The Basque National Orchestra reviewed in the pages of The New Yorker

Behind that front page of The New Yorker published on Monday 31st is our orchestra reviewed by one of the most renowned and selective music critics right now in the US, Alex Ross: “few people in the international classical-music world were paying heed to the Basque National Orchestra, which is based in San Sebastián, Spain, and is under the direction of the young Texas-born conductor Robert Trevino. Two startlingly excellent recordings [referring to Ravel and Americascapes] have raised the ensemble’s profile”. A preview of the review can be seen in digital format here (the last two paragraphs of the article).

The appearance of the Basque National Orchestra in The New Yorker is the most relevant mention achieved until now by the orchestra. The two recordings, one dedicated to Ravel and the other to a selection of little-known American composers under the title Americascapes, have been the reasons for which the orchestra is receiving attention all over the world. A good recording and international distribution, carried out under the Ondine record label, have caused it to come to the attention of referential publications such as The New Yorker.

Just a few weeks ago we informed of our recognition as “orchestra of the month” in the also prestigious magazine Gramophone and of more mentions in other publications.

Complete review

“Until this past year, few people in the international classical-music world were paying heed to the Basque National Orchestra, which is based in San Sebastián, Spain, and is under the direction of the young Texas-born conductor Robert Trevino. Two startlingly excellent recordings on the Ondine label have raised the ensemble’s profile. One is devoted to celebrated works by Maurice Ravel, who was born about twenty miles east of San Sebastián, just over the French border. The other explores little-known but worthwhile American repertory—scores by Charles Martin Loeffler, Carl Ruggles, Howard Hanson, and Henry Cowell.

Let the Basques’ rip-roaring rendition of Ravel’s “La Valse” stand in for the rest. It explodes with characterful touches: sinister noodling of bass clarinet, slashing cross-rhythms, kitschy swoops of portamento, concussive thuds on the bass drum. At the same time, Trevino maintains irresistible momentum, absorbing each detail into the general crescendo. “La Valse” was composed in the wake of the First World War, and conductors often make a point of enacting a brutal stampede toward catastrophe. Trevino doesn’t skimp on the menace, but he and his musicians keep swinging to the end, dancing into darkness".

Alex Ross, The New Yorker

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