Radiant Rhythm with the New Century Chamber Orchestra

Due to an unspecified physical accident, Music Director Daniel Hope wasn't able to finish out the 2025-2026 New Century Chamber Orchestra season last week, so a last-minute replacement had to be found. The ensemble got very lucky, however, when the 32-year-old Canadian violinist Blake Pouliot jumped in to the rescue with only two days' notice. He proved to be sensationally good, and so was the entire concert.

The Saturday afternoon concert at The Presidio was entitled Radiance in Rhythm, and most of the compositions played around with Latin rhythms, not in a simplistic El Salón México manner, but in a more complex way. The opener was the 1968 Fuga y misterio by Astor Piazzolla from his tango opera, Maria de Buenos Aires. The music was exactly what the title stated, a fugue on a tango theme with a mysterious section in the middle, brilliantly performed by Pouliot and the string ensemble.

This was followed by a world premiere commission, Blues Variations, by the 38-year-old composer/conductor Henry Dorn. Born in Arkansas, where the radio played All-Blues Saturday all day long, he now teaches in St. Olaf, Minnesota. The ten-minute work was a set of 12 variations on a theme by blues singer Peetie Wheatstraw (1902-1941) that started conventionally but then ventured into all kinds of strange, interesting places before returning to the main theme. It was a really good piece.

The guest soloist for the concert was the Spanish classical guitarist Pablo Sáinz Villegas who looked like a matinee idol and played like one too. He tackled Michael Daugherty's 2006 Bay of Pigs, a concerto for guitar and strings evoking pre-and post-revolutionary Cuba in three distinct movements, filled with tricky rhythms and startling dramatic effects.

After intermission, the string ensemble played the 1923 Primera Suite Uno by Alberto Williams (1862-1952), one of Argentina's founding classical music composers who I had never heard of before. It was a short, agreeable, four-movement work that made one want to hear other music by him.

The final work was Joaquin Rodrigo's 1939 Concierto de Aranjuez, the most popular classical guitar concerto in the world. Sáinz Villegas returned as soloist and gave a lovely description of the work, explaining that the first movement is flamenco dance with feet planted on the ground while the third movement is courtly dance where feet "jump off the ground." The long, poignant second movement Adagio stems from the sadness Rodrigo was feeling over the stillborn death of his daughter.

Even though the Concierto de Aranjuez is a classical pops concert staple and played incessantly on classical radio stations, I had somehow gone through life without hearing a live version, and it was worth the wait. It was a gorgeous performance, highlighted by Sáinz Villegas's soulful, delicate playing that was completely integrated with the ensemble around him.

The all-string chamber orchestra was augmented by 12 pick-up musicians on woodwinds and brass, and they were flawless in very exposed music. Pablo even dragged oboist Jesse Barrett out for a solo bow for his contribution, and he deserved it.