David Cozy asks:

>As one who loves Mexican music, I'm intrigued.  Has anybody heard any of
>Revueltas's music?  Reactions?

The big piece is Sensemaya, first spread in the US, at any rate, by a
wonderful Bernstein recording, still, I believe, available on Sony SMK
47544.  The CD also has "Latin" works by Copland and by Latin-American
composers.  To me, a classic album and a lot of fun.

Since then, Revueltas's music has appeared on disc sporadically.  I own
three discs:

A Musical Heritage conducted by Enrique Batiz, 513303K, licensed from ASV
   Caminos
   Musica para Charlar
   Ventanas
Catalyst 09026-62672-2, containing La noche de los Mayas
   Homenaje a Federico Garcia Lorca
   Sensemaya
   Ocho X Radio
   Toccata
   Alancias
   Planos
   La noche de los Mayas
Dorian DOR-90244, containing the *original* chamber version of Sensemaya
   Troka
   Cuachnahuac
   5 Songs
   Escenas infantiles
   4 Pequenos Trozes
   El Afilador
   Parian
   Sensemaya (original version, 1937)

None of these discs duplicate each other.  The music is powerful, original,
colorful, even delightful at times.  The Catalyst and the Dorian albums
interest me the most.  The MHS is probably not available, even from ASV,
but I don't know for sure.

Revueltas's music reminds me a lot of Diego Rivera's painting.  He
experimented with many different styles - as did Rivera - producing
masterpieces in an individual voice.  He's more European-oriented than,
say, Chavez, but more profoundly national.  I've not heard anything boring
or bad.  He takes off from Stravinsky (you really hear it in Sensemaya),
but even there he's got a Latin beat.  Politically of the left, he was
concerned with finding a bridge between modernism and popular taste.  He
worked for radio, back when composers did, produced a lot of short pieces
in his short lifetime.  I think he died at 40 or 41.

Steve Schwartz