Divine Art is delighted to announce a superb collection of sensuous classical Spanish language songs for voice and piano, from the sublime musical partnership of lyric soprano Esther Rayo and renowned pianist and conductor Peter Grunberg. This program of works was first heard in a series of concerts given by the San Francisco based teaching and performance organization LIEDER ALIVE! The album features songs by early 20th century Spanish language composers: Fernando Obradors, Manuel de Falla, Enrique Granados, Alberto Ginastera, Xavier Montsalvatge, Consuelo Velazquez and Manuel Ponce. Drawing from Spanish classical poetry and regional folk melodies, these vibrant song cycles offer appeal to art song aficionados and first-time listeners alike. Born in California, and surrounded by Spanish music and language, this music is close to Esther Rayo's heart. Her connection with these songs started when she was introduced to the music of Manuel Obradors while in college. Obradors offered the perfect starting point for her continued study and discovery of Spanish art song, and she was guided by the great 20th century sopranos Montserrat Caballe and Victoria de los Angeles, who kept this music alive. While she was at graduate school in 2017, Esther was introduced to Peter Grunberg by Maxine Bernstein, Founder and Director of LIEDER ALIVE! And they made an immediate musical connection around the works of Spanish language composers. LIEDER ALIVE! #helped provide opportunities for Peter and Esther to perform this music together, alongside it's standard mission of promoting German Lieder. Over the years they continued to study and learn more classical Spanish repertoire, resulting in this, their debut album together. And, even after all these years, they still feel they've only just scraped the surface of this wonderful repertoire!

Returning to the roots of classical masterpieces: this is the mission of Zuzanna Sosnowska and pianist Magi Garcias on their GENUIN debut album titled "I'm Volkston" (In Folk Style). The duo explores the rich diversity of folk music from three distinct centuries and cultures, reflected in three masterworks for cello and piano. The internationally sought-after Sosnowska-Garcias Duo performs Robert Schumann's enchanting "Stucke i'm Volkston", Manuel de Falla's sun-drenched "Siete Canciones Populares Espa�olas", and Fazil Say's powerful musical portraits of Turkish cities, the sonata "Four Cities" (Dort Sehir). This moving collection of significant chamber music speaks from the heart and resonates deeply with listeners.

FANTASIA BAETICA

SALUT D'AMOUR ANNE AKIKO MEYE

From the sixteenth century to the present day, fantasias have developed from improvisatory and virtuosic works for lute, to extended and elaborate works for ensembles, solo keyboard instruments and full orchestra. The dazzling array of works featured in this album showcases how composers have delighted in allowing their creativity and imagination to take precedence over conventional styles and forms.

*** This title is a reissue of a Korean release with liner notes in Korean. ***

The Rodrigo concerto (double woodwind, 2 horns, 2 trumpets and strings) needs real virtuoso playing—it is one of those works which are harder than they sound—but is most skilfully written. The cheerful first movement, starting up with typical Iberian belatedness from apparently idle introductory strumming, may make the most immediate effect, but undoubtedly the finest part of the work is the introspective Adagio, which shows that in the right hands even such seemingly cliché-bound elements as melancholy cor anglais solos and quasi-flamenco fiorilure can still be moving. Williams's reading differs somewhat from Bream's (which I still think superb): he takes the first movement a thought slower and just misses Bream's élan, but gives the finale actually more bite: he plays the slow movement sensitively, less dramatically and more dreamily than Bream (and incidentally changes the notes of the final arpeggio). It is a throughly musical performance, a worthy rival to that by his distinguished fellow-countryman.

-- Gramophone [7/1966]
reviewing Concierto de Aranjuez on LP

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This is not a record for purists, but never before on disc have I heard a performance of the vividly atmospheric Falla ballet anything like so involving as this. Stokowski may indulge in some souping up of the texture in the haunting "Pantomime", but I confess that that is how I have always wanted to hear it, and the brisk songs and dances (not just the "Ritual Fire Dance") have a dramatic bite that conveys the freshness of excitement that must have attended the first appearance of a ballet which so patently extended from Russia to Spain the new and exotic medium developed by Diaghilev. Diaghilev himself certainly appreciated its potential quickly enough with the ensuing Three Cornered Hat.

Shirley Verrett makes a superb soloist, characteristically rich-toned most of the time but from time to time flinging at us impressive imitations of raucous flamenco chest-tone. The recording, larger than life, dates from the early sixties, but it is still impressive, rich and atmospheric.

-- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone
reviewing El Amor Brujo on LP

Classical Music

There’s always room for another terrific Falla collection, though there’s certainly no shortage of them. Indeed, The Three-Cornered Hat has already been very kind to Chandos: Tortelier’s Philharmonia version is excellent (coupled with Albeniz’s Iberia in the Arbos orchestration). This one is just as fine, maybe even better. Juanjo Mena certainly gets the BBC Philharmonic to wake up from its usual bland, business-as-usual attitude and deliver tangy, idiomatic results. Listen to his perfectly judged rhythmic accents in the Dance of the Miller’s Wife, or his riotously brilliant final Jota. These zesty and energetic sections are more than offset by the poetic stillness of Raquel Lojendio’s lovely offstage soprano solo in Part Two. It’s just an excellent performance, about as good as it gets.

This is just as true of the other works on the disc. Homenajes receives a nicely contrasted interpretation that gives the piece a wider expressive range than usual–the tribute to Debussy is particularly atmospheric. Nights in the Gardens of Spain is marvelous. Bavouzet, as has become clear over the past couple of years, is a very major artist, and his performance has an especially noteworthy vitality and sparkle. So many performance of this work wallow in a sort of droopy, soggy “impressionism.” Certainly Mena and Bavouzet capture the music’s many moods, and they don’t stint on its mysterious, nocturnal tints, but they do it with a welcome rhythmic focus and firmness of outline. For a typical example, consider the vibrant Poco più animato at figure 5 in the first movement. This is great stuff, and the sonics are as bold and tactile as the interpretations.

– ClassicsToday.com

SOMM Recordings is pleased to announce a release devoted to the singular 20th century Spanish composer and pianist, Manuel de Falla, with three late-Romantic scores that capture the very essence of Spain: The Three-Cornered Hat, Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Seven Spanish Folksongs. Against the backdrop of the First World War, Falla found fame and recognition in Spain as not only a leading composer, but one with a growing international reputation. This status was confirmed when Sergei Diaghilev commissioned the ballet, El sombrero de tres picos, for the Ballet Russes to perform in London in 1919, with stage designs by Pablo Picasso. The ballet, like the novel by Pedro Antonio de Alarcon that inspired it, incorporates Spanish storytelling that conjures up everyday village life, and Falla's music is rich in echoes of traditional Spanish folk tunes. Following a musically enriching sojourn in Paris from 1907 to 1914, Falla returned to Spain with the completed Siete canciones populares espa�olas and sketches for what would become Noches en los jardines de Espa�a. Subtitled 'symphonic impressions for piano and orchestra,' Noches en los jardines de Espa�a is a three-movement portrayal of the sounds and sights of Falla's native Andalusia rendered magical under the cover of darkness. Following the premiere in Madrid in 1916, Falla himself was the soloist for the work's first performance in London in 1921. While El sombrero de tres picos and Noches en los jardines de Espa�a were Falla's imaginative evocations of Spanish folk music, both the texts and the melodies of Siete canciones populares espa�olas were traditional, although Falla's original arrangement for soprano and piano added much to the effectiveness of these songs from different regions of Spain. This work is one of Falla's most arranged compositions; the orchestrated version here is by Luciano Berio. This recording features the Ulster Orchestra with their Principal Guest Conductor, Jac van Steen. The soloist for Noches en los jardines de Espa�a is the London based Brazilian pianist, Clelia Iruzun, one of SOMM's long-time collaborators and treasured artists. She is undoubtedly amongst the finest pianists in South American and Iberian repertoire currently performing in Europe, and several composers have dedicated works to her. The prize-winning Irish mezzo soprano, Sarah Richmond, is making her CD debut in Siete canciones populares espa�olas. Jac van Steen's previous SOMM releases include acclaimed recordings of Mozart piano concertos with Peter Donohoe and Valerie Tryon (SOMMCD 278-2); The Deeper the Blue, an intriguing exploration of colour and timbre in music featuring Vaughan Williams, Ravel, Dutilleux, and Kenneth Hesketh (SOMMCD 275); and the International Classical Music Awards-nominated pairing of concertos by Albeniz and Mignone with Clelia Iruzun (SOMMCD 265).

Cantos de Espana

'The repertoire we have chosen for this album consists mainly of pieces that have been with me since my childhood.' With this recital, Johan Dalene, accompanied by Peter Friis Johansson, offers us a selection of popular violin pieces that have accompanied him since his early years. After hearing them in the family car on long journeys, he went on to learn them and then play them in competitions and in concerts. He Johan Dalene now gives us (and himself) a treat and continues the tradition of great violinists such as Heifetz, Perlman and Vengerov, who have all made recordings of favourite encores and recital pieces. Finally to record them himself proved to be an 'extremely inspiring and challenging project', says Dalene. The programme is built around three virtuoso works, Tzigane (Ravel), Introduction and Rondo capriccioso (Saint-Saens) and Carmen Fantasy (Waxman), alongside which more reflective pieces by Massenet, Tchaikovsky, Falla and Kreisler have been included. Also featured is a rarely played miniature by Swedish composer Amanda Maier - a work which, according to Dalene, 'is a gem full of spirit!' A programme that celebrates the multiple sides of the violin, at times virtuoso, at times lyrical, always seductive.

