Manuel Barrueco & Cuarteto Latinamericano concert

Last Sunday Dan and I went to a concert at Rackham Auditorium at the University of Michigan. We usually go to rock concerts or jazz concerts, with an occasional concert given by a full symphony orchestra or philharmonic. This one was quite different for us - a chamber quartet playing along with a Hispanic classical guitarist.

The chamber quartet was the Cuarteto Latinamericano, from Mexico. They primarily play music from Latin American and Caribbean classical composers. The guitarist was Manuel Barrueco, born in Cuba, and incredibly gifted.

The program:

Carlos Guastavino Las Presencias, No. 6

Javier Alvarez Metro Chabacano

Michael Dougherty Bay of Pigs

Augustin Barrios La Catedral

Roberto Sierra  Triptico

Astor Piazolla Tango Sensations

                       La Milonga del Angel

                       La Muerte del Angel

The music was very interesting and quite different from your usual chamber repertoire.

I had sort of known going in that the only American composer on the program was Michael Dougherty, who lives in Ann Arbor. But it did not really occur to me that the composer would be there to hear his music being played. But he was, and bounced up on the stage when the time came for his music, and was very cool in explaining the themes in the music, and having the musicians playing bars of music to provide examples of what he was explaining. That was really great, and he is probably a great professor. He has a lot of energy, explains things so anyone can understand him, and has a lot of interest in the subject.

But it turned out that he was sitting right behind us. I do not think that bothered Dan, but it made me feel sort of weird. Here we were, listening to some unusual and challenging music - and the man who composed it was sitting right behind us, so probably saw our reactions to the music and to the people playing it. That really did make me feel strange.

After the enjoyable concert, we headed to the downtown (original) Cottage Inn. When I was a student and living in the dorm, I used to walk there with my dorm mates in the middle of the night when we would be up late studying, to get garlic bread with cheese and pop. I remember a time when I went there with Dan many years ago, and some of the football players were there and completely amazed me, as each ordered a (personal) large pizza for an appetizer, and then ordered a huge pasta dinner for the meal. Well, Dan and I did not order that much food, but we got garlic bread and pop and a loaded pizza. It brought back good memories of when we were much younger.