Manuel Maria PONCE (1882-1948)
Complete Piano Works - Volume 1
Estrellita ‘Metamorfosis de Concierto’ [3.42]
Prelude
Mexicano ‘Cielito Lindo [0.57]
O la Orilla de un Palmar
[3.43]
Serenata Mexicana ‘Alevántate’ [2.35]
Valentina [1.13];Ven, ‘Oh Luna [2.40]
Preludio
Mexicano ‘Cuiden su vida’ [3.52]
Arrulladora Mexicana
‘Xochimilco’ [2.40]
Mañanitas [0.41]
Scherzino Mexicano [1.31]
Scherzino Maya [0.50]
Intermezzo
No. 1 [2.56]
Mazurka de Salón in A flat major [1.56]
Mazurka in D minor [2.32]
Mazurka a la Española
[3.16]
Preludio Romantico [1.50]
Deux Études pour
Piano [3.31]
Sonatine [10.26]
Cuatro Danzas Mexicanes
[6.13]
Álvaro Cendoya (piano)
rec. June 2012, Musikart, Amezketa, Guipuzkoa, Spain
GRAND PIANO GP 638 [59.33]
The Grand Piano label was new to me until this disc
was unwrapped; neither had I heard of the Basque pianist Álvaro
Cendoya. It appears to follow on from at least four other CDs from the
same company covering rare repertoire by Constantin Silvestrov, Florent
Schmitt, Percy Grainger and Alexander Tcherepnin. I am enormously impressed
both by the recording and by the performances. Let me put some flesh
on this skeleton.
Manuel Ponce was Mexican and studied and lived for a while in Paris
during the heady 1920s. He is one of the most significant composers
to have emerged from Mexico. His language, as I shall be explaining,
did alter a little over the years, but on the whole, especially following
his return to Mexico in 1933 it was Mexican rhythms and the folk melodies
he had grown up with that especially inspired him. This disc contains
pieces in various styles and gives a reliable over-view of his output.
Some of you may well know his guitar works. As an examiner I often hear
his music played with variable success. Some of you may be aware of
his songs or arrangements of folk songs. Some might have come across
his five orchestral works and three concertos and some may know something
of his eight chamber works including the masterly cello sonata. That
gives some idea of what music awaits us if we care to and have the opportunity
to delve into it.
The first track is quite a famous piece. Estrellita began life
as a popular short song. In 1912 this new, more complex version came
out, hence the subtitle ‘Metamorfosis de Concierto’.
This very romantic work was then lushly orchestrated; you can hear it
under Enrique Batiz on Naxos 8.550838. Estrellita and the Preludio
Romanntico emerged from Ponce’s studies in Italy and Germany
amidst the German Romantic School of pianist/composers.
Similarly popular although stylistically from another world is the Cuatro
Danzas Mexicanas. Each of these brief pieces begins with an excitable
Vivo using some of the many rhythms that Ponce heard and used
after his discovery of them in the late 1930s. Each also moves into
a more romantic section, something more luscious and akin to the early
pieces like Estrellita or the song arrangements, for example
Valentina andVen ‘Oh luna!’ Music like this,
partially anyway, came from his time after leaving Europe while he was
living in Cuba during the First World War.
There is another aspect to Ponce and one I find much more fascinating
and which can be found exemplified in the Deux Etudes written
for Artur Rubinstein and especially in the Sonatine. The former
uses the pentatonic scale in the first study, reminding one of Debussy,
The second is a wild Toccata. The Sonatine is a curious and eclectic
piece. Its first movement is almost atonal, its harmonies and counterpoint
are certainly very searching. The second is likewise, but the finale,
an Allegro, is an exuberant Mexican Dance. These pieces arose from a
period of study in Paris between 1925 and 1933. At that time Ponce was
having lessons with Dukas while being influenced by figures of a more
experimental bent.
Much of the music is virtuosic, but you might not always realise this,
such is the skill that serves to hide the expertise. At no point is
Cendoya fazed by the requirements of this aspect; instead he revels
in the exotic sonorities and technical demands.
There are three Mazurkas on this disc. They manage to sound like Chopin
transported to 1940s Mexico - utterly original. The Mazurka a la
Española is the most like Manuel de Falla - very Andalusian
and quite dissonant at times.
It’s good to know that this is Volume 1, and it’s worth
knowing that Ponce was amazingly prolific for the piano. There are,
for instance, twenty-five Mazurkas. How many more volumes there are
to come we are not informed.
The accompanying notes by Paolo Mello put the music more or less into
context and there are two interesting black and white photos of the
composer.
Gary Higginson