In this album, Lorquiana, Ana Maria Valderrama, violin, and David Kadouch, piano, project Lorca's musical personality into the future by compiling different scores linked in one way or another to the Andalusian artist. Poulenc's sonata illustrates the positive welcome of the political and social significance of Lorca's figure in France, where it became a symbol of freedom and resistance. Hahn's work, on the other hand, takes us to those happy and ephemeral Twenties of the last century that Lorca also enjoyed. Alizia Terzian's song shows the powerful influence that the poet has had in the Hispanic American context. The famous La vida breve passage is a nod to the veneration Lorca professed towards Falla. And, of course, we listen to Lorca's own creations in a rich selection of Spanish popular songs, iconic testimonies of his compositional activity that are revisited in an exceptional arrangement by Alberto Martin for violin and piano.

Anna Fedorova explores the Intrigues of the Darkness in these programmatic and extremely virtuosic works for solo piano. The journey from darkness to light begins with Scriabin's terrifying "Black Mass" Sonata. The work represents a satanic ritual that is possessed by the spectre of the Mephistophelian Liszt. de Falla's Suite from El Amor brujo conjures a mysterious world, full of magic, rituals and ghost visitations. Ravel described his Gaspard de la nuit as "romantic and of transcendent virtuosity". These highly evocative pieces are based on Aloysius Bertrand's prose poems depicting scenes of a hanged man sighing on the gallows and a devilish dwarf. Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition portrays many scenes of darkness but emerges into light with the Great Gate of Kiev, in which triumphant episodes alternate with moments of religious contemplation.

Classical Music

Classical Music

DE FALLA: Complete Original Works for Piano

FALLA: Popular Spanish Suite / Piano Pieces / Harpsichord C

Falla: Vida Breve (La)

Manuel de Falla is generally acknowledged as the leading figure in Spanish music of the twentieth century.

Ravel, M.: Rapsodie Espagnole / Albeniz, I.: Iberia (Arr. E.

Shostakovich, D.: Cello Sonata, Op. 40 / Falla, M. De: 7 Can

This CD recording is the result of a succession of different moments of musical happiness and the encounter between the solo harpist of the Basel Symphony Orchestra, Aurelie Noll, and two exceptional musicians. María Cristina Kiehr and Yolena Orea-Sanchez (violoncello) have put their talent and artistic sensitivity at the service of this wonderful repertoire. The special sound of the harp creates a kind of new relief here and lends this unusual album its special charm. The program includes works by Reynaldo Hahn, Tchaikovsky, Manuel de Falla and Gabriel Faure. One highlight is certainly the new composition for soprano, cello and harp by Swiss composer Silvan Loher, whose delicate and impressionistic musical style fits wonderfully into this project. Soprano María Cristina Kiehr, born in Tandil, Argentina, is a specialist in "early music". The South American cellist Yolena Orea-Sanchez is a permanent member of the Basel Symphony Orchestra, as is the harpist Noll. She can be heard regularly at numerous European music festivals with the Trio Anthilia (violin, cello and piano), which she co-founded.

For the fourth solo album by pianist Élodie Vignon on Cypres, we have long been dreaming of a recording with orchestra! And so begins this fruitful collaboration with Eric Lederhandler, head of the Czech Virtuosi ensemble, of which he has been guest conductor for the past twenty years. Just as Élodie Vignon's first three albums which weave links between music and poetry, this one presents a unique programme, designed by Élodie and Eric to give pride of place to both orchestra and piano.

Manuel de Falla's Nuits dans les jardins d’Espagne quickly established itself as a masterpiece, combining finesse with the need to translate popular Spanish folklore with wit. They are an evocation of Andalusia, and more particularly of gypsy music. Gabriel Fauré's Ballade pour piano et orchestra adds a touch of French Romanticism to this programme.

Leader of the Finnish national school, Jean Sibelius appears here in two different guises through symphonic pieces, ranging from the most exalted Retour de Lemminkäinen to the most intimate of The Bard.

It was Diaghilev who persuaded Falla of the opportunity involved in making a great ballet from the material of "El Corregidor y la Molinera", not being satisfied with that farce which, moreover, delighted the public of his time. However, it should be emphasised, that the pantomime involved a formula particularly favoured by Falla as it was based on a silent performance, both in terms of dialogue and incident. Today we can return to “El corregidor y la molinera” not as a mere attempt at “El sombrero de tres picos”, but, from our own perspective, as a more faithful testimony to Falla’s proverbial wish, still outside the spectacular dimension of Massine and Diaghilev. Falla, on his side later separated “Le Tricorne” from its scenic nature by transforming the score into two orchestral “suites”, which gave birth to “El sombrero de tres picos” as a symphonic creature, without transitions and with a much less relevant vocal contribution. These “suites” are in fact the most widely disseminated and best-known version of the work.