Ruby Hughes / Clara Mouriz / BBC Philharmonic / Juanjo Mena XAVIER MONTSALVATGE Orchestral Works

The four works recorded here usefully span Montsalvatge's long creative life and encompass different parts of his large and varied output while also providing a welcome opportunity to appreciate his stylistic progress over all these years.
Montsalvatge's idiom is clearly of its time and often embraces various influences without ever attempting at pastiche or parody. His global outlook is that of a composer happy to work within some well-meaning Neo-classicism often spiced with piquant dissonances and polytonality that sometimes bring Milhaud to mind. This is fairly clear in the Partita which earned him the 1958 Oscar Esplà Prize. The Partita as well as the Cincos Canciones Negras and the Calidoscopi simfònic also displays another characteristic of Montsalvatge's music at the time, i.e. the reliance on some exotic dance rhythms such as the habanera. The Partita is in four compact movements without any real connection between them. The Neo-classical tone of most of the music is still more evident at the close of the third movement when it nods (consciously or not) to the Gavotte from Prokofiev's First Symphony. This most attractive work ends with a joyful final, at times fugal movement that also includes a section for percussion alone.

Clara Mouriz / BBC Philharmonic / Juanjo Mena TURINA Danzas Fantásticas

This disc forms part of our ongoing Spanish Music series, performed by the BBC Philharmonic and its Chief Conductor, Juanjo Mena. Here the focus is on the orchestral works of the composer Joaquín Turina, one of the two leading Spanish composers of the twentieth century, the other being Manuel de Falla.

Turina was a prolific composer, who in his sixty-seven years wrote more than one hundred works, in which he explored a wide range of classical genres, from symphonic music, solo piano pieces, and vocal works to ballet scores and chamber music. Most of these show the influences of traditional Andalusian music and folk tunes, often conveying feelings of rapture and immense exaltation, while also owing a debt to a range of French composers.

Turina lived in Paris from 1905 to 1914, and during this time, while taking composition lessons from Vincent d’Indy and getting to know Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy, he absorbed certain aspects of the French style. These influences are particularly evident in Danzas fantásticas and Sinfonia sevillana. While both these works are heavily inspired by the sights and sounds of Turina’s native Seville, they also display hints of French impressionism, inevitably calling Debussy to mind.

Turina was as thrilled by the sound and style of Andalusian folk singers as he was by folksong itself, and in terms of his songs, Poema en forma de canciones (Poem in the form of songs), originally for voice and piano, is probably the best known work. Here, as in ‘Farruca’ from Triptico, the orchestra and conductor are joined by the Spanish mezzo soprano Clara Mouriz for truly idiomatic performances.

Ritmos (Rhythms) was written originally as a ballet, which never reached the stage; nevertheless it proved brilliantly effective in the concert hall. The score itself does not relate to any specific scenario, but follows a progression, which Turina himself described as ‘a gradual journey from darkness into light’.

The Saeta is the only work on this disc in which Turina completely steps away from the influences of folk tune-inspired Andalusian dance rhythms. This is a beautifully written devotional song ‘in the form of a Salutation to the Virgin of Hope’.

The Myrthen Ensemble SONGS TO THE MOON

This first recording from The Myrthen Ensemble is a 2-CD presentation of solo and group art songs inspired by the moon. The group was formed by pianist Joseph Middleton with a quartet of his regular vocal collaborators including Mary Bevan, Clara Mouriz, Allan Clayton and Marcus Farnsworth. Warlock, Barber and Maconchy contribute English-language art songs, which are used to introduce each disc. Brahms and Schumann fill the remainder of disc one. There are performances of individual distinction—Mouriz in Brahms’s Ständchen and Bevan in Schumann’s Mondnacht, for example. Were it not for a similar recording from Graham Johnson’s The Songmakers’ Almanac (Hyperion), then The Myrthen Ensemble would be without competition, but Johnson and company come out on top largely due to experience rather than any lack of musicality on the part of these newcomers. The second disc ranges across French-language solos and duets with a greater sense of nuance by Mompou, Hahn, Debussy, Massenet, Duparc, Fauré and Szulc. Clayton proves a useful tenor and Farnsworth a sonorous baritone;, they both complement Bevan and Mouriz with sensitivity. Joseph Middleton reinforces his reputation as the finest accompanist amongst younger generations, keenly realising the inferences that his part brings to the songs. Excellent sound, authoritative notes from Middleton and Richard Stokes, as well as texts and translations add to this rewarding nocturnal journey. Well worth exploring. (Classical Ear)