MUSIC REVIEW : The Philharmonic’s Spirited ‘Fiesta Mexicana’

The numbers may have been disappointing, but there could be little doubt the Los Angeles Philharmonic reached a new audience Sunday. At the end of a long evening, seemingly all 6,952 who clicked through the Hollywood Bowl turnstiles were on their feet--but not pushing for the parking lot.

Instead, the crowd stood clapping and chanting “Otra!” After much consultation with his players, conductor Enrique Diemecke obliged, repeating the finale of Pablo Moncayo’s “Huapango.”

The occasion was “Fiesta Mexicana,” a crafty and engaging bit of cultural tokenism offered by the Philharmonic as part of the Artes de Mexico festival.

Two national anthems and bilingual introductions frankly pitching the Philharmonic extended an hour’s worth of Mexico’s Greatest Hits (classical division) into an 150-minute marathon. Broadcasters Cristina Aceves and Juan Manuel Navarro shared host duties with a celebrity turn from Rita Moreno, who encapsulated the happy spirit of the affair with an impromptu shawl-dance parody during the unscripted encore.

Diemecke’s program assembled the obvious choices from a repertory routinely ignored by the Philharmonic. The 34-year-old conductor, who is music director of the Orquesta Nacional de Mexico and the Flint Symphony in Michigan, has led children’s concerts with the Philharmonic before, but this was his Bowl debut and introduction to the larger local music community.

He displayed a sure grasp of the multifaceted rhythmic challenges at hand, beginning with the 7/8 obsessions of Revueltas’ orgiastic “Sensemaya” (misspelled throughout the printed program). He emphasized the sprightly tunefulness of Chavez’s “Sinfonia India,” repeated from an earlier Bowl concert.

Diemecke allowed much interior subtlety to disappear, perhaps miscalculating the peculiarities of the amplified acoustic. His urgings found the Philharmonic in its utilitarian mode, contributing some vibrant, stylish solos and often lackadaisical ensemble work.

Soprano Maria Luisa Tamez made her Philharmonic debut with the Siete Canciones of Revueltas, a wry and moving collection of miniatures. She introduced a clear, clean voice capable of both fire and ice. She served the texts better in languor and passion than in wit, while advancing the spare music with amplitude and nuance.

Veteran guitarist Alfonso Moreno supplied a fluent and individual interpretation of Ponce’s “Concierto del Sur,” working deliberately in the big first movement, with a carefully articulated, unusually ruminative account of the cadenza. He proved much more consistent in the bravura passages than he had three years ago with the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional at Royce Hall.

Diemecke accompanied Tamez fluidly, Moreno more bluntly. His Ponce had sweep, but missed much of the polyphonic sophistication.

Cheers greeted Moncayo’s “Huapango” and the “Sones de Mariachi” by Blas Galindo at the end of the concert. Diemecke focused all the folkloric energy firmly and colorfully, and fireworks made an uncommonly lyrical entrance in the latter.