Saturday, March 1, 2025
8:00 PM
Acclaimed Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz wrote her ballet score Revolución diamantina with Mexican writer Cristina Rivera Garza. The piece explores the powerful, feminist “Glitter Revolution” campaign in Mexico to highlight the epidemic of violence against women. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wonderfully depicts love’s passion and an infernal whirlwind in his tone poem Francesca da Rimini, and Alban Gerhardt is soloist in the composer’s charming Variations on a Rococo Theme.
Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor
Alban Gerhardt, cello
The Crossing
Donald Nally, Artistic Director
Gabriela ORTIZ Revolución diamantina
Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY Variations on a Rococo Theme, for cello and orchestra
TCHAIKOVSKY Francesca da Rimini
This broadcast is no longer available on demand.
In a preview of this concert, conductor Giancarlo Guerrero describes Gabriela Ortiz's Revolución diamantina, how Tchaikovksy's music relates to it, and what he's looking forward to in his new position as Music Director of the Sarasota Orchestra next season. Listen with the player above, and read the transcript below.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:
Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Giancarlo Guerrero, who's back with the Boston Symphony, and another fascinating program, just like others that you have led in the past. Giancarlo, thanks a lot for your time today. I appreciate it.
Giancarlo Guerrero Thank you Brian, always a pleasure.
Brian McCreath It's a great program of a major piece by one of today's really compelling composers, Gabriela Ortiz. And I want you to frame for us where Gaby stands in Latin American music especially, and then maybe broader than that, how do you see her place in the broader musical world?
Giancarlo Guerrero Gabriela is one of the most important voices in Latin America. She's originally from Mexico and lives in Mexico City and teaches at the university there. So she's been very active in also promoting and forming the next generation of young composers. But at the same time, as the world has gotten smaller, this music is a combination of so many different musical languages from Latin America. There's a little bit of samba, there's a little bit of, you know, European style writing. There's a lot of things in her music that I think are a combination of just so many influences that she has had in her career, which I think is very conducive of the world that we live in. I mean, we are basically being bombarded with so much information that it's almost impossible to ignore. So, I think in many ways that is what makes her very, very interesting and very original, because in the end, her music sounds like her. One of the most interesting facets, and one of the most difficult things for composers, is finding a language. And many people, from the very beginning, they have it. And for Gabriela, she has a style of writing that is very recognizable, and there is a connection with audiences that I find very, very incredible, that her music immediately has an emotional touch with audiences and with orchestra players that we want to explore more. And that has been my case. I got to know other pieces by her, and we've been talking all this week, basically saying what our next project is going to be.
Brian McCreath Now, do you also hear in her music, for all the individuality, all the multiple sources that she draws into that voice, is there a direct connection you feel with those composers of Mexico that some people might know, like Chavez, and Revueltas, these kinds of composers that came before?
Giancarlo Guerrero It is. But most of it you hear in the percussion writing. She utilizes some of the instruments that you may want to call indigenous, you know, a lot of shakers. And even at one point she asked to play tin cans. So some of the stuff is almost from the street, when you think about it. You can see in this particular piece there are so many different and original voices and sounds that in some ways it's almost like you have to do a show and tell at the concert and tell them what we're actually doing, because of stuff that you normally don't see in a symphony orchestra. I can tell you, the percussion players are having all the fun in this piece.
Brian McCreath That's great. Well, percussion players love to have fun anyway, so that's great. Now this presents a challenge, much like Julia Wolfe's Her Story did for you when you came and did that in Boston and at Tanglewood, I believe, too. The challenge is this major piece that is long, it's substantial, it's all-engrossing. What do you do with it? And so tell me about your choice for the second half of this concert centering on Tchaikovsky.
