Lorenzo Ferrero
La Nueva España

Conjectural soundtrack of an atrocious episode of modern history that no film will ever show, "La Nueva España" describes the conquest of Mexico and the extermination of the Aztecs by the Spaniards led by Commander Hernán Cortés, the one who, as Lope de Vega wrote, "gave God infinite souls". The point of view with which the suite was composed, performed by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine conducted by Takuo Yuasa, is -Ferrero himself signals us- that of a camera that "can show, with different gradations of emotional participation, a scene from afar or up close, up to the so-called subjective, in which a scene is seen through the eyes of a character".    

Presagios expresses the anxiety, well testified in some of their chronicles, of the Aztecs who, already years before the arrival of the Spaniards, had interpreted various catastrophic events (fires, floods, earthquakes) as, precisely, omens of a disaster of abyssal dimensions. The percussion section introduces a martial theme that develops by enriching itself with always surprising rhythmic and melodic lines.

Having landed near Veracruz, Commander Cortés has the ships burned to prevent his own men from fleeing. The mournful melody of Memoria del Fuego makes us embody any one of the five hundred Spanish soldiers and lets us relive what presumably had to be his anxiety and desolation that day at the prospect of a possible no return.

In the Ruta de Cortés, the numerous transformations of the theme (a hint of which is present in all the other pieces of the suite) depict sequences in long shot. From the coast, the Spaniards set out and, after crossing impervious mountains and clashing with local tribes, reach the valley of Mexico. The beautiful crescendo with which the third symphonic poem closes illustrates the view from the top of the current Paso de Cortés of the valley and the fabulous Aztec city that to an eyewitness, Bernal Díaz, appeared "like something never heard, nor dreamed".

El Encuentro, one of the most suggestive pieces, is dedicated to the meeting of Cortés with Montezuma. Ferrero splendidly represents the complex ceremonial with solemn music never vulgarized by simple exoticisms in which we find some melodic ideas present in Presagios.

Taking advantage of the celebrations to the main Aztec god, the Spaniards massacre over twenty thousand men and capture the city. In the first movement of La Matanza del Templo Mayor, there is an aggressive reprise of the theme of Memoria del Fuego as if the massacre of the natives were - as Ferrero writes- "the desperate psychological consequence of the burning of the ships". The frequent use in this fifth symphonic poem of solo voices detached from the orchestra allows for the alternation of different points of view (subjectives of the Spaniards and the Aztecs and objective vision of the massacre) up to the concluding funeral march.  

The Noche Triste is the night after the slaughter. The Spaniards are temporarily repelled by the Aztecs and many of them drown under the weight of the gold they try to carry with them. However, it is a resurgence for the Aztecs that will be short-lived, the reprise of some motifs present in Presagios indicates that the end of their civilization is near.

Just as the adoption of neo-tonal language (of which Ferrero is one of the leading exponents) configures as a choice entirely opposite to that of serial trends which instead pursue a disintegration of traditional structures, so it seems to us to discern an organizing principle also in the willingness on Ferrero's part to skillfully arrange the themes thus giving the suite a unitary form. There is also the impression when listening to this suite that the narrative possibilities that only music has can be extended, especially now that our sensibility has been changed by cinema and the media. Perhaps music can tell more and better than a camera and perhaps even more than a book, if, of course, we exclude the Divine Comedy.