30th September 2025
Mexican Sunshine fills the air!
10 o’clock on a rather grey autumn morning in a distinctly chilly rehearsal venue was not a particularly auspicious start to an all-day Sunday rehearsal for the Bardi players. Things changed rapidly when conductor Natalia Luis-Bassa lifted her baton and the very large Bardi Orchestra came to life in Kauyumari, a short work written by Gabriela Ortiz, which was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and premiered in 2021 to welcome their audiences back after the Covid-19 pandemic. Orchestra Manager Robert Calow called it ‘a sort of Mexican Bolero with a slow introduction’. He said ‘the little Mexican earworm of a tune starts on the piccolo and goes all round the orchestra’ rising to a very loud, exciting ending. The hall was flooded with Mexican sunshine and players faces began tentatively to smile as the compelling eleven-minute piece began to unfold under Natalia’s energetic direction. The percussion section in an orchestra are often referred to as ‘the kitchen’ and the Bardi percussionists are kept fully occupied throughout with no less than 16 instruments to play including exotic sounding things such as bongos, claves, a jawbone and a seedpod rattle (as well as, reassuringly, timpani and a bass drum).
Audience and players are guaranteed an exciting and memorable start to the Orchestra’s ‘New Horizons’ season on Sunday 6th October, with two favourites from the classical repertoire, Dvorak’s much-loved Cello concerto, with returning international cellist Lydia Shelley, and Brahms’ tuneful Symphony No.2 completing the programme.
Dvorák Cello Concerto
Brahms Symphony No.2
Sunday 6th October at 3pm
De Montfort Hall, Leicester
