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Osvaldo Golijov/ arr. Gonzalo Grau: Suite from La Pasión según San Marcos (North American première)

Osvaldo Golijov composed his La Pasión según San Marcos in 1998. This suite runs approximately 30 minutes in performance, and is scored for 2 solo pianos, flute, piccolo, oboe, English horn, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, contrabassoon, 3 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, celeste, and orchestral strings.

Arranger Gonzalo Grau writes about the Suite:

I had the great pleasure of meeting composer Osvaldo Golijov in May of 1998, when he was about to begin writing a new piece called La Pasíon según San Marcos. Our collaboration on this masterpiece perhaps began when it was only a “blue-print” in his mind. We interchanged ideas about Afro-Cuban folklore, santería and salsa music, religion and syncretism, and I was able to see the whole creative process from scratch. Eventually, Osvaldo began to rely on my salsa and popular music experience. This led him to commission me to orchestrate the “mambos and moñas” (instrumental Latin style interludes) of a few numbers of the Pasión, as well as the piano and bass parts for some of the numbers.

La Pasión según San Marcos is not only a true Latin American vision of the passion of Christ; it is a musical and cultural journey. Furthermore, and on a more personal level, the piece is a reflection of my own personal experience in crossover relationships between classical and popular music. One of the beauties of La Pasión is that its musicians and singers enrich this piece with improvised variations over the original material, written by Osvaldo. La Pasión keeps a high degree of energy and freshness in every performance, as we feel challenged to come up with new ways to improve our own previous performance. In the ten years of the passion’s existence, the piece has continued to change and grow and I feel lucky to have been a part of this whole process.

In the summer of 2008, La Pasíon según San Marcos presented another surprise to me. Katia and Marielle Labèque heard about my collaboration with Osvaldo Golijov, and they thought of the idea of commissioning a suite for two pianos and orchestra on La Pasión. Osvaldo granted and trusted me his masterwork with great excitement and with the support and involvement of Orchestre de Paris, the "new Pasión" was in my hands.

Since originally La Pasión is written for vocal soloists, choir and chamber orchestra, and this suite was going to be only instrumental, the selection of the numbers to be included in this "new Pasión" needed to have a completely new approach and development. The lack of text became a new challenge, opening possibilities not just for an instrumental version of the original work, but for perhaps a new composition inspired on Osvaldo's Pasión.

I developed six notorious moments of Osvaldo’s original La Pasión for this new instrumentation and approach. 1. Visión: I summarized motifs from the original opening and ending. The repetitive pulse is played this time by the two pianos, and the woodwinds and brass acoustically create effects originally played by the hyper-accordion and digital delays. 2. Anuncios: originally written for three choirs and Bata drums, this movement is the "wake up call" of the people. I use three different families of brass instruments as my choir, emulating calls and responses and overlapping new harmonies. And I replaced the Santeria drums by the two pianos, giving these not just a rhythmical role but also a whole new harmonic function. 3. ¿Por Que?: the "mambo number". I expanded the full potential of a Latin counterpoint as a new symphonic mambo number. Percussion breaks and flashy piano accompaniments elevate this salsa number to a whole new climax. 4. Agonía: it is one of the most soulful and introverted moments of the original work, and perhaps was the most challenging number for me. I tried to take the essence of Osvaldo's original work and shaped it in a way that the players could pour all their classical and romantic sound and expertise into. 5. Soy Yo: I used this number as a flashy and virtuosic transition, cutting suddenly the mellow and introspective mood of the "Agonía" into a frenetic ascending climax, where the two pianos and the marimba play an intricate layering of poly-rhythms. 6. Crucifixión: is the final procession of Christ, one of the greatest moments in the original work. Osvaldo takes two of the most significant Latin American carnival music styles (Cuban comparsa and Brazilian samba) to represent the celebration and frenzy of the crowd while Jesus is carrying the cross and is being crucified. I developed this movement using, again, both pianos as a whole percussion ensemble. Virtuosic polyrhythms serve as the foundation for brass fanfares and counterpoints, giving this "instrumental Pasión" a whole new explosive ending without loosing the inner soulful meaning of the true passion.

Programme Note by Gonzalo Grau

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