en españolby Keith Eitzen
The Río Bravo Horn Quartet is a group of professional hornists who together have a combined 107 years playing in Mexican orchestras, and we have joined to present Mexican music for the horn at the IHS 54 Symposium. Mexico has a long history of classical music and many full-time professional ensembles. When I arrived in Mexico in 1985, the hornists were almost all foreigners, but the horn has become much more popular for nationals in the last few years.
We are excited to share new recital music with the IHS.
The Río Bravo Horn Quartet members are (clockwise from top left):
• Claire Hellweg, principal horn in the Orquesta Sinfónica de Guanajuato and professor at the Universidad de Guanajuato;
• Jonathan Wilson, principal horn in the Orquesta Sinfónica de Aguascalientes and professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas;
• Daniel Flores, principal horn in the Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa and professor at the Instituto Superior de Música del Estado de Veracruz; and,
• Keith Eitzen, second horn in the Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa and professor at the Universidad Veracruzana.
IHS 54 host Jennifer Sholtis contacted us about organizing participation from Mexico for the Symposium. Claire and I first talked about playing pieces for horn and piano. Then she suggested adding some friends to play the Chavez quartet. I didn’t know the work, but soon we had developed an entire Mexican-themed program.
Our recital will open with Jonathan performing the Rapsodia Bambuco No. 3, op. 6 no. 2, by the Colombian/Mexican composer and hornist Gabriel Soto Mendez who is best known as the arranger of Bésame Mucho as recorded by the Berlin Philharmonic horns.
Daniel will play a new work by the Xalapa composer Rodrigo Lomán entitled Ariles de aguas profundas, music in the traditional Son Veracruzana style.
Claire continues with the premiere of Scherzo for Horn and Piano by the Guanajuato composer Javier Compeán, whose music has been performed in Italy, Germany, Russia, Spain, France and throughout Latin America.
I will conclude the first half with En el único lugar, a Brazilian inspired piece by the jazz pianist and composer Edgar Dorantes.
The second half of the program will open with the Sonata for 4 Horns by Carlos Chavez. This challenging quartet was written in 1929 and is now out of print, so Jonathan generated parts from an old photocopy of the score. The work was very difficult for the first horn before the use of descants and triple horns, and Chavez later made a simpler version for 4 horns and orchestra in which he gave some of tricky horn lines to the woodwinds. It is an excellent quartet and deserves to be played more often.
To complete the program, we asked our friend Alfonso Cosme, co-principal horn in the Orquesta Filarmónica del Estado de Querétaro, to arrange 3 traditional Mexican songs for us. Knowing the full potential of the horn, Poncho wrote demanding versions of Malagueña Salerosa (as recorded by the Austin band Chingón), La Llorona and the Oaxacan tune Pinotepa.
We are thrilled to be able to share the rich musical culture of Mexico, and we hope to see many of you in Kingsville.
