Post by erik on Mar 5, 2022 18:18:26 GMT -5
A symphonic tone poem by the Puerto Rican composer Roberto Sierra, about his native land, is in this week's Classical Works Spotlight.
Roberto Sierra: TROPICALIA
The Latin influence has pervaded a lot of 20th and 21st century American classical music, via some of the exotic works of Aaron Copland (“El Salon Mexico”; “Danzon Cubano”; “Three Latin American Sketches”) and Leonard Bernstein (“America”; “I Feel Pretty”, from West Side Story), to name just two. But one of our greatest composers to bring that Latin influence directly to audiences has been Roberto Sierra. Born in 1953 in Vega Baja on the American island protectorate of Puerto Rico, Sierra initially studied in Hamburg, Germany with the Hungarian avant-garde master Gyorgy Ligeti in the early 1980’s. His first major success, however, came in 1986, when his orchestral work “Jubilo” was first performed by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, not long after it had received its very first performance by the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra under Zdenek Macal, an enthusiastic admirer of American music. His 1991 work “Tropicalia” is a hugely vivid tone poem of twenty-three minutes in length that depicts the composer’s tropical island home paradise, with its rainforests, its fauna, and its animal life; and it made Mr. Sierra one of the most transformative American composers as the 20th century came to an end, becoming hailed in his native Puerto Rico and having many of his works, including his Symphony No. 3 (“La Salsa”) and the Missa Latina, receive important premieres in both Washington D.C. and Milwaukee.
Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra/ZDENEK MACAL (Koss Classics)
Included:
A JOYOUS OVERTURE
IDILIO (Milwaukee Symphony Chorus)
SASIMA
PREAMBULO
Roberto Sierra: TROPICALIA
The Latin influence has pervaded a lot of 20th and 21st century American classical music, via some of the exotic works of Aaron Copland (“El Salon Mexico”; “Danzon Cubano”; “Three Latin American Sketches”) and Leonard Bernstein (“America”; “I Feel Pretty”, from West Side Story), to name just two. But one of our greatest composers to bring that Latin influence directly to audiences has been Roberto Sierra. Born in 1953 in Vega Baja on the American island protectorate of Puerto Rico, Sierra initially studied in Hamburg, Germany with the Hungarian avant-garde master Gyorgy Ligeti in the early 1980’s. His first major success, however, came in 1986, when his orchestral work “Jubilo” was first performed by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, not long after it had received its very first performance by the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra under Zdenek Macal, an enthusiastic admirer of American music. His 1991 work “Tropicalia” is a hugely vivid tone poem of twenty-three minutes in length that depicts the composer’s tropical island home paradise, with its rainforests, its fauna, and its animal life; and it made Mr. Sierra one of the most transformative American composers as the 20th century came to an end, becoming hailed in his native Puerto Rico and having many of his works, including his Symphony No. 3 (“La Salsa”) and the Missa Latina, receive important premieres in both Washington D.C. and Milwaukee.
Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra/ZDENEK MACAL (Koss Classics)
Included:
A JOYOUS OVERTURE
IDILIO (Milwaukee Symphony Chorus)
SASIMA
PREAMBULO