Jorge Federico Osorio: Conciertos Románticos
Cedille Records
On his ninth Cedille Records recording, Mexican-born and Chicago-based pianist Jorge Federico Osorio augments performances of piano concertos by Ricardo Castro (1864–1907) and Manuel María Ponce (1882–1948) with solo works by each Mexican composer. Working with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería and Mexican conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto, Osorio delivers superb realizations of Castro's Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 22 and Ponce's Piano Concerto No. 1 “Romántico”; interestingly, though, the seven solo piano settings—three by Castro and four Ponce—prove to be as arresting as the large-scale works, not only for the playing by Osorio but for their melodic charm. They are companion pieces to the concertos, to be sure, but they're also more than that.
Conciertos Románticos isn't the first time the pianist, the recipient of numerous awards and honours, has presented the music of Mexican composers, as an earlier Cedille disc was entirely devoted to Ponce. Osorio's expertise extends far beyond the borders of his native country, however, with other releases featuring material by Debussy, Liszt, Schubert, Brahms, and others. It's worth mentioning that while Castro and Ponce are representatives of Mexican classical writing, their music also reflects the influence of the European tradition and composers such as Chopin, Liszt, and Debussy. (Note, for example, that part of Castro's output includes Fantasies he wrote on themes from Bellini's Norma and Verdi's Rigoletto.)
Premiered in 1904, Castro's Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 22 captures the romantic flavour associated with this period in the Mexican classical music tradition, even if it begins with a foreboding theme one could imagine penned by Sibelius or Tchaikovsky. Osorio makes his virtuosic presence felt immediately with a florid opening cadenza and thereafter partners with the orchestra fluidly. A pastoral, clarinet-led episode briefly imparts a serene quality to an opening movement that advances with authority through multiple changes in mood and dynamics. A subsequent idyllic passage featuring flute reinstates that peaceful tone, but the material's as often aggressive. Largely tender and rhapsodic (a few moments of turbulence aside), the “Andante” is voiced exquisitely by the pianist and orchestra; marked “Polonaise: Allegro” and calling Liszt to mind, the third movement bounds boisterously into position on a radiant wave of youthful vigour. A touching, nostalgia-fueled lullaby, Berceuse Op. 36, No. 1 (1906) is the first of the three solo piano works by Castro. Written a decade earlier, Canto de amor is treated to a magnificently lyrical and sensitive reading by Osorio. Completing the trio is Plainte Op. 38, No. 2, written in the last year of Castro's life and as lovely and refined an expression as the other two.
The album shifts in its second half to Ponce and hews to the same sequence as in the Castro presentation, the concerto first and the solo piano pieces second. Premiered in 1910, his Piano Concerto No. 1 “Romántico" opens in a blaze of strings-enhanced affirmation, the pianist entering a minute into the work and marking his territory with upper-register trills and passionate statements. Much like the opening movement in Castro's concerto, Ponce's “Allegro Appassionato” carves a dramatic path through thickets of orchestral splendour and pianistic virtuosity. The lengthy (eleven minutes) “Andantino amoroso” dims the lights for hushed exchanges between Osorio and the orchestra's strings and English horn, after which the robust finale caps the work with sweeping romantic gestures and effusive energy. The first of four solo pieces and based on the popular song “La rancherita,” Ponce's Arrulladora Mexicana (1909) distills the flavour of his homeland into a touching expression marked by longing. One of his most popular settings, Gavota (1901) eschews sentiment for a dignified and rhapsodic statement; lyrical but tinged with melancholy is the Romanza de amor, written for his wife Clema in 1914. Conciertos Románticos concludes with Ponce's haunting Intermezzo No. 1, which despite its brevity advances through multiple sections, including two pretty themes, cadenza, and coda.
As this seventy-five-minute release shows, the works by Castro and Ponce complement each other well. Though eighteen years separates their birth, both attended the National Conservatory of Mexico and as young men traveled to Europe, experiences that played a significant part in the character of their writing (Castro, in fact, was later appointed to the position of director of the National Conservatory of Mexico but died soon after of pneumonia at the too-young age of forty-three). As if intended to reflect the ties Osorio has to both countries, the concertos were recorded in August 2022 in Mexico City, the solo works in November 2022 at the University of Chicago. Mention should be made of José-María Álvarez's liner notes, which provide detailed historical background for the two composers, the Mexican tradition they grew up within and absorbed, and the arc of their professional careers.August 2023