Carlos Miguel Prieto stresses the role of music in linking world’s cultures

Mexican-born conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto has built a career characterized by dialogue among repertoires, cultures and musical traditions. His work has been distinguished by a solid interpretation of the great works of the European repertoire in parallel with an ongoing exploration of the Latin American repertoire, and in particular, by a deep conviction about the role of music as a bridge between societies.

That vision will be reflected in the program that Prieto will conduct Nov. 11, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, featuring works by Ginastera, Shostakovich and Rachmaninov. Yo-Yo Ma will be the soloist in Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto.

Music director of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería of Mexico and of the North Carolina Symphony, Prieto is a longtime champion of Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera, whose works serve as a cornerstone of his repertoire. He frequently programs such demanding Ginastera scores as Variaciones concertantes and Panambi.

With the CSO, Prieto will perform Ginastera’s Four Dances from Estancia (1941), a ballet. The work was composed in the same year that Ginastera met his North American contemporary Aaron Copland, who then was touring South America.

Estancia was inspired by the poem Martín Fierro, written in the 1870s by José Hernández as a nationalist celebration of the gaucho (cowboy) lifestyle and a lament about the decline of rural life triggered by political change. The structure of Ginastera’s ballet does not follow Fierro’s poem; the composer chose to incorporate lines depicting daily scenes of a gaucho’s life. The four dances are titled “The Land Workers,” “Wheat Dance,” “The Cattlemen” and “Final Dance” (Malambo). Created by gauchos in the 17th century, the malambo is an Argentine folk dance, famous for its intricate footwork, drumming and spinning boleadoras (a traditional weapon used as percussion).

Of the work, Ginastera once observed: "Whenever I have crossed the Pampas [the grasslands of South America], my spirit felt itself inundated by changing impressions, now joyful, now melancholy, some full of euphoria and others replete with a profound tranquility, produced by its limitless immensity and by the transformation that the countryside undergoes in the course of a day.”  

For Prieto, culture represents one of the most enduring links between the world’s nations. “Sometimes a lot of importance is given to things that have to do with the economy or politics, but culture is actually what endures the most,” he said.

In that sense, Prieto emphasizes that the music of composers such as Copland, Ginastera, Carlos Chávez, José Pablo Moncayo or Silvestre Revueltas continues to resonate in the present, regardless of the political context in which it was created. “The music of Copland or the music of Chávez is music that still sounds important to us today,” Prieto said.

Prieto also cites the impact that Copland’s first trip to Mexico had in the early 1930s. During that visit, the American composer encountered a cultural richness that left a deep impression on his artistic thinking. “Copland is impressed by the richness that he finds in Mexico City, artistic richness, in its museums, in its buildings and also in its pre-Columbian buildings,” Prieto said.

When Prieto won 2019 Conductor of the Year honors from Musical America, the arts publication wrote, “Carlos Miguel Prieto strives to build international bridges by way of classical music,” and then quoted Prieto: “People are asking for music from all parts of the world, looking to us for inclusion, asking for musicians to make sense of the mess."

Then the publication added: “In the words of Yo-Yo Ma, ‘Prieto is a conductor for our 21st century.’ ”

This is an updated version of an article that was previously published on Experience CSO.