You've got to give Sarah Ioannides a lot of credit. As a programmer, she manages to fit in guest artists, traditional and not-so-traditional pieces, especially 20th century music.
The El Paso Symphony Orchestra's conductor has a lot of interesting ideas. Some have worked (I hear the Tan Dun water concerto was cool), some have not (I heard the Steve Reich piece was not), but at least she brings a sharpened conceptualist's eye to the music director's chair that keeps things interesting.
Take this weekend's "Dance of the Waves" concerts, for example. Dance themes were the bottom line in a program that combined a couple of local ballroom dancers, a Croatian guitarist and a five mostly 20th century pieces that ranged from nuevo tango to Debussy's imagistic "La Mer."
The friendly older gentleman who sat next to me at Saturday's concert said it was kind of like a pops concert, but he wasn't being critical.
The program opened with "Espana," a bright if fluffy evocation of that country by Frenchman Emmanuel Chabrier, easily the most dispensable piece of the night, but an appropriately upbeat way to kick off a concert devoted to so many dance themes.
Young Croatian guitarist Robert Belinic joined the orchestra for Joaquin Rodrigo's elegant "Fantasia para un Gentilhombre," a dialog of sorts between the guitarist and the orchestra in three movements that alternates two main motifs — one sprightly, one more deliberate and yearning — and creates a conversation of sorts between the guitarist and various sections of the orchestra.
Belinic, who was a pre-teen pop star in his native country before reinventing himself as a classical guitarist, has a light touch and supple technique, but much of his work was lost in an inferior sound mix. His solo work was clearly audible, but he was drowned out by the orchestra whenever it joined in, detracting from an otherwise satisfying performance and a beautiful piece of music.
His guitar was miked, but either the microphone was too far away from the instrument, or the volume was too low. Belinic returned for an encore, but his introduction was almost completely inaudible. I heard " Venezuelan" and really couldn't make out anything else he said. It's a shame that a sound problem would undercut what was an otherwise fine performance.
Dances Mando and Melissa Rodriguez did not have that problem in the second half. The award-winning local ballroom dancers didn't have to worry about audio problems, though a wayward strap on her dazzling blue dress was a bit of a distraction on their second number.
The first, Astor Piazzolla's "Milangro del Angel," featured choreographer Mando, in tux, and Melissa, in a form-fitting pink chiffon dress with veil, as a couple who meet, dance (including a series of twirls in which she was wrapped around him), then drift apart.
Jacob Gade's "Tango Jalousie" followed, with Melissa returning in a dazzling blue dress, and a series of carefully controlled moves that took advantage of the unusually long and limited, for ballroom dancing, space between the orchestra and the audience.
Ioannides had worked with the couple a few years ago, but plans to perform to the Piazzolla piece were rained out.
Musically speaking, the orchestra tackled the music with confidence. The jazzy, sensual "Milangro" would have benefitted from an accordion or bandoneon (Piazzolla's instrument of choice), or at least an evocation of same. An electric keyboard was used, but it would have served the music better had it been used to recreate those particular textures, just as the Gade might have benefitted from a little gypsy-style violin.
The final dance of the night was Claude Debussy's "La Mer," inspired by the alternately rough and gently dancing waves of the sea. It has a cinematic quality, evoking the many moods of "la mer," from stormy and roiling to contemplatively placid. One can picture the crashing of waves at one moment, and the infinite tranquility of them the next.
The tightly executed piece (the cellos were particularly impressive in the third movement) wasn't always as engaging as other parts of the program. My thoughts started wandering in the second movement, but the animated conductor and focused orchestra brought it to a rousing conclusion, a fitting end to what was the most intriguing program in a season that's halfway through its own dance.
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