[Harp-L] Lincoln Center Review

[Robert Bonfiglio <bon@xxxxxxxxxx>]

NEW YORK TIMES

RIVERSIDE SYMPHONY -  Even by its own adventurous standards, the 
Riverside Symphony is offering an offbeat program tomorrow. The most 
eclectic item is Villa-Lobos’s Harmonica Concerto. The harmonica 
virtuoso Robert Bonfiglio says he has performed the work more than 350 
times. I’ve never heard it. Have you? Here is your chance, on a program 
that also offers Mozart’s “Haffner” Symphony and Honegger’s 
Neo-Classical Symphony No. 4 (“Delights of Basel”).  (Tommasini)


Arts and Letters 	
Classical Music
January 23, 2007


Allow me to relate the details of an excellent performance at Alice 
Tully Hall on Saturday evening in which the Riverside Symphony invited 
soloist Robert Bonfiglio to perform the final composition of the 
Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos.

Villa-Lobos was a charming raconteur and a bit of a gadfly in 
20th-century music. His most famous set of pieces is the Bachianas 
brasileiras, which combines the ordered cleanliness and counterpoint of 
Bach with the exciting rhythms of South America. He wrote over a 
thousand works in all sorts of forms both popular and classical, was an 
ardent ethnomusicologist who collected material in the heart of 
Amazonia, and once claimed he had been captured by cannibals who put 
him in a stewpot, only to release him after he sang his music to them. 
His piano pieces for Artur Rubinstein made him famous throughout the 
classical world. And at the very end of his long life, he created the 
Harmonica Concerto for an American named John Sebastian.

The piece begins in medias res with a great deal of energy. Mr. 
Bonfiglio brings much energy to the stage and demonstrated this night a 
great deal of conversance with the piece, making a strong case for his 
signature role as its champion.

The middle Andante is especially beautiful with a powerfully lush 
orchestration. The orchestra is an equal partner in this movement and 
executed quite well, combining their relatively small size with a great 
deal of romantic, full-bodied sound. There is always the hint of the 
exotic in Villa-Lobos and conductor George Rothman captured it here 
with unhurried chordal accompaniment.

Mr. Bonfiglio takes the final Allegro faster than he did when he made 
his recording and this works well, as the newfound propulsion 
emphasizes the dance rhythms of this section. Villa-Lobos resists the 
contemporary urge to gild the rhythmic lily with a load of percussion 
instruments, employing instead but a few judicious strokes of the 
timpani as he allows the music to develop organically. I'm afraid I 
don't know my Portuguese, but in Spanish Latin America this music might 
be classified as ranchero style.

As became clear at the end of the concert when prospective buyers 
stormed the table where Mr. Bonfiglio's CD was for sale, the near 
capacity audience was genuinely enthralled with the novelty and impact 
of Villa-Lobos.

By FRED KIRSHNIT
NEW YORK SUN


http://robertbonfiglio.com/main