Alberto Ginastera left his massive orchestral piece Popol Vuh, which had been commissioned by
Eugene Ormandy, unfinished at his death in 1983, and it was only after it was discovered by pianist
Barbara Nissman that it had its premiere in 1989, with
Leonard Slatkin and
Saint Louis Symphony. A musical reimagining of Mayan creation mythology, it's a monumental piece that viscerally evokes a primitive world using both folk elements and sophisticated modernist techniques. The composer wrote that he was aiming for a "reconstitution of the transcendental aspect of the ancient pre-Columbian world," and the piece is fully successful at capturing that vision with music that is powerfully primal, strange, and darkly beautiful. Although
Ginastera never composed the final movement, The Dawn of Mankind, the seventh, The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, makes a magnificent finale, so the whole work seems integrated and satisfyingly complete.
Stefan Asbury leads
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln in a performance that captures both the work's gravity and its dazzling explosiveness.