(Emilio Gómez Muriel and Fred Zinnemann, Mexico, 1936, b&w, 59 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
A singular coming together of talents, Redes, commissioned by a progressive Mexican government, was co-written and shot by photographer Paul Strand, with a score by Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas. The PostClassical Ensemble, led by Ángel Gil Ordóñez, which recently recorded the soundtrack for the release of the restored version of the film for Naxos, performs some of Revueltas’s music. A panel discussion, featuring Post-Classical Ensemble Executive Director Joseph Horowitz and conductor Gil Ordóñez, follows the concert.
About the project
Horowitz writes: "Silvestre Revueltas – a master Mexican composer whose time will come – composed one of the greatest of all film scores for one of the most beautifully photographed films ever made. The 1935 movie in question is Redes (Nets), an iconic product of the Mexican Revolution. The cinematographer was Paul Strand, the most famous American name in the history of photography as an artform; the director was Fred Zinnemann, en route to Hollywood. There are three reasons why this film is not better-known. The first is that it is Mexican. The second is that there existed no decent print until Redes was restored by Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation. The third is that the soundtrack is execrable. Only with this new Naxos release, with a fresh recording of Revueltas’ galvanizing score, can the full impact of Redes be realized."
About the panel
The former Associate Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Spain, PostClassical Ensemble Music Director Angel Gil-Ordóñez has conducted symphonic music, opera and ballet throughout Europe, the United States and Latin America. In the U.S., he has appeared with the American Composers Orchestra, Opera Colorado, the Pacific Symphony, the Hartford Symphony, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and the National Gallery Orchestra in Washington. Abroad, he has been heard with the Munich Philharmonic, the Solistes de Berne, at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and at the Bellas Artes National Theatre in Mexico City. In the summer of 2000, he toured the major music festivals of Spain with the Valencia Symphony Orchestra in the Spanish premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass. Born in Madrid and an American citizen since 2009, he worked closely with Sergiu Celibidache in Germany for more than six years. He also studied with Boulez and Xenakis in France. Currently the Music Director of Post-Classical Ensemble in Washington, D.C., he also serves as advisor for education and programming for Trinitate Philharmonia (León, Mexico), modeled on Venezuela’s El Sistema, conducting its youth orchestra and choir several weeks per year. A specialist in the Spanish repertoire, Mr. Gil-Ordóñez has recorded four CDs devoted to Spanish composers, in addition to Post-Classical Ensemble’s Virgil Thomson and Copland CD/DVDs on Naxos (Artist of the Week for both releases). In 2006, the King of Spain awarded Mr. Gil-Ordóñez the country’s highest civilian decoration, the Royal Order of Queen Isabella, for his work in advancing Spanish culture around the world, in particular for performing and teaching Spanish music in its cultural context. Mr. Gil-Ordóñez received a WAMMIE award in 2011 from the Washington DC association of professional musicians in the category of best conductor. Gil-Ordóñez is currently Principal Guest Conductor of New York’s Perspectives Ensemble and Music Director of the Georgetown University Orchestra.
PostClassical Ensemble Executive Director Joseph Horowitz has long been a pioneer in classical music programming, beginning with his tenure as Artistic Advisor for the annual Schubertiade at the 92nd Street Y. As Executive Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, resident orchestra of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, he received national attention for “The Russian Stravinsky,” “American Transcendentalists,” “Flamenco,” and other festivals exploring the folk roots of concert works. Now an artistic advisor to various American orchestras, he has created more than three dozen interdisciplinary music festivals since 1985 —including the annual American Composers Festival presented by the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. In Fall 2008, he inaugurated the New York Philharmonic’s “Inside the Music” series, writing, hosting and producing a program about Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique symphony; his subsequent and pending Philharmonic productions explore Dvořák, Brahms and Stravinsky. He is currently curating thematic festival projects for the Florida Symphony, the Pacific Symphony, the Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, and the Buffalo Philharmonic. Called “our nation’s leading scholar of the symphony orchestra” by Charles Olton (American Symphony Orchestra League), Mr. Horowitz is also the award-winning author of eight books mainly dealing with the institutional history of classical music in the United States: both Classical Music in America: A History (2005) and Artists in Exile: How Refugees from 20th Century War and Revolution Transformed the American Performing Arts (2008) were named best books of the year by The Economist. As Project Director of a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) National Education Project, as well as an NEH Teacher Training Institute, he is the author of a book for young readers, Dvořák in America, linked to a state-of-the-art DVD. For the NEA, Mr. Horowitz servee as Artistic Director of an annual national institute for music critics at Columbia University. A former New York Times music critic, Mr. Horowitz writes regularly for the Times Literary Supplement (UK) and contributes frequently to scholarly journals. His many honors and awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, two NEH fellowships and a commendation from the Czech Parliament for his many festival projects exploring Dvořák in America.
