EUROPEAN PREMIERE: 8 – 16 February – Glasgow, Inverness, Edinburgh, Perth, London, Kendal
Scottish Ensemble’s desire to commission a new piece from Montero emerged following their first collaboration in 2015. Having discovered a like-minded creative connection, and drawn to the deeply personal, engaging, storytelling compositional style of her first two published works, SE led on commissioning this, Gabriela’s third work, alongside Kings Place (London) and ProMusica Chamber Orchestra.
Montero’s compositions tell stories that resonate with her on a personal level in a vivacious, expressive yet immediately engaging and relatable way. Her first published work, Ex Patria, is a tone poem for piano and orchestra that portrays the violence and human rights violations that have gripped Venezuela since Hugo Chavez’s election in 1999.
Describing the piece, Montero stated:
Very violent but also very beautiful… it’s a faithful photograph of the systematic collapse and demise of my country. It was intended as a physical experience for the audience; I wanted them to be able to relate to what was happening in Venezuelan society. I wanted the public to understand our plight in a visceral way by feeling physically crushed, suffocated, and claustrophobic, as Venezuelans feel.
Her second composition, Piano Concerto No.1 (Latin), widened the focus even more by telling the story of her continent, South America. Venezuela features prominently in this composition as well, specifically in the third movement, “Allegro Venezolano”. The Latin Concerto serves to both celebrate the spirit, rhythms and charm South Americans are known for, but at the same time, highlights the deeper and less discussed elements that can at times make life in these countries vulnerable and unpredictable. It describes through sound the darker, corruptible currents that she believes holds her continent back from “developing their full potential”. It invites the listener to investigate beyond the seductive sheen of the sensuality and excitement one associates with Latin America and its vibrant music.
For her third work, SE wanted to give the composer a blank canvas, to allow her to be able to continue her narrative journey as an artist and write about something that mattered to her deeply, or a message she wanted to convey. Babel, for solo piano and string orchestra, does both, simultaneously encompassing the political and the personal by drawing on her experiences as a human rights activist for Venezuela – more specifically, the difficulty that comes from trying to narrate others’ experiences amidst the overwhelming babble of today’s constantly-chattering world.
After 9 years using her musical platform to shed light on the deepening social, economic and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, Gabriela Montero chose to compose Babel in reaction to the frustrating sense of censorship permeating much of today’s classical music world, one which seems intolerant and forgetful of the well-established historical tradition of music as a creative vehicle for social and political commentary.
She wonders, with no small degree of bewilderment, why – in stark contrast to the creative worlds of popular music, literature, theatre, fine art and comedy – it should be acceptable that a classical musician be told to “just shut up and play!”. Babel, then, is a musical metaphor about the struggle to be heard. It is as much a metaphor about the artist-messenger as the message itself.
The title refers to the biblical Babel myth, which attempted to explain why people across the world spoke different languages. In the story, as told in Genesis, a united group of humans arrives at the land of Shinar, working together to build a city and a tower tall enough to reach heaven. Seeing their attempts, God confounds their speech so that they can no longer understand each other, and scatters them around the world.
Speaking about choosing the subject matter for the piece, Gabriela Montero said:
For the last eight years I’ve been a human rights activist for Venezuela. I’ve experienced many beautiful moments and seen the best of humanity, but there have also been many difficult moments. Aside from the huge sadness that comes with witnessing the worst of humanity, one of the hardest elements of this work is trying to communicate a message in a world where everyone is talking at the same time, and unwilling to stop and listen.
As with her previous compositions, the musical language of her new work is richly metaphorical.
Beginning with the solitary voice of the piano, the piece grows in intensity as new voices enter, all competing to be heard and adding to a cacophony of statements, questions and attacks. Through moments of lush, lyrical beauty and unity, as well as gripping, chromatic intensity, the listener experiences a sense of the frantic, incoherent babble of our modern world, and the difficulty of important messages emerging from the chaos.
At times rhythmical, playful and percussive, at others jarring and incoherent, Montero conveys the frustrations of her experiences as a narrator of important, urgent messages in a world full of people trying to be heard.