by Derek Lim

What exciting music this is! I have heard little of Silvestre Revueltas’ music before this, but with such compelling advocacy as this, I shall have no more reason not to, and neither should you.

This disc, splendidly played by the Ebony Band Amsterdam and recorded “live” by Channel Classics on the occasion of Revueltas’ 100^th birth anniversary, consists of a broad section of his chamber works.

The first piece, Sensemayá, written in 1937, feels like Stravinsky on first listening, but without the acerbic touch and less of the acidity. Ocho por radio (Eight times Radio, 1933), is even more tuneful and pleasant to listen to, employing cross-rhythms and multiple tonalities and proudly acclaiming the composer’s Mexican roots. Revueltas revealed that it was in fact a complicated mathematical problem that was virtually insoluble unless one had a well-founded knowledge of mathematics. It is written for an eight member ensemble.

Other selections are equally interesting listening – Caminando, with its rumba-sounding accompaniment is easy “pop” listening, even with dissonances you wouldn’t find in popular music. The music for the play Este era un rey (Once upon a time there was a king…) is humourous, bitingly ironic and satirical music in the best style of Prokofiev or Shostakovich, yielding to neither in its brilliant and apt orchestration – it was one of Revueltas’ last pieces.

El renacuajo paseador (The wandering tadpole - 1936) is likewise clever and ironic, at once combining his Mexican influence with neo-classical Stravinsky. Here he uses the violins to imitate a guitar. Written for a marionette show, this work had its ballet premiere in 1940, the same evening that Revueltas died. The Ebony Band play up the ironies and it is quite a riot, albeit one that lasts only about four minutes.

Pieza para doce instrumentos lives up to the same high standards as the rest of the works here, with brilliant instrumentation and writing. Preludio y Fuga ritmicos, is another ironic, sarcastic and laugh-out funny mock-serious work that lasts only about 5 minutes. The final work – Hommaje a Frederico Garcia Lorca was written in reaction to the brutal murder of the poet by the Spanish fascists, but if you didn’t know it was, you might think it were a festive work, at least in the first movement “Baile” (the work is written fast-slow-fast). The second movement is more contemplative, the third incredibly, and infectiously, rhythmic, to the point of being hypnotic.

The Ebony Band Amsterdam play with plenty of spunk and energy in this live performance - I suspect the composer would have been proud and I doubt they will be bettered in a long while. This disc is a fine introduction to the music of Revueltas – never have I listened to track after track with such anticipation of what I mind find in the next – I felt like a child in a candy store. If you’ve grown tired of mainstream “Eurocentric” music, or feel ready for something new, you have to give this a try. It’s not “challenging” at all despite being contemporary, not when you compare then with Beethoven or Brahms, but still highly entertaining. This is life-enhancing music and you will enjoy it, as I did. Recorded quality is excellent and life-like and vivid, in hybrid SACD (playable on normal players). Detailed notes written by the conductor are the icing to a very sumptuous and enjoyable cake.

 

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