Sierra: Brilliant and Effective

Sierra Fantasia manuel-barrueco 2 red
Manuel Barrueco

October 20, 2013 is a big day for Roberto Sierra – he has two world premieres: Fantasía (sobre la Musica Notturna delle Strade de Madrid de Luigi Boccherini) (Fantasia on the Night Music of the Streets of Madrid of Luigi Boccherini) written for guitarist Manuel Barrueco and the Cuarteto Casals; and Montuno commissioned by the Society of Musical Arts Orchestra (SOMA) (Maplewood, NJ).

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Cuarteto Casals

Composed for guitar and string quartet, Sierra’s Fantasía is based after Boccherini’s famed quintet for strings. Borrueco — a champion of Sierra’s music who premiered the composer’s concerto Folías  — approached Sierra about creating a new guitar work for Borrueco’s fall 2013 tour. Borrueco shares some insight about Fantasía, “In the same tradition of Roberto’s Folías for guitar and orchestra, and his Fandangos for orchestra, I asked him how he felt about writing a quintet based on Boccherini’s “La Musica Notturna delle Strade di Madrid.” He liked the idea and as a result he created Fantasía, a brilliant and effective work which I have no doubts will become part of the repertoire.” Subsequent premiere tour dates include performances in: Washington, DC at the Library of Congress on the 24th, Corning, NY on the 25th, Columbus, OH on the 26th and on October 29 in Cleveland, OH.

Sierra Montuno SOMA Steve C redSierra’s six-minute Montuno was commissioned by the Society of Musical Arts Orchestra (SOMA) and its music director Stephen Culbertson. The composer describes his work, “The main musical elements of this orchestral montuno are the rhythms of the Latin clave and its corollary two-measure chord sequence. This frames this work in the fashion of a chaconne, a series of variations built on a repeating harmonic sequence. Montuno quickly builds by increasing the number of players that join the Latin dance. A sudden change of meter toward the central point provides another variant of the established rhythmic/harmonic pattern that brings the montuno to an exhilarating close.”

Additional October events include:  the Quinteto Latino’s October 19 performance of Salsa Para Vientos and Concierto de Camera (performed with the Musical Art Quintet) in San Francisco’s Latin American Chamber Music Festival; on the 20th Con Tres is featured at the Concierto del ciclo “Música plural” in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and on October 24, the Spectrolite Ensemble performs Tres Fantasías at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada.

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