Gabriela Ortiz – Dzonot, Seis piezas a Violeta, Yanga
Los Angeles Philharmonic · Gustavo Dudamel conductor
Alisa Weilerstein cello (Dzonot)
Joanne Pearce Martin piano (Seis piezas a Violeta)
Tambuco Percussion Ensemble, Los Angeles Master Chorale (Yanga)
PLATOON
Available on all streaming platforms
By Damián Autorino
Editor at Moto Perpetuo
It is always good news when a leading orchestra commits an album to brand-new works by a living composer. Even more so when it is the second such project: after last year’s Revolución diamantina, which won multiple GRAMMYs, Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic return with another portrait of Gabriela Ortiz, one of today’s most original voices.
Ortiz, now in her sixties, is finally receiving the wide recognition that has followed years of hard work. The 2025/26 season alone reflects this with three major composer residencies in Europe: at the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Palau de la Música in Barcelona. Her background explains much of her singular style: growing up in Mexico City, she studied Bach and Schumann at the piano while also playing bombo drums and charango in her parents’ folk ensemble Los Folkloristas. Later, she fell in love with Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Bartók’s Mikrokosmos. Mentor Mario Lavista urged her to “know the traditions if you want to break them,” advice she carried with her to London, where she studied electroacoustic music. All of these strands — European modernism, Latin American roots, and an experimental edge — converge in her music, which embraces folk traditions without ever slipping into folklore for folklore’s sake.
The centrepiece of the album is Dzonot, a cello concerto written for Alisa Weilerstein, herself a champion of new music. Where last year’s Revolución diamantina placed the spotlight on María Dueñas and a violin concerto, here the focus shifts to the cello. Inspired by the Mayan cenotes of the Yucatán, the score moves between natural beauty and environmental warning. In the opening movement, Luz vertical, airy textures from winds, harp, celesta and percussion shimmer like sunlight piercing through the darkness of an underground pool. El ojo del jaguar channels the restless energy of the endangered feline through muscular rhythms and biting bow strokes. Jade offers the most lyrical music of the work, but its calm surfaces are threatened by the grinding pulse of an encroaching machine, a metaphor for ecological destruction. The finale, El vuelo de Toh, takes flight with a folkloric bird whose survival remains precarious.
The album also features Yanga, a large-scale choral work that tells the story of Gaspar Yanga, the African prince who led a successful slave rebellion in 16th-century Mexico. Ortiz weaves African-derived instruments — batás, guiros, shekeres, cabasas — into her orchestral palette not to reproduce Afro-Latin idioms, but to enrich her own sound world. The result is a work that honours history without falling into local colour clichés, speaking instead of resilience and freedom.
Finally, Seis piezas a Violeta pays tribute to Chilean singer-songwriter Violeta Parra. Rather than echoing Parra’s music directly, Ortiz offers six concise studies — from the driving Geometría Austral to the intimate Canto del Angelito — that reflect on her legacy from a distance. The cycle often hints at Messiaen-like harmonies and Bartók-inspired rhythmic energy, reminders of how Ortiz transforms her influences into something unmistakably her own.
Taken together, these three works show why Gabriela Ortiz has become a leading figure of her generation. With Dudamel and the LA Phil as committed advocates, her music — rhythmic, lyrical, and deeply rooted yet globally resonant — is now reaching the audience it has long deserved.
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