LOS ANGELES — Día de los Muertos — or Day of The Dead — is a Mexican holiday that is rapidly catching on north of the border. It occurs on Nov. 1 and 2, very close to Halloween and not unrelated in topic.
Since Halloween in recent decades has been elevated into a commercial bonanza, second only to Christmas and gaining, I suspect that symphonic organizations are slowly realizing that its sister Mexican holiday might present an opportunity to link up. If nothing else, it would inject some Latin-American music into their agendas and perhaps expand their reach further into the coveted Latino market. The San Francisco Symphony has been doing that for years, and the San Diego Symphony has a history of hosting such events (both orchestras played Día de los Muertos concerts on Nov. 2).
The Los Angeles Philharmonic, meanwhile, has held back, maybe because it already performs a lot of Latin-American music, thanks in great part to music director Gustavo Dudamel’s Pan-American Music Initiative. Also, the ever-progressive Phil tends to bypass obvious milestones on the calendar, preferring to go its own ways.
But on Nov. 1, Dudamel and the Phil joined their California neighbors with a Día de los Muertos-themed program. It couldn’t help but be a smash, given (a) the colorful, rhythmically exciting lineup of music by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Gabriela Ortiz, and Silvestre Revueltas, (b) Dudamel’s expertise with and enthusiasm for Latin American music, and (c) the LA Phil’s familiarity with the idioms, having played these pieces before.
First there was Villa-Lobos’ wild, pounding mélange of indigenous Brazilian and European classical influences, Chôros No. 10 Rasga O Coraçäo, which Esa-Pekka Salonen introduced to this orchestra back in 1997 and Michael Tilson Thomas reprised with them in 2023. It involves a percussion section loaded with drums, scratchers, shakers, and woodblocks, and a chanting choral part, this last executed with relish by the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Dudamel gave it a boisterous ride, getting the primal choral chant groove going with a mighty kick, everything registering clearly in Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Gabriela Ortiz’s even wilder choral-orchestral workout Yanga received its world premiere here, with Dudamel presiding, in 2019 as a companion piece for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony during the weekend celebrating the LA Phil’s centennial. The subject matter was Gaspar Yanga, an African-born leader of ex-slaves who avoided recapture by the Spanish slave trade in the 17th century. The theme ties in somewhat with Beethoven’s freedom-fighting proclamation of universal brotherhood in the Ninth’s “Ode to Joy.” Musically, though, it fit far more comfortably here in the context of its concert companions from Brazil and Mexico.
After some choral/orchestral crescendos, the four players of the Tambuco Percussion Ensemble from Mexico went to work with a percolating group cadenza, and the Master Chorale chanted the name Yanga over and over. The jagged groove moved dynamically, making the same impact it did in 2019. Several additional spot mics loomed over the orchestra and in front of the chorus in the first half of the evening; presumably, the recording engineers were concentrating on Yanga as an addition to the collection of Ortiz pieces that have already been released for streaming.
There was some nostalgic history surrounding the performance of Revueltas’ suite from the 1939 film score La Noche de los Mayas, as this was the very first piece Dudamel conducted in his North American debut at Hollywood Bowl in 2005. Again, Salonen beat Dudamel to it, introducing La Noche to the Phil in 1998, subsequently playing it at the Ojai Festival and recording it. Sometimes we forget the prescient spadework, however scattered, that Salonen did for Latin American repertoire when he was here. Dudamel’s performance had a swagger, assurance, and swinging fervor that blew hot in comparison to memories of Salonen’s cool yet invigorating precision. Twelve percussion players lined the back wall of the stage, jamming against the dissonances in the fourth part of the suite; one of them blew on a ghostly-sounding conch shell.
The announced program came up short in length, offering just a bit under an hour of music. But Dudamel had an addendum up his sleeve, bringing out a surprise guest, Ángela Aguilar, who sang a traditional Mexican folk song, “La Llorona (Henestrosa),” with a seductive tone in Spanish as the trumpet section chimed in with mariachi-flavored thirds. The song is said to be directly associated with Día de los Muertos.
Adding to the immersive atmosphere of the occasion, there were several altars celebrating the dead in the Disney Hall lobbies. One of them honored musicians and another contained photos of freedom fighters ranging from Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass to Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu.
