La Pasión según San Marcos

The creation of Cuadros del Sur came about thanks to the prior existence of another work that I wrote for the pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque in 2009, titled Nazareno. Nazareno is also a work based on La Pasión Según San Marcos by the Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov.

Daniil Trifonov initiated this new project with the idea of creating a version of Nazareno for an even smaller orchestration, and of course, this time using a single piano soloist.

With this new project, I suggested returning to the original source (La Pasión), a symphonic-choral oratorio in 34 movements, and presenting this new work in the manner of an “exhibition,” taking structural reference from the famous work Pictures at an Exhibition. I have always admired the way Mussorgsky presented his famous images, maintaining a “promenade,” that walk or stroll between each picture.

Golijov’s La Pasión possesses enormous stylistic variety. It is like a cultural journey across all of Latin America, and Cuadros del Sur selects several of these scenes—perhaps the most contrasting ones… from Gregorian chant to a Cuban guaracha, or from flamenco cante jondo to a carnival samba/comparsa.

The promenade is also taken from one of the most heartfelt melodies of La Pasión, and it is presented very simply the first time—like when one enters a museum, fresh and light, having seen nothing yet and full of expectation. As the exhibition unfolds, each picture affects that walk, that feeling… each one transforms the promenade.

-Gonzalo Grau, orchestrator