NEW MEXICO'S SONIC ALLURE 
                                              By Paul Hertelendy 
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Week of April  6-13, 2009
                                                                  Vol. 11, No. 90
          ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.---Orchestras in the western states have remained active, despite all the economic-crisis alarums, and often shown remarkable, even astonishing, quality. One such jewel worth a detour is the New Mexico Symphony here under the responsive baton of Puerto Rican conductor Guillermo Figueroa. Working in the very heart of this state in a city of just over 500,000, this NMSO-Figueroa tandem stands decisively among the very best orchestral experiences we have found in any mid-size American city.
            A number of factors come into play. Figueroa, of course, who spent 10 years as concertmaster of the NYC Ballet and another eight years to date here. He has established his spurs as a talent of high repute in various stints abroad, and as principal guest-conductor of the Puerto Rico Symphony. The second factor is an ensemble that is industrious, committed and baton-pliable. And finally , the compact, acoustically dazzling concert hall at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, where the NMSO traditionally concludes its triple concert sets on Sundays. (This 691-seat hall boasts yet another vital asset, as one  musician confirmed: The players can hear one another very well on stage, thereby assuring keen tuning.) 
            In the April 5 concert, the capper was the Brahms Symphony No. 1, convincingly paced, eloquently rendered, and not at all clicheed. The orchestral dynamics  moved up and down in deft response to the baton in unified fashion. Even the six contrabasses---often inaudible in such proscenium theaters---projected strongly. And during the lead-in to the finale’s catch march theme, with those seductive descending musical figures, both the horns and flutes resonated with vibratos to die for.
            The event had opened with a flamboyant Venetian touch as a half-score brass players in lofts high above the hall interpreted the rich Gabrieli “Canzon on the Twelfth Tone,” thereby firing yet another arrow at the operaficionados who contend that opera, not instrumental music, was responsible for the epic transition from renaissance music to the baroque.
            In between came the Violin Concerto No. 1 (1916) by the Pole Karol Szymanowski, a romantic-chromatic transition piece in its own right, a rhapsodic piece wrapped up in a single extended movement, with stylistic similarities to both Zemlinsky and early Schoenberg. The solo was performed by the NMSO concertmaster, Polish-born Krzysztof Zimowski, who was confined by a violin that failed to fill the hall with sound consistently.
            NOISY COOLING OFF---One small flaw in the hall: Some patrons complain about the whirring of the air conditioner, audible in the soft passages.
            (Review updated 4/17/09.) 
            New Mexico Symphony Orchestra in Albuquerque. For info: (505) 881-8999, or go online. 
        ©Paul Hertelendy 2009
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           Paul Hertelendy has been covering the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with relish -- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
    These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly) will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local artists as well.
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