45 Minutes in Mexico

Two young Manhattanites listened with growing interest as the fine Sinfonia India of Mexican Composer-Conductor Carlos Chavez boomed from their radio. Viviane Bertolami, a tall, dark-haired girl with a passing resemblance to Hedy Lamarr, was even more intent than her husband, Murray Kirkwood, an employee of I.T. & T. Before she married at 18, she had made her debut as a concert violinist; at 22, she had a child to think about, but she also wanted to pick up her career again. The Kirkwoods made "the decision of our lives." They would use their savings to commission a concerto for Viviane by Chavez . Composer Chavez accepted. His fee: $2,500. They paid half down, the remainder three years later when the work was completed.

In Mexico City last week, Viviane finally got to play the world premiere of her concerto, and Mexico's music lovers packed the white marble Palace of Fine Arts to hear their No. 1 composer's first major work in five years.

Viviane followed fiery little Carlos Chavez onstage. He stepped up on the podium in front of the National Symphony Orchestra. Viviane launched into the broad theme of the opening andante with a firm, strong tone.

The andante itself was slightly reminiscent of Bartok. But from then on, the rest of the concerto was undiluted Chavez--bursting with repeated-note, marim-balike rhythms, themes sometimes curiously plaintive, sometimes broad with the flavor of mesquite and wide-open spaces, and orchestrated throughout with all the colors of a Mexican scrape. Some listeners found it too long (45 minutes); there were eight movements, plus a long cadenza which demanded, and received, much from its performer, but added little to the concerto. Once Viviane halted calmly to tune her violin, while the orchestra played on, and drew a preoccupied look from Chavez . But even so, the concerto was a three-curtain-call success.

Next stop for Viviane and Violin Concerto: the U.S. premiere in Los Angeles, with Chavez conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic, later this month.

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