This
is the second volume of Blancafort's
piano music to be issued on the Naxos
label. Volume
1 covers his earliest output and
received a warm welcome on this website.
The works on the present CD are still
those of a young man but are, as the
notes say, "the last in a series of
piano miniatures". Blancafort, who did
not have a formal training as a pianist,
had served his apprenticeship and moved
on to larger forms. His later works
include two string quartets, piano concertos
and a cantata Virgo Maria. A
larger piano work, El Parc d'Atraccions
was premiered by Ricardo Viñes
in Paris.
Blancafort
shared Catalan ethnicity, extreme longevity
and the influence of French composers
- Fauré, Debussy, Ravel - with
his exact contemporary Frederic Mompou.
And, a few bars in, their music sounds
similar too. But not for long; both
the style and atmosphere differ a great
deal. Volume 1 in Naxos's Mompou series,
played by the excellent Jordi Maso (Naxos
8.554332), includes a work from the
period under discussion; in Charmes,
we hear more advanced harmonies, a freer
style and extensive use of ostinati.
But
there is also a big difference in the
emotional ambience. Where Mompou's music
in Charmes is serene and confident,
albeit in a quiet sort of way, what
I hear all the time in Blancafort is
his "incomprehensible sadness" referred
to in the notes. Even in the most apparently
lively of pieces (and liveliness never
lasts long in Blancafort), there is
an undercurrent of melancholy. The fact
that the sadness was with him since
childhood suggests depression which
seems to imbue almost all the pieces
on this CD with a tearful quality which
is reinforced by such epigraphic titles
as ‘Bitterly bemoaning my lot’, the
fifth of the Cants Intims. These
are the most explicit and painfully
introspective works on the CD but even
the Jocs I danses al camp (Country
Games and Dances), ostensibly more playful,
never lose the core of melancholy.
The Cants
Intims ,with
highly personal titles reminiscent of
Janáček’s
On an Overgrown Path, seem
to reflect a personal, inward way of
dealing with depressive feeling, bringing
to mind Chopin’s "What's
this? Tears? How long it is since they
flowed! How is this, seeing that an
arid melancholy has held me for so long
in its grip? How good it feels - and
sorrowful. Sad but kindly tears! What
a strange emotion! Sad but blessed.
It is not good for one to be sad, and
yet how pleasant it is - a strange state..."
Not
everyone will find the same emotional
qualities as I and may even be able
to listen to the whole CD in one sitting
which I was quite unable to do. However,
that same comment might well apply to
whole discs of pieces by much more famous
composers. Individually, the pieces
are beautiful miniatures, deserving
of wide hearing and more frequent programming
in mixed recitals. They are most sensitively
played on this CD by Villaba who catches
their spirit perfectly.
I look
forward to Naxos continuing the Blancafort
series to El Parc d'Atraccions
which was an immediate success in Paris
where his music was very fashionable
in the happy twenties. In the meantime,
this CD may be enjoyed for its own singular
virtues.
Roger
Blackburn
Miquel Villaba (piano) 
