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Carles Pons i Altés: Bolero para un Ángel
Francisco TÁRREGA (1852-1909)
Rosita [1:50]
Santiago de MURCIA (1682-1735)
Tarantelas y Fandango [4:44]
Mauricio Opazo MUÑOZ (b.1969)
Bolero para un Ángel [3:43]
Roland DYENS (b.1955)
Tango en Skaï [2:45]
Fernando SOR (1778-1839)
Souvenirs d'une soirée a Berlin [11 :52]
Anthony SYDNEY (b.1952)
Sonatina Portuguesa [6 :03]
Manuel López QUIROGA (1899-1988) arr. C. TREPAT
Romance de Valentía (Pasodoble), [4:04]
Isaac ALBÉNIZ (1860-1909)
Cádiz [4 :40]
Joaquín TURINA (1882-1949)
Fandanguillo [5:03]
Trad. arr. Emilio PUJOL (1886-1980)
El cant dels ocells [2:20]
Miguel LLOBET (1878-1938)
El testament d’Amelia [2:32]
Laurent BOUTROS (b.1965)
Les Echelles du Levant [4:25]
David QUALEY (b.1948)
One Time Swing [3:56]
Charles TRENET (1913-2001) arr. Roland DYENS (b.1955)
Revoir Paris
Carles Pons i Altés (guitar)
rec. no details given
SHEVA 009 [62:06]

 

This pleasing recital suffers from poor documentation. Normally I don’t moan about such things, especially when smaller companies put out discs that may be costly for them. Times are tough and all that. But whilst there are a few paragraphs about the guitarist and his photograph there’s nothing at all about the music. Again, if it was just Sor, Albéniz and Tárrega I’d be happy to extend sympathy but a lot here is unknown, and even guitar specialists will struggle to put a finger - or anything else - on the Romance de Valentía of Quiroga in this transcription by Trepat -and I suspect they will know equally little about Anthony Sydney’s Sonatina Portuguesa.

Grumble over. The programme is cannily selected. Rosita will invariably get one off to a good start with its rhythmic vivacity and with a roguish rallentando at the end. Carles Pons i Altés takes a quite laid-back approach to Turina’s FandaNguillo – invariably memories of Segovia’s evocative 1949 recording, so richly coloured, are not effaced. The piece that gives the disc its title is by Mauricio Opazo Muñoz, who was born in 1969. It’s an affectionate little piece – and another world premiere recording - contrasted immediately with the urgent tango of Roland Dyens.

The Anthony Sydney is a world premiere recording. Short though it the Preludio and Danza makes its mark ; the former by virtue of its warmth and delicacy and lullaby feel. I assume that the Quiroga was originally written for the composer’s own instrument, the violin. Bouncy and vivacious and very danceable it’s rather captivating. Laurent Boutros’s Les Echelles du Levant is another pleasingly lyric effusion and well contoured, with good colour in this performance. Albéniz’s Cadiz though finds the guitarist sounding considerably less natural in his rubati than, say, Julian Bream. The Pujol arranged El cant dels ocells rather lacks the colour and texture of more multi-variegated tonalists whilst El testament d’Amelia has a rather limited contrast between upper and lower strings.

It’s a pleasing recital then with venturesome potential, adeptly played.

Jonathan Woolf

see also review by Glyn Pursglove

 

 

 

 

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