Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

Sierra's Sinfonia No. 2 premieres in Miami

The composer Roberto Sierra has made a good name for himself in recent years, drawing expansive praise from critics for his guitar and saxophone concerti, his orchestral pieces (Fandangos), and his Missa Latina.

The University of Miami's Frost Symphony Orchestra gave the world premiere April 21 of Sierra's Sinfonia No. 2 in a concert conducted by fellow composer Thomas Sleeper (the Brahms Fourth also was on the program). The symphony, commissioned by UM, proved to be a well-argued one-movement work of about 16 minutes, structured as a series of variations over a passacaglia.

Unlike many of his other pieces, Sierra's symphony does not draw on his Latin heritage — a native of Puerto Rico, he now teaches composition at Cornell — but instead is a piece out of the mid-20th-century tonal mainstream; I found it reminiscent at times of one or another of the Essays for Orchestra by Samuel Barber.

The Sinfonia No. 2, subtitled Gran Passacaglia, is essentially a concerto for orchestra in that Sierra makes virtuosic use of the various instrumental sections, with much whirling around of the woodwinds and the strings, and powerful statements from the brass and percussion. The work's overall tone is strident and aggressive, beginning with a granitic, Shostakovich-like opening that sets the stage for heavy drama to follow.

Sierra keeps narrative tension alive as he takes the theme through a variety of transformations — sometimes savage, with piano, brass and percussion hammering out a driving rhythm, and at other times serene, such as an early episode in which solo flute and horn do a gentle slow dance over the plucking of a harp.

Overall, Sierra brings a notable invention to the music, evoking a wide range of styles as the symphony progresses, all while keeping an essentially agitated profile. One of the several big climaxes in the piece sounds for a moment like no one so much as César Franck, thick scoring included.

Listening to Sierra’s other music on his Web site, you can hear a composer eager to use Latin and jazz influences that gives the excerpts I chose a sort of genial populism. This work is quite different, and written in a language reminiscent of the tonal style popular with the modernists of the 1940s or thereabouts.

It's a no-nonsense piece with a deadly serious heart, and while it doesn't bring anything particularly original or individual to the table, it is well-made, and it could serve as an attractive curtain-raiser on a program of new music. It's a strong, interesting composition by a man who knows how to manipulate basic material successfully and hold a listener's attention.

posted by Greg Stepanich 6/06/2006