L.A. PHIL AND FRIENDS EXPLORE SOUND, CULTURE OF MEXICO.

Byline: Damian Kessler Correspondent

Mexico is a land stuffed with surrealistic contradictions.

Walk through the streets of Mexico City, the densest metropolis on Earth, and you will see cars, buses, taxis and horses mingled in the smog. Go to the southern state of Chiapas and you will see native Chamulas drinking from American soda cans, praying in their local Mayan dialect to an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe illuminated in neon lights.

Mexican composers, trained under the most rigorous classical traditions, are not immune to these images. Their style is characterized by that mixture of ``street and academic music'' as demonstrated in ``Altar de Piedra'' (Altar of Stone), the new composition written by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz, commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and premiered on Thursday night at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion as part of the ``Latin American Visions'' festival, a series of concerts and events in January and March.

``Altar de Piedra'' was inspired by ``Los Pasos Perdidos'' (``The Lost Steps''), the 1953 novel by Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier. The story is a fictitious diary of a Cuban musicologist living in Paris who is sent to the Amazon to research local musical instruments in the company of his French lover, not accustomed to mosquitoes, snakes and half-naked people. The musicologist falls in love with the native Rosaura, discovers huge wind-scored cliffs (the altars in stone) and begins to analyze the conflicts between the cultures of the new and exuberant Latin America and the old and decadent Europe.

Ortiz probably knows something about the battles between these inner demons. She grew up listening to vernacular Mexican music and playing the charango before obtaining her doctoral degree at London's City University.

``Altar de Piedra,'' a percussion concert written in the traditional three-movement style (fast, slow, fast) in 2001-02, entertains the ears and the eyes. Ortiz succeeds by skillfully alternating original and indigenous rhythms, displacing the actual accent, and creating an irregular pulse that adjusts the listener's center of reference. Ortiz is more interested in illustrating conflict than in describing the series of events.

As soloists, the excellent Swedish ensemble Kroumata seemed to enjoy the nonstop parade of conventional percussion instruments from all over the world: a Peruvian wooden box, a caxixis, a dried gourd floating in a bucket of water struck by a soft yarn mallet, and the Mayan teponaxtlis. These four musicians played, as an encore, a simple tango of their own.

The concert began with ``El Salon Mexico,'' written by American composer Aaron Copland in 1932-36. The piece combines seven different popular folk songs, but it does not presume to be a profound study of Mexican music. The performance, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, was superb. The piece sounded nostalgic, humorous and ended with a mild detonation of the full orchestra. The last third of the program was a collaboration with the Latin American Cinemateca. The film ``Redes'' (``The Wave,'' released in 1935) accompanied the score written by Mexican Silvestre Revueltas. ``Redes'' was shot by American photographer Paul Strand and was directed by Fred Zimmermann (``High Noon''). This black-and-white, hourlong, documentarylike film has little dialogue but strong messages of greed and suffering. It narrates the story of impoverished Veracruz fishermen who successfully unionized against the exploitation of urban businessmen.

Revueltas' music sometimes overpowers the film. The score is violent, very rhythmic and has elements of strong nationalism. Salonen was alert and synchronized each measure to its frame.

This program, which will be repeated today and Sunday, succeeded in showcasing the reciprocity of two neighbors. It started with one of the first American composers inspired by a mariachi band and ended with one of the great Mexicans in a Hollywood style.

LATIN AMERICAN VISIONS

What: Features a new work by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz. With the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, and the Swedish ensemble Kroumata.

Where: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.

When: 8 tonight, 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets: $14 to $82. Call [phone].

CAPTION(S):

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Photo:

Composer Gabriela Ortiz wrote the percussion piece ``Altar de Piedra'' based on a 1953 Cuban novel.