| Naxos |
Lorenzo Ferrerro (b.1951) is one of Italy's leading contemporary composers. He has written many instrumental and orchestral works in the neo-Romantic style, practiced earlier in America by Copland and Barber and in his native Italy by Respighi. In this suite of six symphonic poems, Ferrero paints dramatic imagery using great washes of orchestral colour with almost cinematic effect. In Ferrero's involving symphonic style, La Nueva Espana depicts the struggle of the Aztec people led by Montezuma against the Spanish invaders led by Cortes in the conquest of Mexico in 1521. Beginning with the Aztec prophecies of floods, earthquakes, fires and the disastrous arrival of the Spanish, the six tone poems chronicle the landing of Cortes at Veracruz and the burning of his ships, his army's march across the mountains to the Valley of Mexico where Cortes and Montezuma meet at the gates of the capital. Then in graphic aural detail the Spanish massacre more than twenty thousand Aztecs. In the final, "La Noche Triste," the Aztecs revolt and drive out the Spanish, but the rebellion is short-lived and the Aztec people are completely defeated. Full of soaring melodies and a full battery of percussion, in the battles one is reminded of the Fourth Symphony of Carl Nielsen. A major new work (1991-99) for the new century
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