Gabriela Ortiz: Revolución diamantina album review — bold colours and lively rhythms

The appointment of Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2009 was inspired. Dudamel, then 28, could bring to LA not only youthful energy, but a hotline to the music of South America that would connect with California’s Latin community.

Fulfilling that promise, Dudamel has raised the profile of Latin American music on the international stage. Commissioned by the LA Phil, this album focuses on three works by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz that show off the orchestra and its music director, who were in London for concerts earlier this week.

With its bold colours and lively rhythms Ortiz’s music is proud of its Mexican roots, but there is also an inventiveness at work that goes further. The most original piece is the ballet Revolución diamantina, which provides the album with its title. Given its premiere last year, the work imagines varied scenarios based around the theme of feminism. A mostly wordless women’s chorus haunts the score and subtle orchestral writing creates an evocative atmosphere, except where Ortiz breaks into energetic passages too reminiscent of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.

The recording leads off with Altar de Cuerda (“string altar”), a violin concerto played with virtuosity by Spanish violinist María Dueñas, most memorable in its slow movement, where the violin soars over a mysterious, empty landscape. Kauyumari, a short orchestral depiction of the sacred Mexican blue deer, completes the programme. Typically vivid, Dudamel and the LA Phil are in their element throughout.

★★★★☆

‘Gabriela Ortiz: Revolución diamantina’ is released by Platoon