Buenos Aires Herald - "A bouquet of valuable concerts" por Pablo Bardin - 4-12-2012 (extracto)

In its final weeks the season still provides interesting concerts.

(...)

La Bella Música, led by Patricia Pouchulu, provided important choral-symphonic concerts in earlier seasons. Last year there was an important change: the concert was conducted by Pouchulu, who, apart from being the active organizer of two series of concerts at the Sofitel and at the so-called Salón de los Pasos Perdidos of our Congress, has studied conducting with local and foreign maestros. She fights the prejudice -that shouldn´t exist- about lady conductors, but the concert last year and the one she offered now show that she has real qualities for this activity. The venue was the Avenida.

A deep thanks for having chosen the complete incidental music by Mendelssohn for Shakespeare´s "A Midsummer Night´s Dream", for the whole thing is wonderful: an Overture and nine numbers. I remember with delight a concert about 35 years ago conducted by Peter Maag, but I don´t recollect any recent performance. Both the incredibly precocious Overture (written at 17) and the ultra-famous Wedding March are standards, but all the rest is worth hearing many times; two pieces have vocal solos and children´s choir. The ad-hoc picked orchestra led by concertino Grace Medina responded to the orthodox and sensible conducting quite well; Soledad de la Rosa (soprano) and Mariana Rewerski (mezzo) were the renowned soloists, and the Coro Nacional de Niños under María Isabel Sanz was very agreeable.

Perhaps Beethoven´s most often played Symphony is N° 7, and understandably so, for its rhythmic drive is irresistible. The main problem is that the music must never flag, and by and large Pouchulu obtained this; she was right in playing the second movement at the marked Allegretto instead of the generally adopted Andante. There was an unexpected and welcome encore, the Barcarolle from Offenbach´s "Les Contes d´Hoffmann". For next year, why not a complete oratorio?

Pablo Bardin

Extracto del artículo: cortesía diario Buenos Aires Herald
Website de Pablo Bardin: Tribuna musical