign late across the Atlantic during the 1960s. Inspiration, already thin in the works of the 1950s, will completely disappear. The modest orchestra, which does useful work nonetheless, the recording, short and dry, does not help in the discovery.
The Ecuadorian composer Luis Humberto Salgado began a career as a pianist and then as a conductor and teacher. He tried to formalize a national Ecuadorian music (subtitle of Symphony No. 4 “Ecuadorian”) through a cycle of nine symphonies composed between 1949 and 1975. A rough, brass-heavy, percussive music, which combines a reconstruction of folklore with a lyricism evoking both the South American composers of the first half of the 20th century and the spirit of the Spanish zarzuela! To these primary sources were added the influences of dodecaphonism and atonality that seduced some composers from South America. These colorful interpretations do not benefit from an airy and detailed recording. As for the woodwind sections, they do not have impeccable accuracy… This complete set of a rare work puts into perspective the evolution of a composite aesthetic that has tried its hand at all genres, including neoclassicism (harp and harpsichord) in Symphony No. 3 in "Rococo" style or "Néoromantica" for Symphony No. 5. Symphony No. 9 in a single movement suggests the influence of a Shostakovich. What a patchwork of scores! A matter "to be continued" … at the concert?