Nicolás Lell Benavides’ ‘El Correcaminos’ (Paul Bodine)

The concert began with Benavides’ string quartet, ‘El Correcaminos’ (roadrunner), the state bird of New Mexico. With atmospheric, creative writing (including body percussion), it thoroughly succeeded at its programmatic purpose: to use the roadrunner to evoke four periods in his home state’s history: the American phase, the Mexican/Spanish phase, the first-people’s phase, and pre-human phase. The quartet of San Diego Symphony musicians delivered a confident performance of personality and technical polish.