Giancarlo Guerrero Well, this piece of Gabriela is all about the Revolución diamantina, the "Glitter Revolution" of 2019, where women stood up against violence against women, and very rightly so, the height of the MeToo movement. And for the second half, we have a little bit more of that, another story that has to deal with violence against a particular woman, in this case, Francesca da Rimini, who was made famous by Dante's Inferno. And it's actually the Second Canto where we find Francesca with her lover Paolo, who have been condemned to hell for all eternity because they were adulterous. But then again, you have to find out that Francesca was basically forcibly married to Paolo's brother, who was a horrible man. She thought she was marrying Paolo and because of a conflict of situations, ended up marrying the horrible guy. She didn't love him, so she ended up having an affair with the real love of her life. You cannot blame her for that. And because of that, the husband ends up killing her and the lover. And that's why, because of their adultery, they end up in hell. And this is where Dante picks up the story. He's basically being a witness of what is happening there. It's horrible, people are suffering. There's a big storm. The music is incredibly descriptive, just like the Ortiz Revolución. There's a lot of description, very much associated with almost every verse in the Canto of Dante. It is incredible because it tells you this very dramatic, tragic story of love. It's like an opera. And for me, this is one of the great tone poems of Tchaikovsky that doesn't get played very often. I think in many ways, Romeo and Juliet, that other tragic story, almost takes over. But this one, to me, in many ways, is even more original. It came much later. He wanted to write an opera about it. My God, I mean, it's, you know, how can you go wrong? But he just decided on the tone poem. But the more I read the Cantos of Dante and I compare it to the score, you can almost go phrase by phrase, how he's telling the story just through music. It's absolutely amazing. With Tchaikovsky, there is no middle ground. Tchaikovsky is all about extremes emotionally. And this is a composer that I think is one of the most popular just because audiences immediately feel that joy and that pain and that tragedy, and we connect with it in a way that I think very few composers are able to do.
Tchaikovsky is one of the first composers we come across as classical musicians, very likely when you hear your first classical music, it may be a Tchaikovsky piece, and that's just because he's so popular. I mean, here in America, you know, 1812 [Overture] is the 4th of July anthem, you know, that we use, a Russian piece that has been utilized as the 4th of July piece. And I would say the same thing with Romeo and Juliet. I would say the same thing about his symphonies, whether it's 4 or 5 or 6. In my own experience, conducting Tchaikovsky is so easy that it almost fits any bill. You're putting a program together like this one. So what do you put in the second half? Tchaikovsky. You need something dramatic. It can't go wrong. And I was very delighted when we had the discussions with the management here about the program, and I mentioned Francesca and they immediately jumped over it because, after a while, you cannot get into the kind of circle of just doing the same old. So I'm delighted that it's going to be the first... And I talked to some of the players who have been here, and some of them a long, long time, and they've never played it. So, it's not very often that you bring a new piece to the Boston Symphony. I'm very excited.
Brian McCreath That's right. Well, okay, I want to ask you one more thing about your own sort of trajectory. Now, you're you're wrapping up your time with the Nashville Symphony. And I remember the last time we talked, you told me a lot about Nashville as a place and the orchestra's part in that. Your new position is going to be in Sarasota, Florida, and I'm just curious about what you know so far of that community, of that orchestra, what you're looking forward to about taking up the music directorship there, and how you see the relationship between that ensemble and its community.
Giancarlo Guerrero I went to Sarasota as a guest conductor. I didn't know anything about it, but they invited me and I happened to be free. So I went to Sarasota. It was in January, which is a perfect time to go to Florida. And I went there and immediately from the first down beat, I was so impressed with the orchestra. They were so fantastic. Very young orchestra and of course, beautiful part of the world. And the more I got to meet the management, the people there, the powers that be, the board, the volunteers, I could sense that there was this great feeling of pride with the orchestra, but there was also a feeling that the orchestra had reached as far as it could with the current conditions, and they needed and deserved more. So they were in the beginnings of building a new hall, and that immediately spoke volumes to me, because it told me about the commitment of the community towards the orchestra and the type of investment that they were willing to make. I mean, this is hundreds of millions of dollars to build a new hall. So in many ways, it reminded me of when I arrived in Nashville 20 years ago, which was the beginning of a new era, and it had allowed me to take the orchestra to that next level. So for me, I talked to my wife, and I remember telling her, I get to build something again, almost from the very beginning. And not only build the orchestra, but at the same time be completely involved with the building process, my dream for what a perfect stage could be. Actually, the architects are from Boston, so as I am here, I am actually meeting with the architects and the acousticians and talk about having the greatest dreams about what that stage is going to look like and what I want for the orchestra. So all of these things for me, more than just a musical aspect of having a great orchestra, tells me everything that I need to know, that this is a community that definitely wants more for its orchestra. And I am very proud to come in at this very important moment in this history.
Brian McCreath Amazing. What a great opportunity. I didn't realize the new hall part of this. That's an amazing opportunity. But also what an amazing track record in Nashville. So congratulations on wrapping that up. And thank you for being here today. It's great to have you back. Great to have this program in front of you and in front of the musicians. So thanks a lot, Giancarlo.
Giancarlo Guerrero Thank you Brian. It is always a joy to come back to Boston. This orchestra I have loved for so many years. I feel at home here and I look forward to many, many more projects with them. Thank you.