Mexican, Grammy award-winning composer Gabriela Ortiz returned to Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw this week for her second instalment as composer in residence. After a glitzy start last September in a concert featuring pianist Vikingur Ólafsson and the world premiere of If Oxygen Were Green, Ortiz this week spent time working with local composing talent before attention turned to tonight’s collaboration between British soprano Claire Booth and the Dudok Quartet.
The programme
Gabriela Ortiz at the Concertgebouw
The highlight of the evening was Ortiz’s Baalkah for soprano and string quartet written in 1999 for American soprano Dawn Upshaw and the Kronos Quartet. And as with much of her output, both water, and the rhythm of life bubble close to the surface. From the outset, ‘Chac’ set the scene as microtonal buzzes from flying red bees swayed gently in the Mexican wind. Ortiz’s expansive opening, full of challenging rhythms, focused minds as the indigenous Mayan text, laden with explosive consonants, burst forth.
Ever onwards, David Faber’s cello became the embodiment of ‘Sac’s’ cloud snake, flailing this way and that while pursued on all fronts by Booth’s flint-like strikes. Booth’s body, in turn, became a visual embodiment of Ortiz’s vibrant rhythmic challenges. Only with the nocturnal bliss of ‘Ek’ did a black jungle full of slightly unnerving sounds bring comfort and give Booth’s extended vowel sounds the luxury of time.
As harsh metallic strings depicted water cascading furiously down the mountainside, Booth’s nimble utterances punctuated the mood amidst an endless sea of colour.
Resonant humming paved the way for ‘Ak’s’ theatrical search for Paradise. With violins down, the Dudok’s bowed crotales (tuned a semitone apart – B, Bb C and A) resonated around the Kleine Zaal, providing an unsettling backdrop for a world devoid of consonants where water flows uninhibited. As the lighting faded, the quartet stepped aside, leaving Booth to tumble the depths of her range, lit only by her tablet’s glimmer. For me, one hearing did not seem enough. I wanted more.
Thoughts for another day
Earlier in the evening, the Dudok performed Ortiz’s Aroma Foliado and Mozart’s D major Quartet KV 575 ‘Prussian’ on which the former was inspired. Led by violinist Judith van Driel, their performance prompted thoughts regarding specific string quartet stage-craft, and how to ensure effective audience engagement.
Should a quartet sit or stand? And if the latter, should the cellist sit atop a hollow platform, even if it affects the over balance?
And for a quartet who seem more at home in more contemporary repertoire, where do the classics sit in their vision? Is a final flourish of the bow enough?
Thoughts perhaps for another day.
This concert was reviewed in the Concertgebouw’s Kleine Zaal on Saturday 7th March, 2026
A little history
In a pre-concert interview, Ortiz shared the story of how she found inspiration for the first work on the programme, Aroma Foliado (2006), written to celebrate Mozart’s 250th birthday.
Of how she had attended an artistic residency in Maine but couldn’t find a keyboard so she could compose.
And how when she knocked on the door of a neighbouring cabin, visual artist Suzanne Bocanegra answered the door. Not only did she have a keyboard, but her husband was Pulitzer award-winning composer David Lang, co-founder of Bang on a can.
She shared how she was attracted by Bocanegra’s approach to her silk sculpture The Sense of Smell which she was working on at the time.
Just as Bocanegra had deconstructed and counted all the petals in a bouquet of flowers found in The Allegory of Smell by the 16th century Flemish Baroque painter, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Ortiz likewise deconstructed Mozart’s ‘Prussian’ quartet, and gave it new life.
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