To say that history has forgotten the Catalan composer Josep
Martí i Cristià would be an understatement. An internet search
turns up only sites selling this CD. Oxford Music Online fails
to recognise his name. The booklet notes sum up the "scant
and short references in the literature", mentioning his
study under Granada and Pedrell, his large corpus of works in
almost every genre, the music school he founded, his pride in
Catalonia and his championship swimming. His early demise without
issue means that almost everything known about him comes from
a biography and catalogue of works published in 1919 by his
friend Ezequiel Martín in his memory.
This CD is the end product of a collaboration between the recently
formed Friends of Josep Martí i Cristià Association, Catalan
pianist Daniel Blanch, the Catalonian Culture Industries Institute,
and La Mà de Guido, a Barcelona-based label dedicated to the
music of the Iberian peninsula. This aspires to be the first
of many projects, including the publication of all Martí i Cristià's
extant scores, which together will bring about "public
recognition and will place him among the best Catalan composers
of the 20th century."
Daniel Blanch's website lists six previous CDs dating back ten
years, two on Ars Harmonica (review)
and four on Columna Música (review),
covering both standard solo and chamber repertoire and relatively
unknown Hispanic orchestral music. He opens this recital with
Recordances de la Joventut, referred to as Records
de Joventut in the booklet (but both meaning 'Memories of
Youth'), an evocative set of 13 very short pieces, mainly around
a minute in length, of a youthful, generally light character,
reminiscent of Schumann above all: titles include such as 'Playing',
'April', 'Sleeping', 'Maternal Advice' and 'Lead Soldier'. The
nine pieces that make up Siluetes ('Silhouettes') are
similar in some ways, short, unpretentious, lilting, memorable,
but tinged with more melancholy - a grown-up version, perhaps,
of the Recordances. The last piece is a rather ominous
'Dansa de la Mort'.
There is further pianistic poetry in the Three Preludes,
more beguiling miniatures of a nostalgic bent. In the final
three items the influence of Debussy on the one hand, and Granados
and Albéniz on the other, is most clearly audible: Debussy in
the tantalising harmonies and mellow melodies of the semi-impressionistic
Si Vinguessis amb mi vora el Mar ('If You Came with me
beside the Sea'), Granados and Albéniz in the more openly nationalistic
En el Patio ('In the Courtyard') and Pamplona,
a rousing, almost patriotic audience-pleaser of its time.
Sound quality is good. There is the occasional misjudged cutting
of tracks, with unnecessarily inserted digital micro-seconds
intruding here and there into still resonating piano chords,
though the effect on listener enjoyment is pretty minimal. The
trilingual CD booklet is as informative as can be about so ephemeral
a composer, and well written, although the translations into
English are not entirely idiomatic.
Martí i Cristià's music, though hardly ground-breaking, is by
no means banal: on the contrary, it is full of melody, poignancy,
elegance, Spanish character and imagination on almost every
page, all brought vividly to life by the light-fingered, graceful
pianism of Daniel Blanch. Listening to this disc is a very pleasant
way to spend an hour, whether recalling one's own childhood
lost or dreaming of blue Spanish skies.
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at reviews.gramma.co.uk
Daniel Blanch (piano) 
