Updated: Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2000 at 22:40 CST
TCU Ensembles Debut Composer's Work
Arturo Rodriguez conducted the
symphony and concert chorale in their performance of his original piece,
From Earth
to Mars.
By Wayne Lee Gay
Star-Telegram Classical Music Critic
FORT WORTH -- Call it a young composer's dream come true: the chance to conduct an original
large-scale choral- orchestral work in a performance with solid, capable college-level
ensembles.
That's what happened Tuesday to Arturo Rodriguez, 24, a recent graduate of TCU who is
enrolled in graduate study at Butler University. (Incidentally, multi-talented Rodriguez has also
appeared as piano soloist with the Dallas Symphony and was principal flutist with the TCU
Symphony during his undergraduate days here.) In this unusual opportunity for Rodriguez, he
conducted the TCU Symphony and members of the TCU Concert Chorale in the premiere of his
40-minute, Straussian tone poem `From Earth to Mars' at Ed Landreth Auditorium on the TCU
campus.
In terms of style, the seven- movement work was frankly and unashamedly derivative of John
Williams' grand sci-fi movie scores. What was remarkable about the piece was the amazing
degree to which Rodriguez duplicated Williams' style, including mesmerizing melodies and
amazingly skillful orchestration -- always just the right combinations of instruments at just the
right times.
What's more, the orchestral writing, for large orchestra including a wordless female chorus, was
unfailingly effective: the TCU orchestra sounded at its best during every moment.
The highly descriptive subject matter was somewhat less convincing. A movement with tenor
soloist Richard Estes singing a text in an invented "Martian" language was a charming touch, but
the musical depiction of a journey to Mars, on the whole, was self- conscious and
self-important. Rodriguez might at this point aim at a career in the lucrative field -- for those
who become established -- of composition for films; or he might focus his clearly remarkable
talent for writing very appealing music toward traditional concert audiences, who, after
decades of academicism in serious music, are hungry for new music that speaks with
immediacy.
Commissioned by local representatives of the Kennedy Center Imagination Celebration, `From
Earth to Mars' will be presented at a conference at the White House next week, with Rodriguez
presenting part of the work on piano and part of it on a video tape of Tuesday's performance.
The orchestra's regular music director, German Gutierrez, conducted the rest of the concert,
including two mainstream symphonic masterworks, Vaughan Williams' `Fantasia on a Theme by
Thomas Tallis' and Tchaikovsky's `Romeo and Juliet.' (Let's hope the folks at TCU learn to spell
Vaughan Williams correctly sometime soon.) The performance exposed a few inevitable
weaknesses of a college orchestra: this group, while in generally good shape for the Vaughan
Williams, was either a little out of its depth or possibly just under-rehearsed for the
Tchaikovsky. A group of arrangements for chorus and orchestra of familiar Christmas music by
Dallas-based composer Randol Bass provided an effective seasonal epilogue to the concert.
Wayne Lee Gay (817) 390-7756
Send comments to wlgay@star-telegram.com