By HRJ
Diana Syrse (1984) has become one of the most proactive and active composers in the world. In recent years she has won the Musikpreis der Landeshaupstadt of the city of Munich and Una vita nella Musica Giovani, awarded by the Teatro La Fenice. Works of his have been premiered by the Orchestre Philharmonique de la Radio de France (Géante rouge) and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Los Angeles Philharmonic (Nahual).
These data indicate that her art is commissioned, disseminated and awarded in Germany, Italy, the United States and France. However, Diana Syrse is Mexican (trained at the Faculty of Music of the UNAM) and we at the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería are very proud to present the world premiere of her work in our Summer Season 2023. Mexico Citywhich will be performed under the baton of Carlos Miguel Prieto at the Nezahualcóyotl Concert Hall (July 22 and 23) along with Mozart's Sinfonia concertante for violin and viola and the Suite from the ballet Daphnis and Chloe by Ravel.
Diana Syrse's music is characterized by, according to her official website official websiteby a mixture of sounds that form an energy that is sometimes inspired by a musical dramaturgy of a text or concept. She is particularly attracted to current issues of social relevance such as migration, feminism and diversity, as well as musical chronicles of her daily life".
In general terms, the work Mexico City falls into the latter category of musical chronicles about her daily life. In this regard, Diana Syrse explains in an interview with Juan Arturo Brennan:
"Mexico City is inspired by the city, its sounds, its rhythm of life, its constant mix of intertwined stories, its places, its flavors and its mixed roots. The work begins by describing a giant concrete and metal monster. I imagine it as a giant waking up in the morning and walking with legs of buildings and a Metro, people, buses and cars as veins, its eyes, thousands of windows like those found in the hills of Iztapalapa. You hear a steady rhythm that begins to accelerate. In the second part I develop ideas that come from neighborhoods, colonies or avenues in particular. I imagine myself in a car driving through Tlalpan, I write how the voice of the avenue would sound if it spoke and I hear noisy sounds, a combination of machines, engines, wind, voices, thousands of footsteps and plastic sticking to concrete. In CDMX one feels an impressive energy of living, which is carried by every human being that walks on its skin of cement and dry soil. I write thinking of Coyoacán and its alameda, Churubusco and its streets, Tepito and its market, Reforma and its monuments, Xicoténcatl Park and every memory I have in some places of this city. A city seen from a visceral feeling that gives the public a vibrant music, with indigenous roots, modern, surreal, cosmopolitan and colorful. This work is dedicated to and inspired by the musical work of my father Fernando Valdés and is written especially for the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería".
Regarding the instrumental resources used to realize this intense and multifaceted musical description, the composer responds to Brennan:
"I like to think that the orchestra can have a sound that goes beyond the conventional sound of the instruments of a symphony so that the music is sometimes heard as noise and/or with other interesting colors that are difficult to identify as is what happens with some of the sounds of the city. For this reason I have among the instruments a metallophone, cellophane paper, car tires, metal cans, plastic hoses and some extended techniques in the instruments. I also use autochthonous instruments as a symbol of the importance of the indigenous roots in the history of the city, which are the ocarinas, the whistles of death and the ayoyotes. For me, these last instruments are part of the soul of the CDMX".
The Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería presents Mexico City by Diana Syrse. We invite you to celebrate together the great pride that one of the great voices of contemporary composition is Mexican.
