The guitar is ideal for lyrical romanticism, and always has been in its long history. But its clarity and fluency of line also provide scope for contrapuntal complexity characterized in the baroque era by the master works of J.S. Bach. The intimate voice of the guitar lends itself to every epoch and within this selection we move from the eighteenth century to the Napoleonic period, and then to Francisco Tárrega, the high priest of guitar expressiveness, and, in the twentieth century, to the profoundly Italian inspiration of Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Also represented here are the elegant musical statements of a modern virtuoso, José María Gallardo del Rey, a contemporary guitarist/ composer. The richness of textures to be found throughout is truly remarkable, proving once again that a guitar is appropriate for all seasons and for so many varied moods and emotions.

Widely acclaimed for the subtle artistry of his playing, Pablo Garibay has won numerous international competitions including the JoAnn Falletta (USA), Julián Arcas (Spain), Manuel M. Ponce (Mexico), René Bartoli (France) and Gevelsberg (Germany). Scarlatti’s ‘soul-searching’ Sonata in D minor, K.213 reveals even more of its expressive poignancy when arranged for guitar, and other sublime works in this recital are closely associated with the great Andrés Segovia, who described Tarréga’s Capricho árabe as ‘especially suited to reach the chords of a feminine heart’.

Classical Music

This CD has been a long time coming, and dates back to the first time Paco Peña and Eliot Fisk ever met, when they performed separately at a now-defunct guitar festival in Germany, in September 1983. The disc does not pretend to be either pure flamenco or pure classical. Necessarily, the classical selections are colored by Paco’s flamenco sensibility just as the flamenco selections are colored by Eliot’s formation in the classical world. But that is exactly what is interesting! Paco finds things in classical music that would never occur to a classical player, and something analogous can be said of Eliot’s attempts to enter the mysterious temple of flamenco.

Tchaikovsky completed his last set of piano pieces about six months before his death. Each bears a dedication to a friend or colleague including distinguished musicians such as Paul Pabst, Vasily Sapelnikov and Vasily Safonov.

The Scarlatti family was famed across Europe, Alessandro for his operatic compositions and his son, Domenico, for his keyboard works. Employed by several royal families, Domenico moved to Madrid in 1728 following the marriage of his pupil, the Infanta Maria Barbara, to the heir to the Spanish throne. here, largely for her, he wrote a vast number of sonatas that remain amongst the most important of the eighteenth century. Duanduan Hao's previous recording for this series [8.572586 / Volume 14] was acclaimed by Classics Today. com for his 'crisp, well-poised finger work, centered sonority, and superb articulation [which] are ideal for Scarlatti'

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

NIN Danza Ibérica. Mensaje a Claudio Debussy. Cadena de valses. Canto de cuña para los huérfanos de España. “1830” Variations sobre un tema frivolo. 3 Danzas espa?olas • Martin Jones (pn) • NIMBUS 5851 (67:15)


Good to see a whole disc of the piano music of Joaquín Nin (1879–1949), issued as part of the Nimbus 5000 series. The pianist Martin Jones is well known as an intensely musical player, and so it is here. His articulation throughout is a model of clarity, his pedal work the result of much thought. This is immediately evident from the first piece here, Danza Ibérica (subtitled “In Seville on a May Night”), a bright, busy work that ends in decidedly exuberant fashion. The sultry central section is beautifully realized by Jones; elsewhere, active rhythms dance infectiously.


The Mensaje a Claudio Debussy (Message to Claude Debussy) of 1929 is a hugely successful tribute (Nin describes it as a boceto sinfónico , a symphonic sketch). Of course, Debussy was fascinated by Spanish music so the homage is remarkably apt. Jones is magnificent, as much in the cloudy, Impressionist mists as in the remarkable cadenza that the piece contains. Thematically, allusion is all. No direct quotes, but many shapes that point to familiar gestures from Debussy’s scores.


The Cadena de Valses (Chain of Waltzes) is subtitled “Evocación romántica.” Schubert lurks in the background (Schubert’s centenary was just around the corner at the date of composition, 1927). This, surely, is a masterpiece. There is a plethora of references, from Soler and Weber through Schubert and Granados. But it appears as all of a magnificently effective piece. Jones seems to have an authentic Spanish swing at his disposal as well as an ability to project large-scale form.


Moving forward a decade, the Canto de cuña para los huérfanos de España (Lullaby for the Orphans of Spain) of 1938 is a lament for children orphaned because of the civil war. This is a magnificently touching elegy, dark and harmonically complex. Jones ensures the end is almost unbearably touching. Perhaps the disc should have ended with this piece, as no matter how long the gap between pieces, it is too short.


Luckily, the variations that follow begin innocently and don’t make for too much of a shock. Dating from 1934, and from Paris, it is a superbly constructed piece that deserves more outings on the concert platform. Jones rises to the challenges perfectly (listen to the octaves of the first variation, or the deep flowing lyricism of the Schumannesque second). Jones also plays with a beautifully wistful touch when required.


Three dances composed in September and October 1938 complete the disc. The first is another “Danza Ibérica,” somewhat more stripped down than the example that opened the recital. It is followed by a “Danza Andaluza” (Nín claimed it to be based on an Andalusian song), on paper a study in repeated notes but in reality a tender statement of the utmost beauty. Finally, a “Danza Murciana,” alternating 6/8 and 3/4 meters (as well as major and minor modes).


