This is the first complete recording of Narváez’s instrumental
publication of 1538, though there have been other recordings of selections,
one quite substantial – see below. The two CDs are contained in
a roughly DVD-sized cardboard booklet.
Let me get a technicality out of the way first. These performances were
recorded on a modern (2008) guitar but the music was intended, as the
title makes clear, for the vihuela, an early ancestor of that instrument.
There are recordings of some of these pieces on the original instrument
– see below – and purists will prefer them, but the sound
of the modern instrument, though tuned slightly differently, is not vastly
different from that of its predecessor and most listeners will be happy
with what they have on the new Emec recording. I’m just slightly
surprised that, considering the amount of attention which has been given
to the production of this set and the documentation which accompanies
it, the original instrument was not employed, as on the recordings which
I’ve listed below.
The modern guitar has a wider range of tone than its predecessor and the
temptation must have been to produce a sound which would never have been
possible on the vihuela. Agustín Maruri deserves praise for avoiding
the temptation to give the music a greater degree of variety, with clarity
rather than richness of tone the keyword of his playing. Spanish readers
will find an interview from the May 2012 classical music magazine
Ritmo
online –
here
– in which he extols the virtues of Narváez’s music
and considers the pros and cons of playing vihuela music on the guitar.
An important point which he makes in that interview is that Narváez’s
music is not easy to play, so it’s a considerable virtue of these
performances that, with art that conceals art, he makes it sound easy.
Interestingly, he cites as a precedent Julian Bream’s ability to
make lute music sound ‘right’ on the guitar and Julian Bream’s
manner sprang to mind, even before I had read that interview, in the very
first
Fantasía on CD1, even down to the habit that Bream
had of making slight ‘noises off’ as his fingers brushed the
other strings. I mention it because I did occasionally find some of these
extraneous noises obtrusive and others may be more affected.
The early sixteenth century was the Golden Age of polyphonic music and,
difficult as it may seem, Narváez created a kind of two- and even
three-part polyphony on the one instrument. Not only does Maruri guide
us through all this with a sure technique, he also displays imaginative
sympathy with the composer.
Readers may find themselves confused by the complex notes in the booklet
because whereas the Spanish original clearly refers to the
vihuela,
in Portugal and Italy the instrument was called a
viola and the
English version translates the word consistently as ‘viol’.
To cut a long story short, the vihuela was essentially a flat-backed lute
and tuned like the renaissance lute. Narváez and Luis de Milán
were the chief composers for the instrument; the latter composed a tablature
book, dating from two years before Narváez’s collection and
portraying Orpheus playing the instrument and hailing him as
primero
inventor por quien la vihuela paresce en el mundo. The name was retained
in some quarters for the baroque guitar which, in turn, was the ancestor
of the modern instrument. What we usually term a viol is a bowed instrument,
especially the
viola da gamba, much loved by English composers
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
There is a CD of some of the works from this collection on Almaviva Musica
Antiqua DS0116 on which they are performed by Juan Carlos Rivera on the
instrument for which the title clearly indicates that it was written,
the vihuela, and Hopkinson Smith has recorded a sizeable body of excerpts
from all six books, also on the vihuela (Naïve E8706). Almost complete
on one CD, his recording has a clear price advantage. I haven’t
been able to hear that recording in its entirety but its original appearance
on Astrée Auvidis was warmly welcomed and I listened to his account
of
Veinte y dos diferencias sobre ‘Conde claros’,
on
Hopkinson Smith: A Portrait (E8908) courtesy of
Qobuz.
Allowing for the difference in timbre between the two instruments –
Maruri’s modern guitar is slightly brighter – there’s
not a lot to choose. Smith is more expeditious and less showy, but I enjoyed
both.
There’s another selection of Narváez’s music on the
modern guitar to which Glyn Pursglove gave a very favourable
review
(ECM New Series 4765878: Pablo Márquez)
If you are just looking for a selection of music from Renaissance Spain
rather than one devoted entirely to Narváez, there’s a thoroughly
enjoyable and inexpensive Naxos CD, which I’ve owned for some time
and to which I return frequently, on which Shirley Rumsey sings and performs
on vihuela, lute and renaissance guitar (8.550614). Her account of
Veinte
y dos diferencias sobre ‘Conde claros’ is closer in style
to that of Hopkinson Smith, though taken at a slightly slower pace than
his or Maruri’s. In the vocal items Rumsey’s pleasantly languid
voice is well suited to the music.
Another fine bargain recording from Christopher Wilson (vihuela) offers
ten pieces from the
Libros del Delphín coupled with music
by Luys Milán (Naxos 8.553523). His version of
Conde claros
is sprightlier than Maruri’s or Rumsey’s and somewhat brighter
than Smith’s.
If, however, you are prepared to hear the modern instrument played in
a manner sympathetic to its predecessor by a guitarist with a genuine
feeling for the music and well recorded, the Emec is the only choice for
hearing the six books complete. Though generally happy with Maruri’s
playing, I was much less impressed by Marta Infante’s rather fruity
contributions to the
Romances and
Villancicos on CD2.
She sounds rather backward in the sound picture and has a tendency to
swallow her words, so that, since these are not included in the otherwise
comprehensive booklet, we are left none the wiser apart from the opening
phrases listed.
Apart from the vihuela/viol confusion in the English translation, the
scholarly notes are very informative if, perhaps, a little abstruse for
the general reader. The inside front and rear covers of the book reproduce
pages from the original publication. Complete scores of the six books
can be found at
imslp.org.
Overall, then, despite some minor reservations, about the need to have
the complete collection as opposed to a selection and the guitarist’s
‘noises off’, I enjoyed hearing CD1. Ms Infante’s contribution
to the short second disc gives me more serious pause for reservation.
I shall not be playing that second disc much, which adds to the fact that
with just over 22 minutes on CD2, it seems a bit steep to charge for two
full-price CDs.
Brian Wilson
Full track details
CD 1
Los Seys libros del Delphín de música de cofra para
tañer vihuela (Valladolid, 1538)
Libro I,
Fantasías 1-8 [19:51]
Libro II,
Fantasías 9-14 [8:16]
Libro III,
Sanctus and
Hosanna from
Josquin
des Prés Misa Hercules, Dux Ferrariæ and
Misa Faysans regrés;
Cum Sancto Spirito from
Misa de la fuga and
Canciónes 1-4 [14:50]
Libro IV:
O gloriosa Domina -
Diferencias 1-5
and
Sacris Solemnis -
Diferencias 1-5 [11:15]
Libro VI:
Veintidos diferencias sobre ‘Conde Claros’;
Cuatro diferencias sobre ‘Guardame las vacas’ (x2);
Baxa de contrapunto [9:09]
CD 2
Libro V [22:27]
Ya se asienta el Rey Ramiro [1:16]
Paseabase el rey moro [4:11]
Si tantos halcones I [1:27]
Si tantos halcones II [2:05]
Si tantos halcones III [2:42]
Y la mi cinta dorada [3:47]
La bella mal maridada [2:28]
Con que la lavare [2:57]
Arded, corazon, arded [1:34]
