Symphony No. 1 - The Travails of Persiles and Sigismunda
Bel Canto - A Symphonic Canvas

Award-winning composer Jimmy Lopez Bellido has created works performed by such renowned ensembles as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. He currently serves as Composer-in-Residence with the Houston Symphony Orchestra through the 2019-2020 season. {MSR Classics}

The dark and ruminative opening pages of the Symphony No. 1 by Peruvian-American composer Jimmy Lopez Bellido (b. 1978) bring to mind the opening of Bela Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, as they project the same foreboding aura of misgiving. After all it does depict the onset of a long and arduous pilgrimage from Scandinavia to Rome undertaken by the two main characters in the last novel written by Miguel de Cervantes. Throughout the entire work I hear echoes of Bartok, Vaughan Williams and Panufnik, combined with a pinch of South American flavor that rises to the top during the highly rhythmic and percussive passages. The slow second movement is where this composer's firm grasp of motivic development is clearly apparent and well focused. Highly syncopated rhythms dominate the third movement in which many native Latin American percussion instruments take on the leading role. The final movement again starts off in an ominous fashion with typical snarling brass effects and heavy percussion, and what seems like an odd combination of minimalist and old-school techniques. At times, the composer does seem to drift awfully close to what sounds like cinematic score territory, but never really falls off the edge. The final onslaught of trumpets and bells well projects the triumphant arrival of the brave pilgrims in Rome.

Bel Canto - A Symphonic Canvas is a condensed orchestral suite of the composer's opera Bel Canto which was commissioned by the Lyric Opera of Chicago under a Renée Fleming initiative as artistic consultant. It certainly highlights this composer's dramatic and orchestration skills.

The two works on this CD are world première recordings, executed in a highly polished and gripping performance by the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra with conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya, a staunch proponent of living composers. Plaudits should also be extended to the independent MSR Classics label for taking part in this ambitious recording project.