Search - Silvestre Revueltas, Carlos Prieto, Carlos Miguel Prieto :: Revueltas

Carlos Miguel Prieto, one of the most dynamic and interesting young conductors in recent years, is music director of Mexico?s oldest orchestra, the Xalapa Symphony Orchestra. He is also associate conductor of the Houston Symphony and music director of the Huntsville Symphony in Alabama. His 2003 tour with the Youth Orchestra of the Americas began with concerts at the United Nations and the Kennedy Center. Prieto is making a series of recordings of Latin American and Mexican music for Urtext, of which this is a most important installment. Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1940) began a career as violinist, then conductor, but by the end of his short life had become one of the greatest composers in the history of Mexico. After living abroad for a few years, even becoming a cultural official in Spain, Revueltas returned to Mexico where he died in poverty, an alcoholic. His brilliant orchestral piece Sensemayá is his best-known work, and has become part of the standard repertoire around the world. The other works on this CD show various facets of this composer?s particular genius, a distinctive mix of dissonant harmonies with elements of folk music.