I first encountered
Popol Vuh on a Naxos
CD from Gisèle Ben-Dor and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales,
which was warmly received by Hubert Culot (
review).
That well-filled disc includes Ginastera’s ballet
Estancia,
th
e Danza final of which is the most exhilarating music I know;
played with idiomatic vitality and verve by the London Symphony Orchestra
it’s a pick-me-up that will also give your woofers a workout.
The latter applies to parts of
Popol Vuh, an account of the Mayan
creation transcribed by a 16
th-century Dominican missionary;
which is one reason why I was so looking forward to this Neos SACD.
Conductor Stefan Asbury is new to me, although his online profile confirms
he has appeared with some of the world’s major orchestras. He’s
also known for innovative programming, as this pairing of
Popol Vuh
and the otherwise unrecorded
Cantata para América Mágica
demonstrates. I suspect
Popol Vuh, described as Ginastera’s
Rite of Spring, will have the broadest appeal, given its exotic
scoring and raw primitivism. Unfinished when the composer died in 1983
it remains a solid and compelling piece, very different from the easy
exuberance of his earlier works, the ballets
Estancia and
Panambi
in particular.
The Everlasting Night is characterised by dark strings and slow,
primordial stirrings in the rest of the orchestra, all of which is superbly
caught by the Neos engineers. The growling brass - not so prominent
on the Naxos recording - are especially impressive, and the weird timp
figures in
The Birth of the Earth are thoroughly unsettling too.
That said it’s the explosive, atavistic rhythms that are most
reminiscent of
Le sacre, although Ginastera uses his bass drum
and percussion sparingly.
There’s some evocative writing in
Nature Awakes which,
along with
The Grand Rain, manages to avoid the usual
colouristic clichés.
Indeed, there’s an economy and originality of utterance here that’s
most attractive, and the detailed, well-balanced sonics - individual
instruments are convincingly arrayed on a wide, deep soundstage - underlines
that. One senses also that Asbury isn’t one to surrender control,
even in the powerful, punctuating rhythms of
The Magic Ceremony
of the Indian Corn and the orchestral
supernovae of
The
Sun, the Moon, the Stars. As much as I enjoy Ben-Dor’s excellent
performance - it’s a decent recording and the disc offers a number
of other well-played Ginastera pieces - Asbury’s
Popol Vuh
is now my first choice; as a bonus the Neos sound is first rate on both
the RBCD and stereo Super Audio layers.
For all its felicities, the cantata - a collection of poems by Mercedes
de Toro, based on pre-Colombian manuscripts - is compromised by the
distractingly wide vibrato of soprano Rayanne Dupuis. She struggles
to stay on the note and is audibly taxed by the fast, impassioned writing
of the
Song for the Warriors’ Departure. The piano duo
and various percussion groups are excellent though, and as before they
are well recorded. The gurgle and shimmer of the instrumental
Fantastic
Interlude is a sonic delight, and although Dupuis is more ingratiating
in the quieter moments of the
Song of Agony and Desolation she
seems a little too distant in the concluding
Song of Prophecy.
This disc is worth acquiring for
Popol Vuh, but the variable
soloist in the cantata and the very short playing time might deter some
listeners. In terms of bang for your buck Ben-Dor’s collection
is still very desirable, not least for her intoxicating accounts of
Panambi, Estancia and
Ollantay. What a pity that Neos
blot their copybook with a double-gatefold Digipak; after just a couple
of hours it’s already looking creased and scuffed.
Popol Vuh gets a first-rate performance; the cantata isn’t
so fortunate.
Dan Morgan
http://twitter.com/mahlerei
Track listing
Popol Vuh
La noche de los tiempos - The Everlasting Night [6:35]
El nacimiento de la tierra - The Birth of the Earth [4:30]
El despertar de la naturaleza - Nature Wakes [4:55]
El grito de la creación The Cry of Creation [00:40]
La gran lluvia - The Grand Rain [2:43]
La ceremonia mágica del maíz - The Magic Ceremony of Indian
Corn [2:39]
El sol, la luna, las estrellas - The Sun, the Moon, the Stars [3:14]
Cantata para América Mágica
Preludio y canto a la aurora - Prelude and Song of Dawn [4:56]
Nocturno y canto de amor - Nocturne and Love Song [3:59]
Canto para la partida de los guerreros - Song for the Warriors’
Departure [2:08]
Interludio fantástico - Fantastic Interlude [3:51]
Canto de agonía y desolación - Song of Agony and Desolation
[5:36]
Canto de la profecía - Song of Prophecy [3:49]
[49:46] 
