MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK

Evaristo Fernández BLANCO (1902-1983)
The Complete Orchestral Works
Vals triste (1920) [5:18]
Impresiones montañesas (1921) [17:21]
Obertura sinfónica (1925) [9:48]
Pequeña suite (1929) [12:56]
Tres piezas breves (1930) [8:23]
Dos danzas leonesas (1932) [8:30]
Obertura dramática (1940) [18:55]
Suite de danzas antiguas (1982) [23:01]
La voz de Evaristo Blanco (1990) [9:30]
Orquesta Filarmonica de Malaga/Jose Luis Temes
rec. June-July 2008, concert hall of Orquesta Filarmonica de Malaga. DDD World premiere recordings
VERSO VRS2094 [53:37 + 60:00]

 

Experience Classicsonline


The twentieth century Spanish composer Evaristo Blanco’s style is romantic-melodic. There’s little trace of the avant-garde here.

The Vals Triste is a languorous yet soulful sigh – light music with a touch of the famous Sibelius piece but with a dab of melancholy from a Bernard Herrmann film score. From the following year comes the Impresiones montañesas – the work with which Blanco won the Royal Conservatory of Madrid Extraordinary Prize. This is a fulsome and romance-soused slice of Spanish village life. The music is in part reminiscent of Delius at his most heady with cross-currents from Franck and Massenet. There were moments when the music recalled the postcard pictorialism of Impressions d’Italie by Gustave Charpentier. Certainly if you are looking for a luxurious slice of Iberiana complete with castanets then look no further. The Obertura sinfónica is the only one of the composer’s works not to have been performed during his lifetime. Its orchestral tissue is not as dense as for the Impresiones montañesas. Although ideas are presented resourcefully and with considerable wit – note the use of profundo bassoon and gong at the close – this is a work written with a lighter hand. The 1929 Pequeña suite is in four touching miniature movements – similar in style to the romantic Frank Bridge. The Vals Lento reminded me of Strauss’s music for Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. The next year he wrote another piece in a similar vein. The Tres piezas breves are by turns sentimental, for the first time ambiguous in their tonality (Serenata – Bridge evoked again) and peppery-exultant (Marcha). The latter movement is over and done with very quickly but has time to remind the listener of the Impresiones montañesas. These pieces recall the countryside style of the music we encounter in Claves’ Basque Music series and the orchestral suites of de Freitas Branco. The Dos danzas leonesas are two short dances from Leon in expert and lissom arrangements. These add lustre to the store of fine Iberian music with a Moorish sway. The Obertura dramática is a substantial score which the conductor relates to the tragedy of the Spanish Civil War. Certainly it is the most psychologically tense piece here with half hints of the Dies Irae, shimmering strings, blaring horns (eight of them) in relentless cinematic full cry and stomping Stravinskian assaults. It was a work that would not have endeared Blanco to the victorious Nationalists and not surprisingly it had to wait until 1983 for its premiere. Its finale looks to a dazzling Hollywood sunset for its hope – dewy with harp silverpoints and glowing strings. As we know from many of Rodrigo’s works Spanish composers were often drawn to the spirit and letter of the Peninsula’s early music. In the Suite de danzas antiguas Blanco rises to the task with a soulful Pavana and a smilingly diaphanous and a long-lined Minué. The final ten minute track on CD 2 is of Blanco’s champion, Carlos de Castro, interviewing the composer. Clearly spliced together and assembled in a series of questions and answers, it would have been good if this had been translated for those of us who do not speak Spanish.

The invaluable notes are by the conductor.

I hope that Verso will do more of this sort of project. It has exposed music of virtue - modest yet pleasant and agreeably imaginative.

Rob Barnett

 

 

 

 


 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.