Music of the Americas

The Houston Symphony takes us on a thrilling voyage through four contrasting works from North and South America, courtesy of their Colombian conductor, Andrés Orozco-Estrada. The pieces stretch from the rhythmic, driven Afro-Cuban Sensemayá of Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas to the bourgeois refinement of Gershwin’s An American in Paris. Full of Latin American strut, Broadway charm and bluesy swagger, Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story are given the full cinematic treatment, while Piazzolla’s spicy Tangazo: Variations on Buenos Aires, performed with both heartfelt tenderness and blood-red passion, takes us to the dance halls of Argentina’s capital while keeping one foot firmly in the concert hall.