Viva la Música and Berlioz Fantastique

Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique anchors a thrilling program that celebrates bold imagination and vibrant cultural expression. From Copland’s El Salón México and Revueltas’ La Noche de los Mayas with its driving rhythms, to Moncayo’s Huapango and its stirring melodies, this concert becomes an immersive performance celebrating the spirit of Latin America. Westwater Arts brilliantly marries panoramic photography with live classical performances, creating a breathtaking fusion of visual and musical artistry.

Program

SILVESTRE REVUELTAS – La Noche de los Mayas with Pre-Columbia visual concerto* 

I. Mvt. 1 (I. Lento molto sostenuto) 

AARON COPLAND – El Salόn México with Mágico visual concerto* 

JOSÉ PABLO MONCAYO – Huapango with Mágico visual concerto* 

— Intermission — 

HECTOR BERLIOZ – Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14 

I. Daydreams (Largo) – Passions (Allegro agitato
e appassionato assai)  

II. A Ball (Valse. Allegro non troppo) 

III. In the Fields (Adagio) 

IV. March to the Scaffold (Allegretto non troppo) 

V. Sabbath Night Dream (Larghetto – Allegro –
Dies irae – Sabbath Round (Un peu retenu) 

Program Notes

La Noche de los Mayas
(The Night of the Mayas)

SILVESTRE REVUELTAS

Born: December 31, 1899, Santiago Papasquiaro, Durango, Mexico
Died: October 5, 1940,
Mexico City, Mexico

Composed: 1939 (film score)
Premiered: as film on September 16, 1939 (Mexico); as concert suite on January 30, 1961, Orquesta Sinfónica de Guadalajara, José Yves Limantour, conductor
Duration: 26 minutes

Silvestre Revueltas was a composer whose music moved easily between the concert stage and the silver screen. Following the success of his first film score, Redes (1936), Revueltas secured steady work in the Mexican film industry, which culminated in one of his most well-known film scores, La Noche de los Mayas (1939), directed by Chano Urueta. While the movie itself has largely faded from view, its music has never lost its grip: taut, pictorial, and unmistakably Revueltas. In 1960, conductor José Yves Limantour gathered the thirty-six cues from the soundtrack and shaped them into a four-movement concert suite.

The first movement serves as a ceremonial “night-opening,” originating from the landscape shots that accompany the film’s opening credits. Beginning like a powerful ritual, low strings and horns intone a grave, grounded idea. The texture gently brightens in the middle section, then settles back into a dark and unmistakably cinematic finish. Throughout, the writing favors broad phrases, layered ostinatos, and anchored brass chords, with percussion used more for color than for motor.

El Salón México
with Mágico visual concerto

AARON COPLAND
Born: November 14, 1900,
Brooklyn, New York
Died: December 2, 1990,
North Tarrytown, New York
Composed: 1932–1936
Premiered: August 27, 1937, Mexico City, Orquesta Sinfónica de México with Carlos Chávez conducting
Duration: 11 minutes

Aaron Copland was an avid traveler who frequently visited Mexico and South America. During his first visit to México City in 1932, his friend and conductor Carlos Chávez introduced him to a colorful nightclub called “El Salón México.” The vibrant atmosphere inspired Copland to compose a piece about the dance hall. Drawn to the spirit of the place and the Mexican people, he wrote, “I was attracted by the spirit of the place and by the Mexican people. Using Mexican melodies seemed appropriate. My purpose was not merely to quote literally, but to heighten without in any way falsifying the natural simplicity and beauty of Mexican tunes.” El Salón México received an unexpectedly warm welcome in Mexico and remains one of his most frequently performed works. As Copland expressed, “Never in my wildest dreams did I expect this kind of acceptance for the piece!”

Following his inspiration, Copland completed the orchestration in 1936, and Chávez conducted the premiere in Mexico City in 1937. For its American debut, the piece was first broadcast on the radio, with Adrian Boult leading the NBC Symphony in 1938.

Huapango
with Mágico visual concerto

JOSÉ PABLO MONCAYO

Born: June 29, 1912,
Guadalajara, Mexico
Died: June 16, 1958, Mexico City, Mexico
Composed: 1941
Premiered: August 1941, Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Mexico
Duration: 7 minutes

José Moncayo was a percussionist and conductor who wrote a few symphonies, an opera, and a ballet, producing a relatively modest body of work. In 1941, Carlos Chávez (the same Chávez who brought Aaron Copland to El Salón México) asked Moncayo to write a piece for the Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, where Moncayo had performed as a percussionist since its founding in 1932. The piece was to be based on the popular music of Veracruz, a region on the Gulf of America. To prepare, Moncayo and fellow composer Blas Galindo traveled to Veracruz to study local styles. The finished score weaves three traditional huapangos, “Siqui-Siri,” “Balajú,” and “El Gavilán,” into this exciting work.

Huapango is a social dance and musical style originating in Veracruz. Its name likely comes from the Náhuatl word “cuauhpanco,” meaning “on the wooden platform,” referring to the dance floor.

In Huapango, Moncayo channels the dance’s off-kilter rhythmic swing, creating a lively conversation between 6/8 and 3/4 time in the symphony orchestra. Harp and pizzicato strings evoke the sound of plucked guitars, while bright trumpets and soaring violins carry the tunes. Percussion sharpens the music’s snap. The piece shifts between swaggering fanfares and lyrical interludes, layering counter-melodies and rhythmic cross-accents until a jubilant reprise crowns the finale.

Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14

HECTOR BERLIOZ
Born: December 11, 1803,
La Côte-Saint-André, France
Died: March 8, 1869, Paris, France
Composed: 1830
Premiered: December 5, 1830
Paris Conservatoire
Duration: 50 minutes

In 1830 Paris, Hector Berlioz set out to prove that instrumental music could tell a vivid story—that melody, color, and form alone could trace scenes and emotions. His Symphonie fantastique embodies this programmatic ambition. The work sprang from his obsession with the Irish actress Harriet Smithson, whose image becomes an idée fixe, a recurring melody/theme that haunts every movement. To help listeners follow the drama, Berlioz furnished a written program for the premiere and urged that it be read like the spoken text of an opera: not to replace the music, but to orient the ear to its narrative idea. Below, is an abridged version of the composer’s original note.

I. “Rêveries – Passions”
(Daydreams – passions)

A young musician, seized by the vague des passions, sees a woman who embodies his imagined ideal and falls madly in love. Her image is inseparable from a musical idea—passionate yet noble and timid—that becomes a double idée fixe. Hence, the melody introduced in the first allegro returns throughout the symphony. The first movement traces his shift from melancholic reverie (pierced by sudden, unprovoked joys) to delirious passion, with outbursts of fury and jealousy, renewed tenderness, tears, and moments of religious consolation.

II. “Un bal” (A ball)

The artist is placed in the most diverse circumstances of life, in the midst of the tumult of a festival, in the peaceful contemplation of the beauties of nature. But everywhere, in the city, in the fields, the cherished image comes to present itself to him and stirs up trouble in his soul.

III. “Scène aux champs”
(Scene in the country)

One evening, finding himself in the country, he hears two shepherds’ duet on their pipes. This pastoral duet and the scenery gives him a calm he is unaccustomed to. He reflects on his isolation, hoping his loneliness will soon be over. However, thoughts of betrayal plague his mind. This mixture of hope and fear, these ideas of happiness, disturbed by some dark forebodings, form the subject of the adagio. At the end, one of the shepherds resumes the duet, but the other no longer responds.

IV. “Marche au supplice”
(March to the scaffold)

Having grown sure that his love is unappreciated, the artist poisons himself with opium. The dose of the narcotic, too small to kill him, plunges him into a sleep accompanied by horrible visions. He dreams that he has killed the one he loved, that he is condemned, that he is being led to execution, and that he is witnessing his own guillotining. The procession advances to the sounds of a march, sometimes dark and fierce, sometimes brilliant and solemn. At the end of the march, the first four bars of the idée fixe reappear like a last thought of love interrupted by the fatal blow.

V. “Songe d’une nuit du sabbat”
(Dream of a night of the sabbath)

He sees himself at a sabbath, in the middle of a horrible troop of ghosts, sorcerers, and monsters of all kinds gathered together for his funeral. Strange noises, moans, bursts of laughter, distant cries to which other cries seem to respond. The beloved melody reappears again, but it has lost its character of nobility and timidity; it is now twisted and grotesque. He sees it is she who is coming to the sabbath … A Roar of joy as she arrives, and she joins in the diabolical ritual.

About Westwater Arts

For over 50 years, Westwater Arts has redefined how audiences experience orchestral concerts through its pioneering art form, symphonic photochoreography. What began in 1973 with founder James Westwater and the Columbus Symphony Orchestra has grown into an internationally recognized fusion of music and imagery, performed with more than 200 orchestras worldwide. Early collaborations brought photochoreography to major stages, including the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra, and James went on to create iconic works such as Reflections of the Spirit and The Eternal Struggle.

In 2009, Nicholas Bardonnay joined the company, bringing fresh creativity and technological innovation. Before James’s retirement in 2014, the two collaborated on major commissions, including Grand Canyon Country and Czech Journeys. Since then, Nicholas has expanded the repertoire and global reach of Westwater Arts, drawing inspiration from travels across Iceland, Mexico, U.S. National Parks, and international archives.

With more than a million audience members reached, Westwater Arts continues to blend tradition with innovation, creating immersive symphonic experiences that captivate and inspire.

About Nicholas Bardonnay

Nicholas Bardonnay is a photographer, multimedia artist, and the Creative Director & CEO of Westwater Arts. Since joining the company in 2009, he has created and performed more than a dozen photochoreography pieces with over 120 concerts worldwide, from the U.S. to Europe and Asia.

His first work, Pacifica, paired atmospheric images of the Pacific Northwest with music by composers including Mahler and Debussy. Later projects such as Rodeo! and Sagaland were inspired by the landscapes of Arizona and Iceland, while National Park Suite celebrated America’s national treasures with the National Symphony Orchestra at Wolf Trap. His archival-based works, No Man’s Land and Citizen Soldier, honored the World Wars with music by Copland, Vaughan Williams, and Shostakovich.

Nicholas has also led major commissions, including Grand Canyon Country for the Tucson and Phoenix symphonies, a 50th anniversary tribute for the Britt Music Festival, and Czech Journeys for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Toronto Symphony Orchestra. His photography has been exhibited internationally, and his more recent concert works, Mágico, Pre~Columbia, and Visions, continue to expand the reach of this unique art form.

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