This is another attractive
entrant in the evolving series of the
complete orchestral works of Rodrigo
– we’re up to volume eight. There is
one early work – the Dos miniatures
andaluzas for string orchestra written
when he was twenty-eight – and later
ones of which the most esteemed I suppose,
the Fantasía para un Gentilhombre,
appears in the guise of its James Galway
arrangement for flute. The performances
here are subtle and persuasive and in
flautist Joanna G’froerer we have a
gifted soloist.
The 1978 Concierto
pastoral is a three-movement twenty-six
minute piece of some substance. It opens
with a moto perpetuo then relaxes into
wistful haze, with relaxed orchestration
and some bluff solo brass calls all
the while populated by the antic flute
writing. The flute in fact frequently
plays pirouetting Puck to the unwieldy
and outsize brass Calibans – to mix
ones dramatis personae for a moment.
The slow movement is full of hazy melismas,
with one moment of martial strength
to pierce it; the orchestration here
is very spare and precise with again
some solo space for the brass which,
by the time of the finale, sound comprehensively
drunk as Rodrigo mocks and gulls them.
The flute meanwhile takes off in rustic
ebullience – and the word for the scoring
here, as elsewhere, is deft.
In the first of the
Andalusian miniatures we can hear some
warm, maybe mystic-religious writing
whereas the second is populated by guitar
imitation. The Adagio for Wind Instruments
of 1966 has some rather beautiful lyricism
and warmth along with scurrying drama
later on. The Fantasía para
un Gentilhombre doesn’t seem to
lose much in this transcription from
the guitar original. Suffused in baroque
idioms and delicious elegance it’s a
winner however one plays it with the
scherzo-type vitesse and buoyant drive
of the finale being especially attractive
in this performance.
Fine sound and notes
and playing and another warm recommendation
for volume eight.
Jonathan Woolf
Joanna G’froerer (flute)