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Mr. Georg Faust, First Solo Cellist of the Berlin Philharmonic, regarding the US Premiere, last Tuesday November 11, 2003. at New York's Carnegie Hall, of the rap I composed for them and also dedicated to them, "The Flower is a Key".
Mr. Faust writes that my rap "was a big shot! Everybody is excited about this piece, which draws every time special attention of the audience."
Following is Mr. Faust's eMail:
"Lieber Sergio,
Dein Rap war ein Knaller!!!
Alle sind begeistert von dem Stueck und es erregt jedesmal besondere
Aufmerksamkeit.
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NewYorkTimes
November 17, 2003, Monday
THE ARTS/CULTURAL DESK
MUSIC REVIEW; Cellists Offer North and South American Works in Translation
By BERNARD HOLLAND The cello section of the Berlin Philharmonic has been moonlighting as a chamber group for 30 years, and it separated itself from its colleagues long enough to play at Zankel Hall on Tuesday night. Same-instrument combinations -- whistles, pianos, trumpets, trombones, tubas -- range from novelties to stunts, but the cello mix is a reasonable one. The instrument can momentarily imitate higher or lower cousins of the string family and, when of a collective mind, produce a pleasing sound. The real interest here was less technical practicality and more a question of an Old World-versus-New World cultural divide. Most of the music drew directly or indirectly from North and South America yet was so efficiently processed through its Central European filter as to take on a new identity. Make no mistake: these are splendid, committed and thoughtful players. On the other hand, the weighted sound and intensity -- qualities that made Julius Klengel's ''Hymnus'' such a lovely tribute to 19th-century German Romanticism -- smothered and immobilized Gershwin and Glenn Miller. Duke Ellington's ''Caravan'' and the three items from Astor Piazzolla were approached with the same careful enthusiasm, but the natural casualness that colors these pieces, the easy slurs of musical speech that ride over bar-line accents, proved a foreign language. Villa-Lobos's familiar ''Bachiana Brasileira No. 5'' wanted to float in the accustomed way but found itself submerged under Brucknerian resonance. The soprano Ofelia Sala delivered her trancelike solos here with Verdian thundering. Nonchalance was simply not in these musicians' vocabulary. Perhaps trueness to sources was never intended. What came out of this wildly applauded program could really be heard as a hybrid in which Central Europe carried the dominant gene. That was certainly true in Boris Blacher's rigorous ''Blues, Espagnola and Rumba Philharmonica'' or ''The Flower Is a Key (A Rap for Mozart),'' by Sergio Cardenas, delivered in sedate rapper style by Nikolaus Römisch. Till Brönner was the delicate, graceful trumpet and flugelhorn player in Robert Brookmeyer's ''America 2002, in Memoriam.''
Published: 11 - 17 - 2003 , Late Edition - Final , Section E , Column 2 , Page
AMIGOSDEMOZART@hotmail.com
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