An American evening with Gustavo Dudamel

In this programme, Gustavo Dudamel sets out on a musical journey to America that leads from Mexico to Argentina to the US. Gabriela Ortiz’s Téenek – Invenciones de Territorio is a combination of Mexican folklore and avant-garde sounds. Sergio Tiempo appears as soloist in a piano concerto by Alberto Ginastera. In his Second Symphony, Charles Ives created a synthesis of European and US musical traditions.

“One of the most brilliant pieces I have ever conducted!” is what Gustavo Dudamel says about the orchestral work Téenek – Invenciones de Territorio by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz. “The colour, texture, harmony and rhythm it contains,” the Venezuelan conductor continues, “are simply unique.”

Naturally, the orchestration of this captivating work includes a wide range of “South American” percussion instruments, such as the marimba, maracas, bongos and guiro. The result is music that sweeps along with its concentrated energy – which can also be said about Alberto Ginastera’s neo-Expressionist First Piano Concerto, infused with pulsating rhythms. The work, commissioned by the Kussewitzky Foundation in the early 1960s, partially follows the principles of Schoenberg’s twelve-tone technique, but at the same time offers the soloist room to show off all his technical skills – not least in the final Toccata concertata. In the course of this frenzied rondo, the twelve- tone technique fades increasingly into the background as the music takes on the features of an increasingly exuberant malambo. The young Venezuelan pianist Sergio Tiempo makes his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker with Ginastera’s Piano Concerto.

The programme also includes Charles Ives’s Second Symphony. It is filled with echoes of American folk songs and other musical quotations – from marches and church hymns to the well-known song Camptown Races: a musical symbol of the melting pot that is the USA.

Berliner Philharmoniker

Gustavo Dudamel

Sergio Tiempo