Silvestre Revueltas, La Coronela, Itinerarios, Colorines. English Chamber Orchestra, Santa Barbara Symphony, Gisèle Ben-Dor, conductor. Naxos Latin American Classics CD 8.572250, 2010

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.) Recording Reviews The recent re-release of Gisèle Ben-Dor's recording of La Coronela, which also includes the symphonic poem Itinerarios and the little-known Colorines for small orchestra, speaks to a growing interest in the music of Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1940), especially in the United States.1The fascination with this composer is hardly new: he has been discovered time and again by well-known figures such as Ernest Ansermet, Leonard Bernstein, Erich Kleiber, and Leopold Stokowski. [...]it was only the latest revival in the 1990s that led to a more enduring interest, resulting in a variety of recordings 2and an unprecedented number of musicological publications in Spanish, German, and English, including a catalogue of works, several books and dissertations, as well as critical editions of his music derived mostly from research performed at the National University of Mexico over the course of the last two decades. 3Not surprisingly, great attention has also been paid to unrecorded music by Revueltas, even sparking rivalry among performers who want to premiere a particular score on CD.4In the case of La Coronela, the battle was "won" by Ben-Dor, whose recording was followed soon by one with Enrique Diemecke conducting Mexico's National Symphony Orchestra, and more recently by another featuring Enrique Barrios conducting the Aguascalientes Symphony Orchestra. 5 Perhaps the most important contribution made by Ben-Dor's recording is that it includes one of very few existing recordings of Colorines (Red Beans, 1932) for small orchestra, brilliantly performed by the musicians of the English Chamber Orchestra. [...]this is an orchestrated version of the introduction Revueltas had written for his arrangement of Canto de guerra de los frentes leales (War Song of the Loyalist Forces), a song that was very popular among the Republican fighters, certainly known to all the refugee children for whom it was likely intended. A significant number of recent articles can be found in the bibliography contained in www.fororevueltas.unam.mx. 4 Some of recordings that explore the lesser known works of Revueltas are conductor Enrique Diemecke's Sensemayá: The Unknown Revueltas (Dorian Recordings CD DOR-90244, 1996), which includes the original version of Sensemayá; Silvestre Revueltas: Música de excepción, which includes premiere recordings of little-known or previously unidentified chamber works (BMG CDC 743