CONTEMPORARY SPANISH CHAMBER MUSIC
CASABLANCAS; GUZMAN; PLADEVALL; CASAS; GUINJOAN
Chamber Orchestra Works
London Sinfonietta/Edmon
Colomer
Ensayo Perspectives
ENY-2001 [50.05]
no on-line sales links Ensayo
This is an attractive collection, apparently of fairly recent Spanish music
from the Barcelona area, but I am hesitant because the documentation is sparse
in the extreme, with no information about the composers nor dates of their
works.
It was recorded by that excellent engineer Tryggvi Tryggvason in London,
September 1997, and performed in various combinations by the 11-strong core
team of the London Sinfonietta. Joan Guinjoan, b. 1931 and represented here
by his single movement Self-parafrasis for piano quintet, is a well
loved elder statesman of the Barcelona fraternity. The other composers were
all born in the mid -50s.
The New Epigrams by Benet Casablancas, Josep Lluis Guzman's If
I have offended you, Pere Casas's four pieces for eleven instruments
and Josep Maria Pladevall's Cadenza for cello (Timothy Gill) with
ensemble all require the full complement of eleven players. Apart from Guinjoan,
Casablancas alone gets a mention in the rather comprehensive survey by Tomas
Marco Spanish Music in the Twentieth Century (publ. Harvard).
It is a pity not to know more about the genesis of this CD, but there is
plenty of accessible, enjoyable music for listeners curious about the Spanish
scene, which remains relatively obscure in UK.
Reviewer
Peter Grahame Woolf
See also PGW's survey of
Spanish contemporary music
presented at last year's Musica Festival in Strasbourg.
