A special event at the Disney Hall in Los Angeles: Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic will premiere a work by Alex Nante. A very special moment in the composer’s career, also currently very active on the European continent! For our readers, he has agreed to share with us some details to better understand his creation. 

Is having your work conducted at Disney Hall by Gustavo Dudamel a dream come true? 

Gustavo Dudamel is a musician that I greatly admire. When I was a student in Buenos Aires I was able to attend a rehearsal during which he conducted The Firebird at the Teatro Colón. His knowledge of the score, his mastery of every detail of the work and his intense communication with the orchestra had a great effect on me... I am very moved and honoured to be able to work with him and the Los Angeles orchestra. 

Your work will be performaned in the first part of concert alongside Ginastera’s Dances from Estancia. What do you think gives the music its Argentine quality? How are you an Argentinian composer? 

This is a difficult question. My music is not very influenced by the folk music of my country. Nevertheless, European colleagues have told me on several occasions that they find traces of Argentinian folklore in my works... So maybe these are influences of which I am not very aware! To a certain extent, an Argentinian quality implies an attempt to unite the diverse and contrasting cultural identities that have crossed our country... This is partly what I try to do in my work. I sometimes try to relive musical impulses belonging to the cultures of my ancestors and to bring them together. 

Before listening to your work, what recommendations would you give to the public at Disney Hall? How can one best prepare for the aesthetic shock of the first encounter with your work? 

El Río de Luz is a study of light. I would like the listener to be able to give free rein to his imagination and try to be taken over by this idea of “sound light”. 

This excerpt from Balzac’s Séraphîta served as an inspiration for this work: 

Light gave birth to melody, melody gave birth to light, colours were light and melody, movement was a Number endowed with the Word; finally, everything there was at the same time sonorous, diaphanous, mobile, so that each thing penetrating the other, the expanse was without obstacle and could be traversed by the Angels in the depths of the infinite. 

Alex Nante - El Río de Luz
for orchestra
World premiere: May 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 2022
Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles - USA)
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
Gustavo Dudamel, conductor
More information...