Canciones en la Alhambra
Joaquin TURINA (1882-1949)
Eight Vocalisations Op 74 (1932)
[10.57]
Angel BARRIOS (1882-1964)
Hechinzo y nostalgia [3.45]
Sin estrella
y sin cielo [2.32]
La novia del aire – bolero andaluza [3.11]
Mañana
de luz y fuego [3.62]
Noche [3.03]
Con puñales de cariño [2.57]
Charles GOUNOD (1818-1893)
Bolero [4.18]
Leo DELIBES (1836-1891)
Les Filles du Cadix ]4.05]
Manuel LOPEZ-QUIROGA (1899-1998)
No te mires en el rio [4.25]
Y sin embargo te quiero [6.00]
Te lo juro yo [4.05]
Tatuaje [7.08]
Maurice RAVEL (1875-1937)
Vocalise-étude en forme de habanera
[3.45]
Juan SOLANO (1921-1992)
Un rojo, rojo clavel [3.39]
Carmelo LARREA (1907-1980)
Camino verde [4.04]
Tomás BARRERA and Rafael CALLEJA
Dios Granada [4.41]
Mariola Cantarero (soprano)
Rubén Fernández Aguirre (piano)
rec. live, La Alhambra: Patio de los Arrayanes, Festival Internacional de
Musica y Danza de Granada, 24 June 2014
IBS CLASSICAL GOLD 62014 [77:42]
There are a few things in life that I cannot resist. One
is a lovely Spanish soprano and another is the Alhambra Palace and Andalucía
in general. This disc brings them together in a gorgeously presented cardboard
casing with rich colour photos of the Alhambra Palace and gardens and the
performers. It's a live concert vividly captured.
If you haven’t yet visited the Alhambra on the hill above Granada then you
must. It is vivid in colour, history and smells. Until the day you do go look
out for Washington Irving’s ‘Tales from the Alhambra’. On arrival he writes
“We found ourselves in a deep ravine, filled with beautiful groves, with a
step avenue and various footpaths winding through it, bordered by stone seats
and ornamented with fountains”. Failing that, you could listen to this intoxicating
CD.
The acoustic for concerts around the central pool - the ‘Patio del los Arrayanes’
or Court of the Myrtles - with a backdrop of mosaics and medieval Arabic horseshoe
arches is perfect. I recall attending a violin recital there a few years ago.
It is however expensive as there are not a huge number of seats. The audience
clap and call often quite enthusiastically at the end of works but their presence
is inaudible otherwise. There is just enough applause to conjure the feeling
of a heady atmosphere on a gentle June evening; all this amidst the calls
of various birds including the occasional nightingale. The sunlit enchantment
of the gardens seeming to shimmer as the sun drifts slowly below the Alhambra
hill.
Often in Spain, the Spanish singer will mostly perform songs from their own
country or/and from France. In England, English songs tend to be tagged on
the end after German lieder or whatever. So here we have a repertoire which
could well be largely unknown to you. How many of you have come across the
dramatic and characterful Vocalisations of Turina? No exercises these but
songs that don’t happen to have a text. How many of you know anything about
Angel Barrios or Manuel Lopez-Quiroga and Juan Solano?
In fact the five songs by Angel Barrios seem to sum up the dark romanticism
of the Alhambra. According to the notes he was born and lived in the Alhambra
and there is a museum to his life and work nearby. The songs are deeply Andalucían
the last being a seguidilla. They are not a cycle but work well as a group.
One of the big questions which many people ask is: has the singer a big vibrato;
if so many are put off. The answer is 'no' and 'yes'. No, because all of Mariola
Canterero’s intonation is clear and sensitive. Yes, because all singers
must have a vibrato but must control it and vary its use dependent
on the demands of music and text. This Cantarero does supremely well. Take
for example the outstanding performance of Ravel’s Vocalise-étude en forme
de habanera. Unlike Turina, this is instrumental writing for the voice
and technically demanding with portamenti, staccato phrasing, trills and scalic
passages zipping between the richness of the lower register and the delicacy
of the highest.
In this repertoire singers must do more than project their voices. In Solano’s
Un rojo, rojo clavel, an encore number, she is required to click heels
and fingers and project the song across the audience space. Gounod writes
a Bolero, another Spanish dance. Again much characterisation is required
and Cantarero is able to demonstrate her vocal versatility. Ironically this
was originally composed in England, in English but later given a French text.
The nineteenth century French composers - and writers for that matter - became
quite obsessed with Spain especially Léo Delibes as in his famous Les Filles
du Cadix which incidentally pre-dates Carmen. This song requires
the singer to play castanets - not easy even when not singing.
With the four songs by the long-lived López-Quiroga and the last encore items
by Solano and Barrera, one is reminded how far distant Spanish music can be
from the rest of Europe. These songs from the mid-20th century spring out
of the Zarzuela tradition of music-theatre and are truly nationalistic.
Indeed Adios Granada, Granada Mia by Barrera and Calleja comes from
a 1905 zarzuela. It is deeply passionate and Andalucian being based on a fandango
rhythm as well as being full of gypsy-style melisma.
In all this I must not forget the sensitive support and stylistic grasp demonstrated
so superbly by pianist Rubén Fernández Aguirre who is the preferred accompanist
of many of Spain’s leading singers.
But my often encountered bête noir must be mentioned. We have an excellent,
if somewhat romantic booklet essay by Francisco J. Gimenéz in which each song
is gone into in some detail. Regrettably we are only offered texts in Spanish
when to appreciate fully the deeper meaning of the songs a translation is
vital.
The recording is vibrant and mostly well balanced, strongly capturing the
atmosphere of the occasion.
Gary Higginson
This intoxicating CD.
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