A glorious disc of otherwise unavailable Rodrigo
works for various voices and orchestra which yet again gives the
lie to the idea of the great Spaniard as a classical "one hit
wonder". Marvellous as Aranjuez is, it is barely representative,
let alone definitive as regards the composer's complete oeuvre.
The only piece here I was in any way familiar with was the Retablo,
a set of Christmas carols and songs, excerpts from which appeared
on a BBC Music Magazine cover-mount disc a couple of years ago.
The settings are for soprano and bass with chorus and orchestra.
The overall feeling is of a slightly archaic, mildly melancholic,
pastoral theme - very typical for Rodrigo - of great beauty and
instant appeal all within a relatively spare, economical musical
environment. Here I cannot really disagree with Naxos's view that,
in his choral works, Rodrigo combines "simple earthy folksong
with a deep and devout sense of spirituality". I would also say
that A la Chiribirivuela and A la Clavelina are
songs of total celebration that simply beg to be heard.
Elsewhere, Rodrigo demonstrates his depth and
breadth of vision and his ability to think a great deal more laterally
than the average 20th century composer. On the last
issue in this superb series, itself a sub-series of the indispensible
‘Spanish Classics’, In Search of What Lies Beyond, dedicated
to NASA, displayed an inspiration, if not quite a radicalism,
worthy of a Messiaen. This profound searching spirit is reprised
with the remarkable Hymns of the Neophytes of Qumran, the
texts being adapted from the Dead Sea Scrolls. This music is probably
as ascetic and avant-garde (nonophony, anyone?) as this composer
gets. It is still fascinatingly accessible, among the ancient
sounding bells, windchimes(?) and the like. Listening to it is
like eavesdropping on an ancient ritual (surely what the composer
intended) but with an energy and dynamic that seems somewhat more
urgent than is associated with the likes of Tavener and Pärt.
The uninitiated might well imagine that this piece is by someone
similar.
The Music for a Salamancan Codex is quite
possibly the best of the lot, with folk and renaissance influences
blending perfectly to create eleven minutes of pure magic. It
is like Paul Hillier's Proensa and the soundtrack to a
biblical epic, maybe El Cid, fused together but played
and sung by chamber forces; escapist in some ways but some of
the choral climaxes could almost be from VW or Dyson. Wonderful
stuff! The following and concluding Canticle is also outstanding
but more austere, revisiting Qumran in some of its percussive
textures. Although in no way as intimidating to the uninitiated,
the parallel with Olivier Messiaen is again obvious. This is found
not just in the devotional subject matter but in a profound willingness
to go against the cultural, or at least the artistic grain, in
a genuine and public musical affirmation of faith in an age of
doubt and unbelief. Rodrigo may not have been a revolutionary
but, on this evidence and the rest of the Naxos series, he deserves
and should command respect from a far wider audience than his
equivalent of Holst's Planets seems to pigeon-holed him
with.
Neil Horner
Raquel Lojendio,
soprano * 
