It was born 90 years ago as the Porteña Orchestra by the composer and director Juan de Dios Filiberto. At that time, it was a small tango group of only 14 musicians and closer to the formation of a “typical”. Much happened afterwards. The organization grew in number and in timbres, it received the name of its creator upon his death and became the National Orchestra of Argentine Music, with an organ that can at the same time fulfill the role of a Beethovenian orchestra or face diverse popular repertoires. , as it includes important families of strings, woodwinds for two and academic percussion but also drums, guitar, charango, popular percussion and, of course, bandoneons.
The Filiberto, therefore, is a challenge for any arranger/orchestrator, for an instrumentation that is not in the conservatory manuals and for that challenge of preserving its original tradition and, at the same time, taking advantage of the sonorities that allow a cast of this style.
It was for this organization that the Cordovan composer Sebastián Mazza – present in the room – wrote his “Mapuche ancestral songs”, which was released in a world premiere. It is a choral-symphonic creation in three movements, in which references to aboriginal music and rhythmic resources of Hispanic-American folklore re-read for the concert hall and with the sounds, instruments and vocal modes typical of “the academy” sound. In this case, the young director Valeria Martinelli, also a debutant with the orchestra, found the necessary pulse and sustained the emotional climate throughout the work. And she allowed the brilliance of the musicians and the National Youth Choir.
The second part was very different. The singer Nadia Lacher and the composer, singer and guitarist –and this time also an orchestrator- Juan Quintero from Tucuman came up to share with the orchestra –always with Martinelli on the baton- a tribute to Chacho Müller. Coastal pieces sounded, chamamés, chacareras, zamba airs, footprints, triumphs. Titles such as “Ay Soledad” were heard -in a grand opening-, “Luna de los guitarreras”, the beautiful “Creciente de nine lunas”, “Coplas de la Distancia”, “Pampa gringa”, “Monedas de sol”, ” Mariano the standard-bearer”, etc. There were high orchestral moments, always with the main voice of Nadia with a phrasing that at times becomes tango. There were little gems with Quintero singing and playing solo or duet with Larcher. There was landscape and political evocation. There was enthusiasm from an audience that joined at the end to accompany the emotional “Las dos Juanas”. And, in short, fair recognition was given to this author born in Buenos Aires, made in Rosario and who died in 2000, who left behind a very valuable body of songs that still do not have the popular recognition they deserve.
