MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

 

alternatively AmazonUK  

 

Francisco GUERRERO (1527-1598)
Canciones y Villanescas Espirituales (1589)

Hombres Victoria, Victoria [2:24]
¿De dónde vienes, Pascual? [1:52]
Niño Dios d'amor herido [2:23]
Claros y hermosos ojos [35]
La tierra se está gozando [2:49]
A un niño llorando [5:00]
Acaba de matarme [3:04]
Juicios sobre una estrella [3:30]
Mi ofensa's grande [5:09]
Virgen Sancta [3:59]
¡O, celestial medcina! [2:25]
Al resplandor se una estrella [4:43]
¡O qué mesa y qué manuar! [2:48]
Apuestan zagales dos [2:52]
¿Sabes lo que heziste? [6:05]
O, Virgen, quando's miro [2:09]
Zagales sin seso vengo [2:03]
Quando's miro mi Dios [4:21]
Los Reyes siguen la'strella [3:08]
La Trulla de Bozes: María Espada (soprano); Carlos Sandúa (counter-tenor); Karim Farhan (tenor); Juan Díaz de Corcuera (tenor); Xavier Pagès (baritone); Instrumental Ensemble: Raúl del Toro (organ); Manuel Vilas (harp) Eyal Street (bajón)/Carlos Sandúa
rec. Monastery of Loreto, Seville, June 2005. DDD
ALMAVIVA DS-0143 [65:17]
 


Born in Seville (the son of a painter), Guerrero seems to have spent most of his life in that great Andalusian city - though he worked briefly in Jaen and Malaga, and in later life spent some years (1581-1584) in Rome, as well as making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1588-1589; spending some time in Venice on both outward and return journeys. In his youth he studied with Christóbal de Morales. At the age of 15 he became a choirboy in the cathedral in Seville; eventually he was to become maestro de capilla there. In modern times he is best known for his large-scale choral works, of which a number of fine recordings exist - such as the collection by Peter Phillips and The Tallis Scholars on Gimell CDGIM 040, which includes the Missa Surge propera and several striking motets (see review) and the recording of his Vespers for All Saints and the Missa Pro Defunctis by the Chapelle du Roi directed by Alistair Dixon on Signum CD017 (see review).

Guerrero's eighteen Masses, his many motets, his settings of the Magnificat - these are important and satisfying works in the tradition of Renaissance polyphony. Rather less well known and, admittedly, less central to Guerrero's standing as a composer is the music represented on this CD. While it may not be fully representative of Guerrero's achievement as a composer, it is certainly not without considerable interest. It reflects Guerrero's involvement in the rich cultural life of Renaissance Seville.
 
All of Guerrero's works for Church use set, naturally, Latin texts. Here, on the other hand, the texts are in the vernacular. Guerrero mixed with significant Spanish poets such as Baltasar de Alcázar and Gutierre de Cetina, setting texts by them. These songs and villancicos - in older Spanish the word describes a particular musical/verse form, in modern Spanish it means a Christmas carol - were predominantly settings of secular texts.
 
Some at least of these songs were written early in Guerrero's musical career; some can be found in manuscripts dated as early as 1548. When the composer eventually decided to publish some of this repertoire, towards the end of his life, he put sacred texts in place of the original secular words. The volume of Canciones y villanescas espirituales was published in 1589, precisely the time of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
 
It is fascinating to hear Guerrero working on this more intimate scale. So far as I can judge with my very limited Spanish - unfortunately the sung texts are provided only in Spanish - there is a certain amount of word-painting, part of a detailed musical responsiveness to text. The 'spiritualisation' of the original texts is often only surface-deep, so that most such effects survive. Many of the settings contrast passages of counterpoint - sometimes in five voices, sometimes less - with some elegant homophonic writing and the results are often quietly beautiful. This music may lack the sublimity of Guerrero's major choral works, but what it doesn't lack is imagination and consummate craftsmanship. There is a good deal of variety , too; from the bright energy of '¿De d'nde vienes, Pascual?' to the relative sobriety of 'Acaba de matarme'.
 
La Trulla de Bozes was founded by Carlos Sandúa in 1998; their first CD, Sevilla circa 1560: Secular Polyphony of the Andalusian School (Passacaille PAS 936) was widely praised. I haven't, sadly, heard it, but this later CD makes it easy to understand why it got such a positive reception. There is a smoothness of vocal production and balance, achieved without loss of clarity, which makes La Trulla de Bozes very easy on the ear; their singing has a pleasing rhythmic vivacity, without ever feeling forced or mannered. The instrumental trio (the bajón is an ancestor of the bassoon) acquit themselves very well when called upon. This is a very enjoyable CD, both for the quality of performance and recorded sound and because it explores still relatively little-known music of some considerable quality.
 
Glyn Pursglove


see also review by Jonathan Woolf

 

 

 


Return to Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.