Spicy Latin dance music heats up hall

Monday, March 21, 2005

Zachary Lewis

Special to The Plain Dealer

All hips not firmly planted in chairs were shaking merrily Friday night at Severance Hall during the Cleveland Pops Orchestra's venture into "Latin Pops" - even conductor Carl Topilow's.

Tasty as the musical spices were, the overall experience would have been more satisfying had guest flutist Nestor Torres trimmed some of his improvisations and soliloquies. Too many notes, too many words.

The first half of the concert was a pure delight as Topilow and the orchestra surveyed a range of Latin dance styles.

This section wouldn't have been complete without a tango, which came in the form of Gerardo Rodrigruez's "La Comparsita." Hips shook here, too, when Neos Dance Theatre founders Robert and Brooke Wesner danced a balletic tango in time with the music along the front edge of the stage.

The only weak selection was a pastiche of singer Gloria Estefan's greatest hits, only one of which was recognizable in the arrangement by Charles Sayre.

Like Topilow and the orchestra, Torres presented a variety of musical nationalities and periods, playing standard and newer melodies from Puerto Rico, Cuba and Argentina on his amplified flute. Ernesto Lecuona's "La Comparsa" was his cheerful entrance number.

Unfortunately, each piece for him was an invitation to display his impressive technical ability in extended, overly similar improvisations that soon began to resemble elevator music. A saccharine speech was the takeoff to a long flight based on "Over the Rainbow."

Still, there was plenty to enjoy as Torres and Topilow matched wits on flute and clarinet, respectively, in Luis Guliemi's "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White" and took turns rapping during a strangely pleasant hip-hop version of "Labios Dulces."