This is the latest album in the ongoing series of Spanish orchestral music with the BBC Philharmonic under Juanjo Mena, and Mena’s second featuring the works by Joaquín Turina, one of the leading Spanish composers of his generation.

The works recorded here are filled with the inspiration which Turina found in his native Andalusia and particularly the city of Seville. La procesión del Rocío, his first orchestral work, was inspired by memories of a procession held in the gypsy quarter of Seville and is filled with lively dance rhythms. Canto a Sevilla, a song cycle with orchestra, is a heartfelt tribute to Seville and its culture, taking on themes such as the vibrant Easter Procession, Seville’s beautiful ornamental fountains, and even a ghost that haunts the streets at night. Danzas gitanas, a collection of Andalusian gypsy dances, introduces a nocturnal atmosphere into a style normally characterized by bright orchestral colours and extravagant rhythmic intricacies. The Rapsodia sinfónica, one of his last works, represents a more mature, reflective composer. The use of piano and string orchestra limits the available palette of colours, Turina instead deciding to focus on the intimate relationship between the ensemble and soloist, a role here filled by Martin Roscoe.

These thoroughly sympathetic performances are well played, energetic, and colourful; they benefit from Chandos’s lush recorded sound.

- Fanfare

María Espada adds a luminous glow to this homage to Seville in all its mystery and magic, exuberance and eerie phantasms.

- Gramophone