MUSIC REVIEW : Soprano Ketchum Premieres Works by Latinos

Six premieres--four vocal works and two piano solos--by younger Latino composers dominated the latest “Sundays at Four” concert in the Leo S. Bing Theater at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Completing the program were works by Ravel, Revueltas and Aurelio de la Vega, who was in the audience.

Anne Marie Ketchum was the sole vocalist, and the burden slowly took its toll on her expressive, if cloudy soprano, which grew somewhat squally and frail by the end. She was accompanied in all but one piece by pianist Susan High, whose heavy hand often overpowered soloist and music.

The exception was Miguel del Aguila, who supported Ketchum in his sensitive 1987 Agnus Dei, proving that the piano in question wasn’t the problem. Indeed, in the premiere of his own Ravel-like solo “Vals Brutal,” Aguila managed to play with velvety power and sweep.

A. Jo Duell-Gonzalez’s “My River Runs to Thee” is an economical and text-sensitive setting of four poems by Emily Dickinson, with Ketchum at her best in “Ample Make This Bed,” a moving prayer.

The purely pianistic excerpts from the same composer’s “The Disciples,” described as a work in progress, on the other hand, emerged as inconclusive and faceless, though here, again, High’s hard-driven pianism may have been the problem.

Enrique Gonzalez Medina’s “Seis Poeminimos,” pointed settings of six “minimal” poems by Efrain Huerta, perplexed. The wit of the texts lies in the compressed expression that explodes in an unexpected direction at the end. The composer, in contrast, didn’t hesitate to repeat a phrase, slamming the punch line over and over. The work is supposed to satirize advertising jingles, among other things, so maybe the repetitions were designed to do just that.

Ketchum sang the “Prologo” to Medina’s new opera “Las Poquianchis” with poise and intensity, the premiere of Sergio Ramirez Cardenas’ “Cancion Burlesca” with deadly seriousness, and de la Vega’s “La Fuente Infinita” with controlled lyricism.

In addition to “The Disciples,” High offered a graceless, loud account of Ravel’s “Alborada del Gracioso.”