Ricard Lamote de Grignon
y Ribas, to give him his full name,
was a Catalan musician who lived through
the most difficult period of recent
Spanish history, namely the fascist
rule of Franco. His father, Joan, in
whose footsteps Ricard followed, is
in fact the more famous musician of
the two.
Like many artists,
Ricard suffered terribly at the hands
of Franco – living and working in Barcelona,
he had been ‘purged’, imprisoned and
his life threatened by the regime. The
main work on this CD, Goya, is
a product of his experiences of this
time. The sub-title – Six Unpleasant
Pieces - is, of course, engagingly
ironic, and reflects a Catalan preoccupation
with the relationship between beauty
and ugliness in artistic work, something
that can be seen strikingly, for example,
in the work of the architect Antonio
Gaudi, which nobody who has visited
Barcelona can either fail to notice
or ever forget.
The Peces Desagradables
are scored for an ensemble of ten
instruments which are either bass instruments
or ones capable of dark tone – clarinet,
bass clarinet, bassoon, ’cello, double
bass, two pianos, timpani and two percussion
– and are a wonderfully apt musical
counterpoint to the strange Goya etchings
which inspired them (and which are helpfully
reproduced in the booklet). It goes
without saying is that they are not
‘unpleasant’ at all; many of the textures
are strangely beautiful, and make their
impact with gentle, understated colours
such as high bassoon or soft percussion.
I was often reminded of the Alban Berg
of the Three Orchestral Pieces, especially
as the musical language is, like Berg,
broadly atonal yet with occasional hints
of tonality.
The fourth movement,
Bellos consejos –Good Advice
- appears to refer to the famous Sailor’s
Hornpipe – pa-pa pom pom pom – but I
think this is just fortuitous, unless
of course the two women in the related
Goya etching are discussing the merits
of English seamen. Doubt it. The piece
is played with restraint and imagination
by the Barcino Ensemble under director
Adolf Pla.
The other pieces –
for double-bass, ’cello and flute, are
much more conventional, and presumably
written for members of the Barcelona
Municipal Orchestra, where de Grignon
was assistant musical director for some
years. These are attractive but unremarkable
music, and the only drawback is the
noisy sniffing of ’cellist Josep Pazos.
Why do ’cellists sniff such a lot more
than other string players? Answers on
a post-card please.
An unusual and highly
enjoyable disc, this. Goya is
really worth hearing, and my only quibble
is the short measure – 42 minutes is
pretty miserable value.
Gwyn Parry-Jones
Barcino Ensemble, director Adolf Pla 