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Kate Molleson and Alejandro Madrid explore Silvestre Revueltas’s early years in Mexico and his formative years studying in the USA.

Silvestre Revueltas was a blazingly energetic and politically charged musician, a whirlwind of a composer who lived through a time of great political and creative upheaval in Mexico. The French writer André Breton was stunned when he visited the country and found not one unified identity, but many strikingly different cultures existing side by side with all of their clashing values, creeds, and customs. This kaleidoscopic and sometimes jarring world is the musical universe of Revueltas, one of a generation of artists who, along with Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, tried to encompass a true sense of Mexican identity in their works after the country’s revolution. In his personal life Revueltas also lived a life of fiery extremes, before succumbing to an early death exasperated by alcoholism. Over the course of this week of programmes, Kate Molleson tries to shed some light on this forgotten composer, guiding us through the rhythms of Silvestre Revueltas’s colourful life with the help of Professor Alejandro Madrid of Harvard University. They track Revueltas’s moves from revolutionary Mexico, to prohibition-era America, to the trenches of the Spanish Civil War, and back to his homeland. Although most of Revueltas’s works date from the final decade of his short life, it is music which bursts with energy, colour, and humour. It is music which speaks with irony and passion about politics and people, about both the joys and hardships of life. It is music that speaks of Mexico.

In Monday’s episode, Kate and Alejandro explore Revueltas’s early years in Mexico, which was in the midst of revolution, and his formative years in prohibition-era Texas and Chicago.

Toccata (sin fuga)
Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin
Roland Kluttig, conductor

Esquinas (1931 version)
Encarnacion Vazquez, mezzo soprano
Orchesta Sinfonica de la Universidad de Guanajuato
Jose Luis Castillo, conductor

Tierra p’a las macetas
Itamar Zorman, violin
Ieva Jokubaviciute, piano

Pieza para doce instrumentos
Ebony Band Amsterdam
Werner Herbers, conductor

La Noche de los Mayas – Suite (1st & 2nd mvts)
Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra
Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

Produced by Sam Phillips for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Audio Wales & West