A new program at the National Concert Hall will illuminate a lesser-known side of four-time Grammy Award-winner Lalo Schifrin.
In his twenties, Schifrin left his native Buenos Aires to play piano for Dizzy Gillespie in New York. He went on to flourish in Hollywood, churning out jazzy scores for over 100 movie and television shows like Mannix — a detective series from the 1960s — Cool Hand Luke, Mission: Impossible and the Rush Hour comedies.
Letters from Argentina is a departure from Schifrin’s big-screen soundtracks, said Shih Shun-hsin (施舜馨) of the Chiang Kai-Shek Cultural Center (中正文化中心), which programmed a performance of the suite for chamber orchestra.
Photo courtesy of NTCH
Uncharacteristically for the composer, Schifrin’s Letters is a personal work based on memories of childhood.
“These are Schifrin’s own memories,” Shih said. “At this point they are distant, so the aural scenes are idealized.”
“Tango del Atardecer,” the first of eight movements, is a picture of a perfect Argentine sunset. Like the others, this movement works happily with a classical compositional grid but folds in idioms of Argentine dance, such as a tango rhythm and the accordion-like bandoneon (performed by Hector del Curto).
“La Calle y la Luna” reenacts a moonlit night, while “Pampas” evokes horsemen making their way across a vast plain, contrasting a rugged piano (Octavio Brunett) with a youthful and athletic cello part by Felix Fan (范雅志).
Other instrumentalists are clarinetist David Shifrin, Lin Cho-liang (林昭亮) on violin, Pablo Aslan on double bass and percussionist Satoshi Takeishi — members of the Lincoln Center chamber group that performed Letters at its world premiere in 2005.
Also during next week’s program, the ensemble will perform selections from the late Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla.
Adios Nonino, Piazzolla’s best-known piece, was written shortly after his father’s death. It soared to an unlikely popularity when chosen as part of the entertainment at a royal wedding in Holland, Shih said. The composition opens with frantic lines from the bandoneon, expands into a lush melody on strings, and then brings back the bandoneon.
Piazzolla has been credited with introducing jazz counterpoint to native tango, Shih said.
In La Muerte del Angel, one of his five compositions inspired by angels, he adopted a subtle jazz swing and a baroque ostinato, the device of a repeated theme.
Michelangelo ‘70 also uses the ostinato. In the piece, the bandoneon, violin, electric guitar, piano and double bass take turns carrying a raucous three-note theme, building up to a breaking point. Michelangelo ‘70 was his tribute to a Buenos Aires tango club dated for the year that he left Argentina, Shih said.
The Portuguese never established a presence on Taiwan, but they must have traded with the indigenous people because later traders reported that the locals referred to parts of deer using Portuguese words. What goods might the Portuguese have offered their indigenous trade partners? Among them must have been slaves, for the Portuguese dealt slaves across Asia. Though we often speak of “Portuguese” ships, imagining them as picturesque vessels manned by pointy-bearded Iberians, in Asia Portuguese shipping between local destinations was crewed by Asian seamen, with a handful of white or Eurasian officers. “Even the great carracks of 1,000-2,000 tons which plied
It’s only half the size of its more famous counterpart in Taipei, but the Botanical Garden of the National Museum of Nature Science (NMNS, 國立自然科學博物館植物園) is surely one of urban Taiwan’s most inviting green spaces. Covering 4.5 hectares immediately northeast of the government-run museum in Taichung’s North District (北區), the garden features more than 700 plant species, many of which are labeled in Chinese but not in English. Since its establishment in 1999, the site’s managers have done their best to replicate a number of native ecosystems, dividing the site into eight areas. The name of the Coral Atoll Zone might
On Monday morning, in quick succession, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) released statements announcing “that the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and General Secretary Xi Jinping (習近平) have invited KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) to lead a delegation on a visit to the mainland” as the KMT’s press release worded it. The KMT’s press release added “Chairwoman Cheng expressed her gratitude for the invitation and has gladly accepted it.” Beijing’s official Xinhua news release described Song Tao (宋濤), head of the Taiwan Work Office of the CCP Central Committee, as
Nuclear power is getting a second look in Southeast Asia as countries prepare to meet surging energy demand as they vie for artificial intelligence-focused data centers. Several Southeast Asian nations are reviving mothballed nuclear plans and setting ambitious targets and nearly half of the region could, if they pursue those goals, have nuclear energy in the 2030s. Even countries without current plans have signaled their interest. Southeast Asia has never produced a single watt of nuclear energy, despite long-held atomic ambitions. But that may soon change as pressure mounts to reduce emissions that contribute to climate change, while meeting growing power needs. The
RSS