When Ricardo Lorenz returned to Walt Disney Concert Hall this February for the premiere of Humboldt’s Nature, it was less of a beginning and more like a homecoming. Lorenz found through a new commission from the Los Angeles Philharmonic a rare opportunity to weave together musical, cultural and personal elements through the story of famed German scientist Alexander von Humboldt.
Humboldt traveled through Venezuela from 1799-1800, keeping detailed notes and drawings of what he saw. He is revered in Germany and considered worldwide as the founder of modern geography and the father of ecology. But to Lorenz, for many years Humboldt was simply the name emblazoned on the side of the school he attended as a child. When reading Humboldt’s travel diaries in preparation for this new LA Phil commission, however, he recognized the landscapes the explorer documented and for the first time made the connection.
Lorenz’s collaboration with the LA Phil began four years ago with his Todo Terreno, a work commissioned through the orchestra’s Pan-American Music Initiative. Conductor Gustavo Dudamel enjoyed it so much that he programmed it multiple times and took it on tour through Europe with the Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra. That early success built a foundation of trust that made this new, larger commission possible. But Humboldt’s Nature stands in its own world: more ambitious, more expansive and profoundly reflective.