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Audience members expecting Argentinean tangos, sambas, salsas, and danzons may have been disappointed by La Catrina Quartet’s offerings on Sunday afternoon for the ensemble’s Lied Center of Kansas performance. Instead of stereotypical Latin American music, the foursome tackled another aspect of our Southern neighbors all too often neglected, that of the modernist movement mixed with contemporary new works.

Opening with Javier Álvarez’s Metro Chabacano, the Quartet presented an aural depiction of one of Mexico City’s busiest metro stops. With Nyman-esque motor rhythms, Álvarez carried on the great tradition of trains in music, alongside fellow Latin American composers Villa-Lobos and Chavez. Light and buoyant with the occasional twinge of darkness, the Álvarez piece was a solid opener for La Catrina.

Taking an abrupt turn from approachable, listener-friendly fare, the program continued with Silvestre Revueltas’ Quartet No. 4 “Música de feria” and Roberto Sierra’s newly completed Quartet No. 2. Because pushes for Latin America’s musical independence came in the first third of the twentieth century, these countries’ nationalist composers and artist were also influences by the prevalent styles of the time, and in Revueltas’ case there was a strong modernist slant. Inasmuch, his music in the Fourth Quartet hints at Mexican folk-tunes without directly quoting and adds some contemporary techniques into the mix, including bitonality, extensive polyrhythms, and atonal harmonies. Though jarring after Metro Chabacano, Revueltas’ Quartet was delightfully Ivesian, with spices of Stravinsky and Ravel in sound, yet wholly Mexican in flavor. La Catrina negotiated the complex textures with effortlessness, the fast and furious sections seemingly easier than the slower melodic “Cocula” section as some of the harmonics proved difficult.

While Revueltas’ Quartet was a great, refreshing snapshot of musical and cultural history, Roberto Sierra’s Quartet No. 2 was instantly dated as an academic 1970s throwback. Utilizing many of the same techniques as the Revueltas but far less effectively and without even a dollop of humor, Sierra’s work was labored and grim. This was especially true of the first two movements. Though he paired the first violin with the cello and second with viola effectively, moments of unusual orchestration weren’t enough to rescue the work. The final two movements, Vivo and Rapido were stronger, but ultimately unfulfilling compositionally. The Rapido used an interesting canonic effect at very close rhythmic intervals but the musical content itself was lacking. The piece ended with a couple of awkwardly placed ensemble unison double-stops when the material seemed more inclined to arrive at a molto furioso ending. La Catrina tried admirably to sell the piece, nailing all of the more ridiculously and unnecessarily difficult passages, however, the effort was ultimately unsuccessful.

After the Sierra work, La Catrina wisely programmed Astor Piazzolla’s Four, for Tango to great effect. As tango nuevo, Piazzolla’s piece incorporated jazz and chromatic harmonies coupled with rhythmic alterations within the style and extended techniques. La Catrina threw themselves into the piece with fervor. Cellist César Martínez-Bourguet was especially strong, laying the strong tango framework for the other members to circle around like a swarm of sharks befitting this dance of death. The violinists performed another great effect by playing behind the bridge and, I think, at the frog; it sounded like evil metallic crickets.

The second half began with Eduardo Gamboa’s Cañambú—the most stereotypically “Latin” piece on the program. Violist Jorge Martínez played guitara style. Occasionally, he would hit one of the strings with his wedding ring, producing a very resonant, piercing metal-on-metal ping mimicking the sound of the bamboo cañambú. I’d hate to see what his strings looked like after playing this piece multiple times! It was a fun number to start the half and the Quartet seemed to enjoy playing it.

Ending with Ravel’s Quartet in F major was a strange programming choice but not completely absurd; a Villa-Lobos quartet would have fit the theme of the program more effectively. The Ravel, however, was a welcome rediscovery. It is a quartet of muted colors—all blues, purples, greens, and grays—impressionism par excellence. With the pastels translated into muted strings and subtle tremolos, La Catrina gave an exceptionally delicate performance. The violinists highlighted the shafts of light that often pierce impressionist art with just enough accent, even if some of their harmonics were questionable and intonation unstable at points.

Though far from perfect, La Catrina’s championing and fine performances of Latin American works is commendable. Commissions for Gabriela Lena Frank, Tania León, Miguel del Águila, Robert X. Rodriquez, Mario Davidovsky, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, and Arturo Márquez, just to name a few, might serve as penance for bringing the Sierra into the world.  

REVIEW:
Lied Center of Kansas
La Catrina Quartet
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Lied Center of Kansas, University of Kansas
1600 Stewart Dr, Lawrence, KS
For more information, visit http://lied.ku.edu.

Top Photo: La Catrina Quartet (Photo by Robert Kaiser)

By Lee Hartman

Editor-in-Chief; Traditional and New Classical Contributor

Lee Hartman holds degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (D.M.A., M.M.) and the University of Delaware (B.M.). At the University of Delaware, he received a Dean's Scholar position enabling him to pursue an individually designed academic program combining music education and composition. At the University of Missouri-Kansas City he served for three years as the Assistant Director to Musica Nova, the conservatory's new music ensemble, while teaching a variety of composition classes.

In 2007 he was invited to both the Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavík, Iceland and the Sichuan Conservatory in Chengdu, China to give lectures and master classes in composition. In the summer of 2009, Hartman served as an orchestra manager for the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble and Aspen Opera Theater Center for various performances. He serves on the National Executive Committee of the Society of Composers, Inc. as Submissions Coordinator. His primary composition instructors include James Mobberley, Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Paul Rudy, John Beall, and Jennifer Margaret Barker. He currently teaches music theory at the University of Central Missouri and general music classes at Park University having previously taught at UD (2007–08) and UMKC (2006–07).

His compositions can be found at http://www.leehartmanmusic.com