FEBRUARY 2019 | 2018 Anniversaries: A Retrospective CD Round-Up

FEBRUARY 2019 | 2018 Anniversaries: A Retrospective CD Round-Up

by RAY PICOT

2018 was another busy year for anniversaries and landmark birthdays, many of which were commemorated in our Echoes Festival. Here's a retrospective look back at some of last year's key names and CD releases.

Cuba

José White (1836-1918)
A leading musician and composer from Cuba in the second half of the 19th Century was the great violinist José (or Joseph) White, who is still affectionately remembered in Cuba for his delightful habanera La bella cubana. Unsurprisingly, he mainly wrote for the violin, and though there are few recordings of his major compositional success, the Violin Concerto in F sharp Minor of 1864 is really worth getting to know. The work is substantial, very well-written and virtuosic, with an easy-going charm. On a fascinating disc, Violin Concertos by Black Composers issued by Cedille, it is given a very sympathetic reading by Rachel Barton Pine. To quote the soloist, 'Chicago’s Center for Black Music Research led me to the 1864 Concerto in F sharp Minor by José White. Learning of this neglected masterpiece was a revelation. It is a major romantic concerto of the virtuosic Franco-Belgian school, similar to the concertos of Vieuxtemps and Wieniawski and just as melodically satisfying.' The album is worth tracking down, and is readily available to download or stream.

Argeliers León (1918-1991)
Argeliers León is particularly remembered as an illustrious intellectual, and specifically for his valuable work as a teacher, pedagogue and ethnomusicologist. He studied with Nadia Boulanger and in the 1940s was a founder member of Grupo de Renovación Musical, which served as a groundbreaking platform for the next generation of Cuban composers after the tragic loss of Amadeo Roldán and Alejandro García Carturla in 1939/40. A good deal of his music is strongly nationalistic in content but in the 1950s his music became more experimental, with an increasing interest in timbres. A very good example of his fascinating and very modern sounding style can be found in three pieces recorded by an excellent chamber ensemble for the Cuban label Egrem, entitled Contemporaneos 7. This will be hard to find on CD but enterprisingly has been released on iTunes.

Harold Gramatges (1918-2008)
Harold Gramatges was a most important figure in recent Cuban musical history, both as a composer and teacher. His initial studies were in Santiago de Cuba and Havana, before going to the United States, where at Berkshire Music Center he studied Composition and Conducting, respectively, with Aaron Copland and Serge Koussevitzky. After his return to Cuba, Gramatges returned to the Municipal Conservatoire of Havana, where he had initially studied, and founded its orchestra, which he directed. He is also recognised for his valuable work in transforming and developing musical education in Cuba. In 1961 and 1964, he was the Cuban Ambassador to France. His extensive catalogue of music is recognised as bridging the forms of contemporary classical music with the innovations of Cuba and Latin America. Once more his music is hard to find but rewarding when you do. There are three very good monographic releases: the first two from Egrem (the Cuban label) are Diseños ('Designs') covering chamber music played by various musicians; and Robert Urbay’s authoritative album, Harold Gramatges - obra completa para piano. Both albums offer a very good cross-section of his musical styles, from his neo-classical works of the 1950s to the more avant-garde soundings of the 1970s onwards. A really attractive collection of guitar music, played by different artists under the title La guitarra y yo ('The Guitar and Me') is easily found on iTunes, and shows there was much good guitar music being made in Cuba before Leo Brouwer. It is surprising that this idiomatically-written music has not found its way into guitarists' repertoire. There is also Móvil ('Mobile'), a more radical series of pieces for different ensemble groups, with no.s 1-4 collected together under the album title Mis versiones preferidas as part of Egrem’s series The Real Cuban Music. This is an important set of pieces for the composer, with some strong similarities, not least their uncompromising material, written coincidently about the same time as Carlos Chavez’s four Soli. Another release in Egrem’s series is a collection of songs (shared with Ninon Lima). On a lighter note, I recommend the delightful Serenata para cuerdas ('Serenade for String Orchestra') of 1947 played on Camerata Romeu’s engaging album Raigal ('Roots'), a celebration of Cuban music for strings, which is worth exploring in its own right. Gramatges was - no question - a major composer, and 100 years after his birth it is high time that his music was heard more widely.

