A contrast that united European tradition and contemporary Mexico was experienced with the recent program of the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra (OFCM), led by Uruguayan conductor Diego Nasar, at the Silvestre Revueltas Hall of the Ollin Yoliztli Cultural Center last Saturday. The music of Austrian Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, German Ludwig van Beethoven, and Mexicans Georgina Derbez and Enrico Chapela, starred in this encounter of sonorities representative of distant centuries.

Mexican musician Enrico Chapela Barba (1974) discovered that academic composers had a similar energy to heavy metal groups. For example, Igor Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring", Silvestre Revueltas' symphonic poem "Sensemayá", or Béla Bartók's string quartets. In tribute to this reminiscent movement, which he was part of with his electric guitar in a band several decades ago, the audience will hear "Rotor", a piece written by Chapela and performed by the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra (OFCM) this weekend at the Ollin Yoliztli Cultural Center.

Mexican composer Enrico Chapela doesn't worry about those who think he's "profaning the holy orchestra" by incorporating metal and rock elements into his music. His only goal is "to create the most energetic and interesting music possible," he explains in an interview with La Razón. A prime example of this vision is his piece "Rotor," which was commissioned by the Minería Symphony Orchestra and recently recorded with the Portland Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Eckart Preu. The work is inspired by the heavy metal rock band Chapela had in his youth and takes up the structure of a song in that style.

With one hand on his heart and the other on his lips, sending a kiss into the air, conductor Enrique Arturo Diemecke bids farewell to the audience amidst thunderous applause and shouts of "Bravo!" as he slowly exits the stage of the Palacio de Bellas Artes, leaving behind the memory of a memorable evening. He appears smiling, satisfied, and sweaty. The concert has been a demanding, exhausting, and emotional two hours. "A great achievement," he defined it moments before, presenting the final piece of the program, to highlight the two world premieres he had just performed with the National Symphony Orchestra (OSN).