Composers Datebook™ is a daily two-minute program designed to inform, engage, and entertain listeners with timely information about composers of the past and present. Each program notes significant or intriguing musical events involving composers of the past and present, with appropriate and accessible music related to each.
Roman's 'Musica de Palladium'
Synopsis The Palladium Ballroom once stood at the corner of 53rd Street and Broadway in New York City. It opened on today’s date in 1946, and in its heyday, was the mambo capital of the world, showcasing performances by Latin superstars like Tito Puente, Tito Rodríguez and Machito. The Palladium closed in 1966, but its dance floor and bandstand were re-created for the 1992 film The Mambo Kings, in which Puente plays himself. The spirit of the Palladium was also evoked in a more recent chamber work by Puerto Rican composer Dan Román. Fascinated by both the music of contemporary minimalist composers and the popular dance forms of Puerto Rico, he combines the two in his four-movement work Musica de Palladium for violin, viola, cello and piano. The work’s final movement, “Sensacional,” is, according to Román, “a collage of aural images taken from mambos and other dance music of Machito, Tito Puente and Tito Rodríguez.” Musica de Palladium was written for the New World Trio and recorded by them, joined by violist Steve Larson.
Music Played in Today's Program
Dan Román (b. 1974): ‘Musica de Palladium’; New World Trio (Annie Trepanier, vn; Carlynn Savot, vcl; Pi-Hsun Shih, p); Steve Larson, vla. innova CD 904