MUSIC
TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2019
7:00 PM

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra: Pasión -- A Concert of Spanish & South American Music
Naumburg Orchestral Concerts
Temple Emanu-El
1 East 65th Street, Upper East Side, Manhattan

Free (with ticket)
https://naumburgconcerts.org/concert/fifth-concert/

An attractive concert of Spanish and South American music. The Spanish part consists of nice pieces by two composers who were on the wrong side in the Spanish Civil War: the string orchestra version of Turina's gorgeous La Oración del Torero (the original version for lute quartet is more piquant -- but good luck hearing that), and an infrequently performed piece by the always appealing but rarely consequential Rodrigo. From South America, there are beguiling older pieces by Villa-Lobos from Brazil and Ponce from Mexico. Gabriela Lena Frank -- born in the U.S.A. but half Peruvian -- contributes two parts of her wonderful Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout. And the Argentine stuff is all Nuevo Tango: a new piece for bandoneon and orchestra by New York's undisputed leading bandoneonist, JP Jofre; and -- while Jofre's got his bandoneon out -- the arguable greatest hit of onetime New Yorker Astor Piazzolla, his haunting elegy for his father, Adiós Nonino.

MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: After last week's outburst, I will (at a reader's suggestion) try to be more helpful and once again direct you down East 65th Street to old reliable bistro Sel et Poivre.