Mario Gonzalez Senior Recital: Chavez y amigos

From the studio of Heather Dudenbostal, join Mario Gonzalez in collaboration with Mark Davies, piano, and Sam Burrows, guitar in celebrating 20th century Mexican composer Carlos Chavez and his “amigos”.

This voice recital reflects Mario’s interest and study of Mexican composer Carlos Chavez, by performing works of Chavez’s mentor, Manuel Ponce, and longtime friend, Aaron Copland. As well as a set of french melodias by Debussy, an early compositional influence of Chavez.

The program

• Manuel Ponce’s Seis Poemas Arcaicos
• Set of french melodias by Claude Debussy
• Selected songs from Aaron Copland’s 12 Poems of Emily Dickinson
• Carlos Chavez’s expressionistic song cycle’s Tres Exagonos and Otros Tres Exagonos

An excerpt on Chavez’s Exagonos:

Decidedly lyrical and passionate, Pellicer's miniatures concern themselves with nostalgia and unreciprocated love. Each brief poem comprises only six lines in the manner of the Japanese haiku. Chávez's vivid musical settings capture the compact structure of the poems while projecting their fragile and sentimental atmosphere. The demanding vocal line is surrounded by an intense polyphonic texture consisting of unusual harmonies on occasion built around perfect and augmented fourths. The accompanying instrumental ensemble functions as a "mini-orchestra" capable of reaching the extreme registers while generating a multitude of innovative timbres. Musicologist Roberto García Morillo traces the lineage of these innovative songs involving a mixed chamber ensemble to Stravinsky's Three Japanese Lyrics and Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire. - Max Lifchitz, New York, 1994