Celebrating the Anglo Mexican Foundation

This year is the 75th anniversary of the Anglo Mexican Foundation and as part of the celebrations, Anglo Arts, the culture department of The Anglo Mexican Foundation, held an event at the residence of the Mexican ambassador on Friday 16 November 2018 to launch a new CD of contemporary Mexican music. 

Serenata Mexicana will be released officially in February 2019 on the Toccata Next label, a new label from Toccata Classics. The disc features music by two contemporary Mexican composers Alejandro Basulto and Arturo Marquez, performed by Morgan Szymanski (guitar), Gabriella Dall'Olio (harp), Jamie MacDougall (tenor) and the Shakespeare Sinfonia conducted by David Curtis, with two of the pieces being commissioned by Anglo Arts. 

We heard David Curtis and members of the Shakespeare Sinfonia performing the final section from Alejandro Basulto's Pequena Serenata Ranchera (from 2018). As Basulto's Jig Variations (from 2016) for guitar and orchestra required forces too large for the venue, Morgan Szymanski, the Shakespeare Sinfonia and David Curtis performed the slow movement 'Nocturne' from Alec Roth's Guitar Concerto which they toured to Mexico. Hearing an extract from Basulto's serenade certainly made me look forward to hearing the complete work on the disc, and Roth's concerto had an imaginative solution to balance problems inherent in guitar concertos by having the instrument in dialogue with the strings.