Glosses on Themes of Pablo Casals, for orchestra, Op. 48
Variaciones concertantes, for chamber orchestra, Op. 23
Glosses on Themes of Pablo Casals, for orchestra, Op. 48
Variaciones concertantes (1953) may be Ginastera's most immediately engaging symphonic piece, and this version is among its finest recorded performances. Uruguyan conductor Gisèle Ben-dor, leading the Israel Chamber Orchestra, knows when to let its relaxed slow movements unfold with just the right Latinate languor, and she drives its fast movements with exhilarating momentum. It is essentially a concerto for orchestra, with individual variations highlighting solo instruments or sections -- it's hard to see why it hasn't ...
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Variaciones concertantes (1953) may be Ginastera's most immediately engaging symphonic piece, and this version is among its finest recorded performances. Uruguyan conductor Gisèle Ben-dor, leading the Israel Chamber Orchestra, knows when to let its relaxed slow movements unfold with just the right Latinate languor, and she drives its fast movements with exhilarating momentum. It is essentially a concerto for orchestra, with individual variations highlighting solo instruments or sections -- it's hard to see why it hasn't taken a place next to Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra -- and each soloist here turns in superbly nuanced performances. The cello soloist who is assigned the work's theme at the opening stands out in particular, playing its final, impossibly stratospheric harmonic note with piercing purity and sweetness, to devastatingly intense effect. The pieces are framed by performances of two versions of Ginastera's Glosses on Themes of Pablo Casals, which he wrote in the final...
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