NOSPR / Alsop / Montero / Latinos & Heroes - NOSPR

In their music, composers frequently tell stories about themselves, even if this is done unconsciously and contrary to their own artistic declarations. Such was the case of the Allegro de Voiron, a neoclassical gem, in which Michał Spisak included all of his love for the picturesque town at the foot of the French Alps, where he spent the war years. The piece took years to create. Begun while Spisak was still living in Voiron, completed in 1957, after he had returned to Paris and married Andrée Thibault. Gabriela Montero’s ‘Latino’ Concerto is another case in point here. The pianist knows her instrument well enough to use it for painting a suggestive portrait of her homeland, abandoned in her childhood.. Most probably, such was also the case with Richard Strauss’ A Hero’s Life, in which he allegedly wanted to create a musical version of the archetype of a hero. However, the sheer number of references to his earlier symphonic poems raises suspicion that he is the eponymous hero himself. Let us embark on a journey: from France, through Venezuela, to the esoteric realms where the heroic time goes by. 

Dorota Kozińska