WASHINGTON, May 29, 2015 — In a non-regular season, non-pops special concert Friday evening, Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) blew the lid off the Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall with a scorching-hot program of Latin American and Latin-influenced classical music.
Scheduled works included the world premiere performance of young South Carolina-born composer Andy Akiho’s new concerto for steelpan and orchestra as performed by Liam Teague. Guest conductor Manuel López-Gómez presided over what may have been this ensemble’s most hyperkinetic evening of the current season.
Also on the program were George Gershwin’s “Cuban Overture,” Alberto Ginastera’s energetic “Estancia” ballet suite, Antonio Estévez’ “Mediodía en el llano” and Leonard Bernstein’s “Symphonic Dances from ‘West Side Story.’”
Maestro López-Gómez launched the Friday festivities with a punchy but occasionally heavy-handed performance of Gershwin’s “Cuban Overture.” Inspired by a wild 1931 week in pre-Castro Havana, Gershwin created his own musical version of his experience, happily loading it with traditional Latin-style percussion and shifting, syncopated rhythms.
Read more at http://www.commdiginews.com/featured/from-steelpan-to-west-side-story-nsos-tropical-heat-wave-42532/#GHhfkuPrHRZWr7Gm.99
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