Luis de PABLO
Impromptus for orchestra (On a C#; Melody; Isocronias;
A Lightning Bolt; Harmonic Study)
Carmelo BERNALOA
Variaciones concertantes (espacios variados num.2) Orquesta Sinfonica
de Euskadi/Juanjo Mena
Audiovisuals de Sarria Musica Sinfonica Espanola Contemporanea 6 [51.32]
musica@audiovisualsarria.com
This is a valuable coupling of two substantial works by leading members of
Spain's Generation of '51, who took on the task of bringing into their
country long forgotten avant-garde tendencies. De Pablo & Bernaloa, both
of Basque origins, have played important roles in teaching young composers
of the next generations and bringing their audiences up to date in a European
context.
Luis
de Pablo enjoyed celebrations of his 70th birthday
last year and now, a year later, his fourth opera, Senora Christina,
has just been premiered in Madrid to acclamation (there have been plans to
mount one of the earlier ones in London, but those have not yet come to
fruition).
This newest of his now numerous CDs includes a commission by this orchestra
completed in 1990, and it is good that an increasing number of his earlier
compositions are now appearing on CD. The five Impromtus (5 is a favourite
number for de Pablo) deal with musical problems as indicated by some of their
titles: On a C#; Melody; Isocronias; A Lightning Bolt; Harmonic Study.
He would like them heard as an enriching adventure for composer and,
hopefully, for listeners, 'landscapes to lose oneself in, surrounded by unique,
suggestive objects'. They are notable for imaginative unpredictability and
strikingly effective orchestration.
Carmelo Alonso Bernaola (b.1929) is less well known internationally,
though counted by Tomas Marco (Spanish Music of the Twentieth Century;
Harvard University press) as of equal importance in the Spanish scene as
de Pablo and Cristobal Halffter. Bernaola studied in Madrid and with leading
avant-garde European composers and, we are told, is himself a distinguished
teacher. He has made it into "New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians
2nd edition on the web" (listed under A, not B!) and from that substantial
and useful new entry we learn that his Variaciones concertantes date
from 1985. The work originated from material in his Superpociciones
variables of 1976 and 'a set of fragments from a basic nuclear sound'.
(It has to be said that the liner notes for this CD are more flowery than
informative.) The music plays continuously and relies, in conctrast with
de Pablo, on driving repetitive figures. It also evokes (for this listener)
fleeting suggestions of other composers - Beethoven and Stravinsky came to
mind. That is no criticism; it is a powerful work of real individuality which
sustains its 24 minute duration, holding attention easily.
This Basque orchestra was founded in 1982 and the 1999 recording appears
to do full justice to the important music selected.
Peter Grahame Woolf
