This pleasing recital suffers from
poor documentation. Normally I don’t
moan about such things, especially when
smaller companies put out discs that
may be costly for them. Times are tough
and all that. But whilst there are a
few paragraphs about the guitarist and
his photograph there’s nothing at all
about the music. Again, if it was just
Sor, Albéniz and Tárrega
I’d be happy to extend sympathy but
a lot here is unknown, and even guitar
specialists will struggle to put a finger
- or anything else - on the Romance
de Valentía of Quiroga in
this transcription by Trepat -and I
suspect they will know equally little
about Anthony Sydney’s Sonatina Portuguesa.
Grumble over. The programme
is cannily selected. Rosita will
invariably get one off to a good start
with its rhythmic vivacity and with
a roguish rallentando at the end. Carles
Pons i Altés takes a quite laid-back
approach to Turina’s FandaNguillo
– invariably memories of Segovia’s
evocative 1949 recording, so richly
coloured, are not effaced. The piece
that gives the disc its title is by
Mauricio Opazo Muñoz, who was
born in 1969. It’s an affectionate little
piece – and another world premiere recording
- contrasted immediately with the urgent
tango of Roland Dyens.
The Anthony Sydney
is a world premiere recording. Short
though it the Preludio and Danza
makes its mark ; the former
by virtue of its warmth and delicacy
and lullaby feel. I assume that the
Quiroga was originally written for the
composer’s own instrument, the violin.
Bouncy and vivacious and very danceable
it’s rather captivating. Laurent Boutros’s
Les Echelles du Levant is another
pleasingly lyric effusion and well contoured,
with good colour in this performance.
Albéniz’s Cadiz though
finds the guitarist sounding considerably
less natural in his rubati than, say,
Julian Bream. The Pujol arranged El
cant dels ocells rather lacks the
colour and texture of more multi-variegated
tonalists whilst El testament d’Amelia
has a rather limited contrast between
upper and lower strings.
It’s a pleasing recital
then with venturesome potential, adeptly
played.
Jonathan Woolf
see also review
by Glyn Pursglove
Carles Pons i Altés (guitar) 
