In its 15th edition, Musical Offerings' hugely popular Jazz Meets Classical program has grown to three performances, the first of which, Saturday night in the Instituto de M xico, was packed to the figurative rafters. The music was Brazilian in origin or influence. In the latter category were new pieces by James Scott Balentine and Matthew Dunne, both of whom teach at UTSA.
Balentine's Esferas de Vida, for a mixed ensemble of eight players, evoked Brazilian jazz in its dance rhythms, classical form in its arch structure and Weirdville in its stretched-tonal harmonic language.
Dunne's Cafezinho is the composer's own transcription for a mixed quintet from a commissioned (but not yet performed) guitar quartet. The mood is relaxed, apart from a caffeinated middle, and there's some lovely lyrical music for the clarinet.
Soprano Linda Poetschke's urgent sense of the text made for an unusually satisfying performance of the famous aria from Heitor Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5.
Vocalist Joan Carroll also brought welcome textual nuance and a sense of jazz history along with quite a nice voice to familiar songs by Antonio Carlos Jobim, in new arrangements by Darrel Tidaback.
Dunne injected some Brazilian style into his arrangement of Italian pop composer Bruno Martino's Estate, also well sung by Carroll, with top-drawer jazz pianist Mark Rubinstein switching more than credibly to accordion.
Dunne and clarinetist Stephen Girko also contributed splendid solo work throughout the evening. The larger ensemble performances could have been tighter, however, and violinist Joan Christenson's unreliable pitch made Sergio Assad's Itaipava painful to hear.
The program repeats at 7 p.m. today at the Witte Museum.
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