When this Albeniz CD arrived for review I was expecting
a recording of his piano music not a recital of his thirty complete
songs. Although pleased to have the opportunity to hear his rarely heard
repertoire that I would not have normally come across, I was disappointed
by the quality of many of the songs and particularly by the singing
of the tenor Antonio Comas.
At the time of the recording Comas and the pianist
Mac McClure have enjoyed a 10 year partnership. In spite of this experience
it is the tenor who is unconvincing in this repertoire. However McClure
comes across as a fine pianist and plays forcefully yet in a most assured
manner.
Albeniz was the first significant composer of the Spanish
nationalist school and was particularly inspired by Andalusian folk
song which became a speciality. Outside Spain I’ll wager that few people
will have heard the songs of Albeniz who is almost exclusively known
for his brilliant and evocative solo piano music notably ‘Iberia’ and
‘Navarra’, several guitar works and a handful of orchestral compositions.
Half of the thirty complete songs presented here Albeniz
wrote as a result of a productive and fruitful collaboration in London
with the private banking heir, amateur playwright and poet Francis Burdett
Money-Coutts. The poems of Money-Coutts that Albeniz has set here show
him as more than a mere wordsmith and his verses I found to be most
impressive.
The early songs ‘Poems by Becquer’, ‘Barberine’s Song’
and ‘Six Intimate Ballads’ tend to feature the vocal line with only
sparse piano accompaniment. As Albeniz’s writing became more ambitious,
around the time of his collaboration with Money-Coutts, we hear a greater
diversity of harmonic richness for the voice and the piano takes a more
prominent role.
The Albeniz songs do create a certain feeling for the
composer’s individuality and resourcefulness. For the most part I found
the songs unmemorable, mainly salon in character, lacking in variety
and substance and clearly displaying that the composer’s best talents
lay outside writing for the voice.
Tenor Antonio Comas works reasonably well in the songs
in his native tongue but becomes far too heavily accented in the songs
with English words where his articulation presents difficulties on the
ear. His vocal timbre is quite distinctive, rich in colour and capable
of a large amount of intensity but often shrill and piercing (track
6 at 2:40-3:00). Comas displays a narrow vocal range and unfortunately
he often goes out of tune in the lower registers (track 7 at 0:20-3:00)
leaving some disturbing moments. Furthermore when strained his vibrato
becomes unsteady which can be most unpleasant (track 18 at 1:00-1:13)
and I feel that he is often lacking in interpretative expression.
The sound engineers have done a pretty good job providing
a bright and clear recording. However, the technical problems that I
have with Comas’ voice and his uninspiring performance in this relatively
unmemorable repertoire will not have me returning to this disc.
Michael Cookson
Antonio Comas (tenor) 