Calum MacDonald’s booklet notes are exemplary. Competition is high in this music: Thomas Tirino on Koch was welcomed by Peter Rabinowitz in Fanfare 25:3; Nicholas Unwin on Centaur was no less enthusiastically rated by Lawrence Johnson in Fanfare 22:1. Yet Jones makes such a strong case, and is so well recorded with just the right amount of presence (at Wyastone, Monmouth, in 2007) that, while listening, it is difficult to imagine alternatives. And there can be no higher praise than that.


FANFARE: Colin Clarke


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Joaquín Nin is, perhaps, best rememberd as the father of composer Joaquin Nin–Culmell (Culmell was his mother’s maiden name) and writer Anaïs Nin, for his music, in Britain at least, is seldom, if ever, performed and he is but a name, if that, to music-lovers. It’s hard to see why he is so neglected for these works are highly colourful and full of pleasing, and entertaining, things. Like the music of Astor Piazzolla these pieces speak the musical language of the composer’s homeland, in this case Cuba, dominated by things Spanish, and, although slight, are well worth investigating.
 
After a rather breathless start, the first piece is a kind of more modern (harmonically and rhythmically) version of a piece from Albeniz’s Ibéria, Mensaje a Claudio Debussy. It comes as welcome relief. In general, it’s a slow, quiet, dance - at times it sounds like Constant Lambert - and it builds to an impressive climax but falls away again towards the end. This is a fine piece.
 
Cadena de valses is a set of waltzes, in the manner of Ravel’s Valses nobles et valses sentimentales, but without the variety of that masterwork. Nin’s work is pleasing but one would have welcomed some rest from time to time; it’s all a bit tiring. The gentle restraint of Canto de cuna para los huerfanos de España (Lullaby for the Orphans of Spain), a requiem for the children who had been left without parents after the Spanish Civil War, is a touching memorial which says more, in its simple way, than many a bigger and bolder work.
 
1830: variaciones sobre un tema frivolo, whilst firmly keeping one eye on the past, isn’t ignorant of the future, but as the frivolous theme is developed we hear many different voices including one which is terribly reminiscent of Michael Carr’s title music for television’s The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre! The similarity is so clear that one wonders if Carr knew the Nin work, for there’s no reason that he shouldn’t. The piece alternates virtuoso movements with slower, more relaxed ones. There’s a real virtuoso rush at the end which is quite delightful.
 
The final three pieces are dances of one kind or another. This is a very pleasant collection of, basically, light piano pieces, but there is a problem; the range of the music is very limited and as Jones plays them in the same way – what else can he do? – a sense of boredom sets in. The best thing to do is sample a couple of tracks at a time, for listening to the whole CD in one sitting will give you an unfavourable impression of the music, as it did me. Whilst Nin, on the strength of this music, is no lost master it’s very enjoyable stuff, and an interesting insight into what happened in Spanish piano music after Albeniz and Falla. The recording and notes are excellent.
 

-- Bob Briggs, MusicWeb International

Classical Music

Includes work(s) for pno by Federico Mompou. Soloist: Martin Jones.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Vladimir Feltsman, one of the most versatile and interesting musicians of our time, presents an insightful recital of famous and rarely heard works by Franz Liszt:

1 Liebesträume, No. 3 in A flat major (1850) 4.53
2 Ballade No. 2 in B minor (1853) 14.47
Six Consolations (1850) 16.20
3 I Andante con moto 1.11
4 II Un poco piu mosso 3.08
5 III Lento placido 4.01
6 IV Quasi adagio 2.31
7 V Andantino 2.37
8 VI Allegretto sempre cantabile 2.52
9 Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude (1853) 17.26
10 Berceuse in F sharp major (1876) 3.34
11 Elegia (1874) 5.19
12 La lugubre gondola (2nd version) (1885) 8.34
13 En rêve, nocturne (1886) 2.25

Total playing time 73.16

Classical Music

Classical Music

"I’m convinced that Perlemuter’s Ravel is the best of him in [his] Nimbus recordings, more even than the raft of Chopin performances. Miroirs is a delight; Noctuelles is full of evocative precision, and the poetic sensitivity he evinces is propelled with unselfconscious control in these early, 1973 recordings made in the studio. Textual control radiates outwards from these traversals. As for Gaspard there’s a total lack of fuss in Ondine – but the avoidance of artifice is a function of the poetic hauteur that gives such meaning to his playing. His Sonatine is crisp, the Valses animated by an especially witty Vif whilst Le Tombeau de Couperin moves with grace and deft accentuation, a notch slower than the BBC 1970 broadcast that has circulated. Seeking an analogue, this is the kind of pointillist playing George Copeland brought to Debussy, in contradistinction to Gieseking’s Turneresque wash; both wonderful but both very different. Perlemuter’s Ravel is a breath of fresh air."

-- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

A celebrated student of Beethoven, virtuoso pianist Ferdinand Ries established an innovative technical approach to the interpretation of the fortepiano. The decade he spent in London (1813-24) was his most successful. The majority of the variation sets, fantasies and rondos on this recording were composed then. The emergence of the new square pianos created a hunger for domestic music-making and Ries responded with catchy variations on popular themes and technically challenging fantasias that gave full rein to his musical imagination. They add another dimension to the appreciation of the man Robert Schumann praised for his "remarkable originality".

Includes work(s) by various composers. Soloist: Leonard Warren.