Where there was once strudel, there are now tamales. Out with Kramarczuk’s sausages, in with Manny’s Tortas.
For decades, Vienna was the town to which the Minnesota Orchestra sought to transport you during its annual Sommerfest. And there were usually Germanic culinary delights to be had around Orchestra Hall before the orchestra performed music of Mozart, Beethoven, the Strausses and other Vienna-based composers.
But this year, it’s been redubbed “Musica Juntos Sommerfest,” and the emphasis is upon the sounds of Latin America, complemented by a similar flavor to the food and cultural crafts available at kiosks around the hall.
While the month-long festival of concerts technically got under way last weekend with an orchestra-assisted screening of the animated feature, “Coco,” Friday felt more like opening night. Music director Osmo Vanska donned one of the white dinner jackets that are de rigueur at Sommerfest and led the orchestra in a satisfying program of 20th- and 21st-century music from five different countries, much of it full of coffee-addled energy and frequent eruptions from the percussion section.
Considering the acclaim that the orchestra has received for its performances of such Vienna-based composers as Beethoven and Gustav Mahler, it’s natural to ask if it has a similar propensity for Latin American fare. Based upon Friday night, I’d say: No, but it’s on its way. The ensemble acquitted itself admirably on most of the material, particularly the concert-closing “Variaciones Concertantes” by Argentina’s Alberto Ginastera, a piece that proved a showcase for the orchestra’s way with a variety of moods and the exceptional soloists that lead every section of the ensemble.
It was clear from the opening downbeat that the percussion section is really going to love these Latin American compositions, for most of them employ more things that you can beat, bang and crash than you can shake a maraca at. Peruvian composer Jimmy Lopez’s 2013 work, “Peru Negro,” set a trio of percussionists to multi-tasking beneath the illuminated cubes emerging from Orchestra Hall’s back wall before they sat down on cajons (Peruvian box drums) for a virtual jam session. Like the George Enescu Romanian Rhapsody that opened the concert, it summoned up a thunderstorm of fast and furious drumming.
Not to say that others didn’t also shine in the spotlight, such as violist Rebecca Albers’ earthy, dancing solo on the Enescu and Ellen Dinwiddie Smith’s forceful French horn on the Lopez. But the evening’s star soloist was South African soprano Goitsemang Lehobye, who brought hypnotic beauty to the vocalise lines of Heitor Villa-Lobos’ “Bachianas Brasilieras No. 5,” a work of quiet intimacy that proved quite welcome amid all of the orchestral roars around it. Nearly as lovely was a lengthy solo from principal cellist Anthony Ross.
The concert’s second half was given over to works with one exceptional solo after another. Clarinetist Gabriel Campos Zamora sweetly sang out the theme of Mexican composer Arturo Marquez’s “Danzon No. 2” that was soon taken up by violinist Erin Keefe (although that piece ended up being another percussionist’s holiday, too).
And Ginastera’s “Variaciones concertantes” proved to be what had been missing from the concert: A work with a variety of moods, many of them meditative. It also reintroduced the audience to just about every principal player in the orchestra, with splendid solos offered by Ross, Albers, Keefe, bassist Kristen Bruya and Herbert Winslow on French horn.
While it’s too early to call Latin American music a new expertise for the orchestra, Vanska and the musicians look to be having a great time playing it. That bodes well for the concerts of coming weeks. And the music goes really well with steamy weather, tamales and tortas.
If You Go
Who: The Minnesota Orchestra
What: Musica Juntos Sommerfest
When: Through Aug. 3
Where: Orchestra Hall, 1111 Nicollet Mall, Mpls.
Tickets: $97-$12, available at 612-371-5656 or minnesotaorchestra.org
Capsule: Latin flavors look to make it a spicy Sommerfest.
