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CLASSICAL REVIEW
CSO's journey along 'The Inca Trail' a treat for trekkers
By John von Rhein
Tribune critic
October 25, 2008
 
 
Tribune critic 
 
On Thursday night, Chicago Symphony Orchestra guest
conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya led a crowd of happy
trekkers on a journey in music and images along the Inca
Trail, the vast network of pathways built during the Inca
Empire that connect his native Peru to five neighboring
South American countries. 
 
It's hard to say how many new listeners snapped at the
bait, but I found the multimedia event—a cornerstone of
the season-long "Echoes of Nations" celebration—a
refreshing departure from the usual subscription concert
fare and format. 
 
Harth-Bedoya's colorful and imaginative sampler of works from Peru, Ecuador, Argentina and Chile
sought to link the ancient Inca Trail with contemporary Latin America. Working in fluid accompaniment
to the music were views of Peruvian street scenes, the ruins of Machu Picchu and old-new visual art,
projected onto a large overhead screen.
 
Too many such programs devolve into gimmickry, but this one was smartly put together and presented
with enough flair to transcend gimmickry. 
 
After a lush arrangement of "El Condor Pasa," the conductor offered his own charming, Respighi-like
arrangement of ancient instrumental pieces collected by a Catholic bishop in Peru near the end of the
18th Century.
 
Ecuadorian composer Diego Luzuriaga's rousing "Responsorio" surged with the propulsive rhythms of
Carlos Chavez and Leonard Bernstein in his mambo vein. Gabriela Lena Frank's sonically arresting tone
poem, "Illapa," depicted an Inca god in eerily evocative, otherworldly sounds played on metal and
bamboo flutes by the remarkable Jessica Warren-Acosta. 
 
CSO composer-in-residence Osvaldo Golijov was represented by his lyrical, elegiac "Mariel,"
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beautifully played by CSO cellist Kenneth Olsen. The concert concluded with Enrique Soro's "Tres
Aires Chilenos," which sounded like movie music; and Jimmy Lopez's "Fiesta!" which packed explosive
brass licks and wild fusillades of drums.
 
jvonrhein@tribune.com
 
Chicago Symphony Orchestra 
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
 
Where: Orchestra Hall,
 
220 S. Michigan Ave.
 
Tickets: 312-294-3000
 
Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune
 
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