Camerata Romeu and Roberto Valera (b1938)
Camerata Romeu was founded by the conductor Zenaida Romeu 25 years ago, as an all female string orchestra, based in Cuba. They have been releasing albums over this time, and I’ve counted at least 10 albums of mainly Cuban music which can be most easily streamed of downloaded with the best selection from iTunes. The quality off their playing confirms the chamber orchestra’s justified international acclaim, directed by their inspirational director. In addition to Raigal I would also recommend Non Divisi, a monographic recording of the 80-year-old Roberto Valera music for string orchestra. This offers a very good introduction to another very important Cuban composer from the latter half of the 20th Century. Professor Valera was Ms Romeu’s harmony and orchestral teacher, and the two have clearly developed a close rapport. This album represents an important collection of original and arranged music, much of which has been dedicated to the Camerata. The pieces collected offer an excellent variety of styles, with music of great dynamism and energy, to make this a most enjoyable and rewarding exploration of Valera’s music. Another well assembled cross-section of this fascinating composer, is on Egrem’s monographic Contemporaneos 6 which covers orchestral, instrumental and choral music. Iré a Santiago and Guaguancaglia, which are included, are important choral pieces which, according to Zenaida Romeu, represent a turning point in Cuban music for choirs, where Valera emulates the sound of percussion instruments vocally in a uniquely Cuban manner. These are captivating and joyous pieces and demonstrate this composer’s authentic style. Two more pieces can be found on an excellent exploration of Cuban choral music released by DGM, El canto quiere ser luz.

Portugal

Álvaro Cassuto (b1938)
The name, Álvaro Cassuto, will be familiar to those in this country as a conductor, principally of music by his Portuguese compatriots. At 80, Cassuto has achieved international recognition, directing a diverse repertoire, and holds important positions in his own country as well as having sojourns as guest-conductor for many international orchestras. In recent years he has undertaken major recording projects for Marco Polo and Naxos, to international acclaim, bringing to the fore quality recordings, orchestral and concertante music of Portugal’s most important composers, including Joly Braga Santos, Luís de Freitas Branco and Fernando Lopes-Graça. Writing about this often unfamiliar music, Cassuto is erudite and characteristically direct. Interestingly, he first made his name as a composer, and after studying composition from 1957 to 1959 with Lopes-Graça, he had premiered the first twelve-tone piece by a Portuguese composer. This contact with the older composer, which continued, impacted on what would become his peerless interpretations. Over the succeeding decades Cassuto changed his views on compositional style, in favour of what he describes as 'tonal revivalism'. His writing of music continued but, with an increasing demand as a conductor from the mid 1970s, he wrote a lot less. There is a single recording of his own orchestral music issued on Naxos, entitled Return to the Future which displays music of considerable individuality, in four orchestral pieces written between 1972 and 1986, including Visiting Friends, which has an attractive concertante part played by the pianist Antonio Rosado. The composer conducts the Royal Scottish National Orchestra on this enterprising release.

Sérgio Azevedo (b1968)
Celebrating his 50th birthday, Sérgio Azevedo is one of a growing band of current Portuguese composers who are making a name for themselves; less interested in avant-garde stylings, often drawing upon the folk music of the country, but not allowing this to dictate their style, which is increasingly tonally-based. Azevedo is as eloquent a writer about music as he is a composer, also writing brilliantly for children. I was astonished how much of his mainly instrumental output has been recorded, with 16 albums to which he contributes, listed on iTunes. An excellent introduction is through a monographic recording featuring an attractive combination of concertos and pieces for chamber orchestra. There are clear neo-classical overtones in this music, which is not in the least over-bearing. The Concerto for Two Violins combines Baroque forms and solo writing with modern string-orchestra writing, and is no pale Bachian imitation. The invention of the Guitar Concertino is utterly beguiling, and because the soloist is balanced against a chamber ensemble, the brilliant interchanges and exchanges, particularly with the wind instruments, draws the listener in, as if to a private conversation. The Divertimento and Serenata are quite different in character with dramatic, inventive and subtle string writing, making these both approachable and enjoyable. The Orquestra de Câmara de Cascais e Oeiras under Nikolay Lalov with fine soloists are on top form, and excellently recorded on this album released on the Portuguese label MPMP. Highly recommended.

Spain

Matilde Salvador i Sagarra (1918-2007)
We celebrate the centenary of the birth of the Valencian composer and painter, Matilde Salvador i Sagarra, whose brilliant originality as a songwriter really came to the fore after the death of her famous teacher and husband Vicente Asencio (1908-1979). Listening to the strength and quality of her writing, along with an innate understanding of the voice (she was a singer herself) leaves me at a loss to understand why her music does not have greater standing amongst international singers. In her native Valencia she continues to be celebrated, and we shall be publishing later this year a wonderful tribute by the accompanist Aurelio Viribay. She also wrote idiomatically for the guitar and the orchestra, though for the latter she professed to have had help from her husband. The best monographic albums are both to be found on the Spanish label Columna Música with L’amor somniat featuring José Ferrero (tenor) and Jaume Bartomeu (piano) and on Voces de otra orilla Isabel Monar (soprano) and Mac McClure (piano). These both boast a fine collection of songs and on both are very well presented by the performers, and also strongly recommended.

I would like to acknowledge Gustavo Corrales, Rachel Barton Pine and Zenaida Romeu for their helpful contributions.
 

 

 

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