MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


 REVIEW
 RECORDING OF THE MONTH


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: AmazonUK AmazonUS
Download: Classicsonline


Garcia ABRIL (b. 1933)
Madre Asturias: A Collection of Asturian Songs [53:40] (Vaquerias, Non te pares a mia puerta, Ayer vite na fonte, Tengo de subir al Puerto, Yo no soy mariner, Ella Ilorba por mi, El Naranjo de Bulnes, No Ilores nina no Ilores, Una estrella se perdio, Duermete nenu, El canto del urogallo, Hasta los naranjales han florecido, Adios xana, Madre Asturias)
Joaquin Pixan (tenor); Rosa Torres-Pardo (piano)
rec. Monasterio de Corias, Cangas del Naarcea, Asturias Spain*, Palacio del Marques de Casa Estrada, Bimenes, Asturias Spain+, *August 2007 and +October 2007. DDD
Texts and translations unavailable due to copyright reasons.
NAXOS 8.572073 [53:40]
Experience Classicsonline

The Spanish composer Anton Garcia Abril certainly boasts an interesting and varied academic background. He studied initially at the Madrid Royal Conservatory and subsequently at the Academia Chigiana in Sienna, where his teachers included the conductor Paul van Kempen. This was in the early/mid-fifties. Later, in 1964, he returned to Italy and the Academia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, as a scholarship student, which included classes with Goffredo Petrassi.

Whilst writing in a number of genres including opera, the musical folklore of the Asturias region has been an abiding thread through his career. Having composed “Three Asturian Songs” for a capella chorus in 1982 he followed these up two years later with a series of “Fourteen Asturian Songs”, written as part of a major project “Lirica Asturiana” (Asturian Lyricism). Originally written for the tenor Joaquin Pixan (the soloist on the present disc) and orchestra, the songs were recorded by CBS with Lopez-Cobos and the London Philharmonic Orchestra soon afterward.

In 2004 however the process was taken a step further. Whilst the new “Coleccion de canciones asturianas” (Collection of Asturian Songs) is drawn directly from the previous work, the accompaniment is now for piano. The result is more than simply a reduction. Instead it is, in the words of the sleeve-note writer Ramon Avello, “a sort of re-examination”; a dialogue of “...imaginary folklore, in the pianistic conception, and direct data, or real folklore, in the vocal line..” In other words the vocal line essentially follows the original folk melody whilst the accompaniment exhibits a more interventionist approach: “The piano not only takes up the melody, but also re-creates it, evokes it, frames it and projects it with lyricism, fantasy and freedom.” The results I found spellbinding.

Whether it’s the seductive lilt of “Una Estrella se perdido” (A star was lost), with its gentle introduction of subtle “wrong note” figures in the treble of the piano part; or the descending right hand figuration in the opening measures of the succeeding lullaby (Duermente, nenu - Go to sleep my boy) ... which for all the world sounded like little falling stars - I was completely hooked.

Full marks to the performers. Señor Pixan, clearly somewhat more “mature” now than in the earlier CBS issue, nevertheless still possesses a very attractive lyric tenor, with few worn edges and plenty of warmth throughout the register. Rosa Torres-Pardo meanwhile is an admirable partner.

Indeed the only possible drawback I can point to is the lack of texts, which would have been a bonus, but at least their omission is for a genuine reason, and Ramon Avello does give a brief synopsis of each song.

Gentle reader, I have been a MusicWeb reviewer for a couple of years now, and whilst not among its most prolific contributors, I have nevertheless covered a significant number of recordings in that time. Not only has this issue been a considerable discovery - an increasing rarity in itself considering the onward march of Father Time - but it’s also the most sheerly enjoyable CD I have considered so far.

To this end it has returned to the tray of my CD player more frequently than any other review copy I can recall. Indeed ... it is there now as I write, with the sounds of Pixan’s plaintive tenor bidding farewell to his beloved water nymph (Adios, xana) ... and it sounds ... marvellous! To paraphrase a famous quote: “Hats off Gentlemen, a winner!”

Ian Bailey 

 
 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.