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News Article
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Missing Cisneros and a classical scramble
By Betty Ligon
After a week out of town, I returned to learn that dearly beloved artist Jose Cisneros had departed this world and his funeral mass was the next morning.
As I sat in Jose’s St. Joseph’s Church so near his home, I played a mental video of our first encounter 41 years ago. I had just moved to El Paso and was working part-time for book designer Carl Hertzog at Texas Western Press.
Many of the most successful writers and artists in El Paso and the Southwest beat a path to Carl’s door. Jose was one of them. Carl had, for years, been aware of Jose’s unique ability to turn historic drawings into compelling works of art and was using him to illustrate books at TWP.
Jose showed up one day with portfolio of drawings under his arm. I was introduced to him as Carl lauded his genius with a pencil. I admired his neatly put together appearance, courtly manners and modesty as he ducked his head, denying praise being heaped on him.
From then on we were friends.
Soon after, I joined the editorial staff of the Herald-Post and used every opportunity to write about him as he became better known in large galleries and establishments around the state.
In later years when his eyesight was failing, when I saw him at galleries and receptions, I had only to call his name with a hello and he recognized my voice. I would also get a warm abrazo.
I knew he wanted to hang in until April 18, 2010, when he would have turned 100.
But 99 is a lifetime that few of us will achieve, much less a life marked by such grace, generosity, gentleness, genius. I will miss those hugs.
Classical scrambling
Don’t recall a time when our premier music organizations, El Paso Pro-Musica and El Paso Symphony Orchestra, booked major concerts within two days of each other.
Pro-Musica booked singers for the first time as guest artists at University of Texas El Paso Recital Hall. Two days later the symphony featured an up-and-coming classical guitarist at the Plaza Theatre. Kept us classical music freaks scrambling.
Amarcord is reputed to be one of the world’s leading vocal ensembles. The five buttoned-down gentlemen, black-suited, white shirt and red tie, from Leipzig, Germany, began their singing careers early on as members of the famed St. Thomas Boys Choir. Former members founded Amarcord in 1992 with not a musical instrument in sight.
They sing a cappella. Their publicity said they focus on music from the Middle Ages and Renaissance as well as contemporary composers who write works for the quintet. However, this concert featured songs by Saint-Saens, Mendelssohn, Janacek, Elgar and a composer unfamiliar to me, Ctverice Muzskych Sboru, all born in the 1800s.
With nothing but the leader’s tiny pitch pipe to begin each song, the ensemble’s vocal blend was so perfect, it was difficult to believe there were five singing voices, They belong to tenors Wolfram Lattke and Martin Lattke, baritone Frank Ozimek and basses Daniel Knault and Holger Krause.
After intermission, the Amarcorders got down and different, abandoning madrigals and chants for folk and gospel. Their flawless pitch and a distinctive dense sound, so different from that of the usual a cappella male groups, would sound like cacophony if not for their immaculate harmony.
Here the guys engaged in a little fun and games with each other to show their humorous side, all the while keeping up their vocal performances. It was a great concert from beginning to end!
The EPSO concert under the direction of Maestra Sarah Ioannides was also new and different. The soloist was 28-year-old Croatian classical guitarist Robert Belinic, who looked like a cute college kid. He has a lovely touch and delicate command of his instrument, but the piece he played by the late Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo, “Fantasia para un Gentilhombre,” written in 1954, was not memorable.
It was often hard to hear the guitar over the orchestra. The audience on Friday did not help by its insistence on big clapping between the movements, although Ioannides tried to discourage it by keeping her hands raised. Belinic redeemed himself admirably with his encore.
The program’s opening Chabrier “Espana” was a crowd pleaser and the lovely Debussy “La Mer” was a grand concert finale, supported admirably by muted horns and trumpet and the brass section. You could almost feel the wind and the waves wash over you.
For me, the highlight of the concert was seeing Melissa and Mando Rodriguez, Shundo Studio owners, dance “Milonga del Angel” by Astor Piazzolla and “Tango Jalousie” by Jacob Glade. They are semi-professionals who have won trophies in international competitions but prefer to stay here and enjoy both worlds – dancing and their day jobs.
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