Various composers: Fiesta, Latin American works

The Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra’s performance of a selection of Latin American works at both last year’s Edinburgh Festival & Proms left audiences stunned by the sheer energy, enthusiasm and musicality of such an enormous orchestra (to give an idea of scale, just imagine an orchestra which includes forty-eight violinists and seventeen trumpeters). At last, the recording that everyone has been waiting for has arrived. Fiesta includes works played last summer (Márquez’s Danzón no. 2 and Ginastera’s Dances from Estancia) plus Mambo from Bernstein’s West Side Story, Symphonic Dances, which acts here as an encore.

I was initially worried that over an hour of this music would become a bit relentless, but no, I was left wanting more at the end. Only one of the tracks is a live performance (Bernstein’s Mambo) but I think this is what makes the recording so enjoyable. Whilst the live track is extremely sharp, lively and forceful, I suspect a whole disc of live performances would be exhausting to listen to. The remainder of the disc is far from dull, the youthful passion is always present. Take, for example, Márquez’s Danzón no. 2. Beginning with a wandering clarinet and piano which turns to some very snappy unison strings, the off-beat rhythms are present all the while. Margariteña by Carreño, unknown to me, starts with a haunting horn solo which expands into a set of rich symphonic variations. Carreño has taken a traditional Venezuelan folk melody as the basis of the work. The dance-like feel of both these works is present throughout the whole of Fiesta.

Dudamel states that the orchestra has “something which is very important, which in our world we are losing, and in which you can hear when the Simón Bolívar Orchestra plays: the love of music. They love to play. Music changed our lives, music is our life.” Fiesta seems to be the ideal way for this spectacular orchestra to celebrate their lives.