São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop at Carnegie Hall
Editors ChoiceFor the first time ever, the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (OSESP) will appear in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage for two concerts led by their designated Conductor of Honor, Marin Alsop, who was principal conductor and music director of OSESP for nine years starting in 2012.
The concert on Friday, October 14, presents Rimsky-Korsakov’s dazzling showpiece, Scheherazade, plus music of Villa-Lobos, including a rare performance of his harmonica concerto featuring virtuoso José Staneck.
Then on Saturday, October 15, Marin Alsop leads the 158 members of the Orchestra
and Choir, along with soprano Camila Titinger, in “The Amazon Concert: The Sights & Sounds of Brazil.” In this remarkable fusion of music and video, dazzling images of the Amazon, as seen through the eyes of its myriad species, will be projected above and around the orchestra. Never in concert has the Amazon appeared so beautiful, or so fragile than in this 75-minute multimedia immersion set to selections by Villa-Lobos, Clarice Assad, Philip Glass, and others. This unique journey has been conceived by award-winning visual director Marcello Dantas, renowned for his fusion of art and technology.
Friday, October 14 • 8:00pm
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall
Saturday, October 15 • 8:00pm
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall
They’re doing the Amazon program at Strathmore in Bethesda MD on October 12. Sounds kinda cool. Makes more sense for a Brazilian orchestra to play Brazilian music when they tour.
Nice, but it won’t save the Amazon nor the forests…
However, “…. Makes more sense for a Brazilian orchestra to play Brazilian ….” – exactly! Let it be a shining example for other national orchestras….
“Makes more sense for a Brazilian orchestra to play Brazilian music when they tour”
“exactly! Let it be a shining example for other national orchestras”
Please, correct me if not accurate. Orchestras from the US, and UK among some other traditional places are not famous for hard supporting during tour for exclusive own national ouevre. Are you including all orchestras or the comment is just about nationals of countries with less tradition with orchestras?
Depends on the orchestra in my experience. It’s not uncommon at all to see an American orchestra touring a European warhorse main event with a concerto or opener they commissioned from an American composer.
But to your question, I feel like American music has cemented its place in the classical world pretty successfully. So there is less to accomplish for American orchestras abroad. Brazil outside of Villa-Lobos, and maybe Latin America in general is still finding its way and building its reputation despite seeing a whole lot of growth in the quality of their ensembles, composers, and audiences in recent decades. So I think it is a good thing for them to introduce audiences to music from their country. When say the LA Phil tours a new John Adams piano concerto, it’s great, but probably not the first time that audience has heard the music of John Adams.