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PERFORMING ARTS
Pianist Alon Goldstein performed with clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein on Sunday.
(By R. Anderson/r. Anderson)
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-- Mark J. Estren
Orchestra Of New Spain
A store of forgotten Spanish music, its extent still unknown, lies on library shelves in Spain and Latin America waiting to be rediscovered. Some pioneer researchers have begun to unearth this rich musical trove bit by bit. One scholar, Grover Wilkins, conducted two vocal soloists and the Orchestra of New Spain at the National Gallery on Sunday, bringing to life a luminous sampling of 18th-century Spanish court and theater music. All of it displays a distinctly Iberian stamp -- glistening timbres, pungent Italianate rhythms, even the modal melodic legacy from Moorish Spain. The concert marked the 50th anniversary of the Spanish Fulbright program, a major contributor to Wilkins's archival project.
Soprano Eugenia Ramirez and tenor Scot Cameron traded solos or joined together in sacred works for the Madrid court, composed by Francisco Courcelle and Jose de Nebra, followed by three "tonadillas," teasing romantic comedies meant to entertain the theater public. Both singers captured the emotional radiance and buoyant energy streaming through the sacred fare, awash in muted mysticism, and secular works, for the general populace. They engaged in extended chains of melodic embellishments with astounding expertise.
-- Cecelia Porter
