Spanish Romances (2CD)

When Pilar Lorengar died, a little over 20 years ago, at the age of 68 in her adopted city of Berlin, the tributes were unanimous for "one of the most beautiful voices heard in the post-war era" (The Independent). She had grown up in Zaragoza, and always treasured her introduction to the musical stage, practically as an infant, in a zarzuela troupe. Thus she learnt how to hold a stage, deliver a line and captivate an audience almost with her mother’s milk.

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Those lyric-dramatic qualities distinguish the two albums compiled here. Issued originally on a DG Archiv LP, new to CD and freshly remastered are the Spanish ballads on CD1, arranged by the guitarist Siegfried Behrend for himself and Lorengar. These are vivid musical postcards, variously pastoral, sacred or vernacular in tone, with melodies which have become well-known in other contexts such as Falla’s Siete canciones populares españolas and his Harpsichord Concerto. Complementing the folksongs is a genuine Handelian rarity: No se emenderá jamás, an early cantata with an original Spanish text, where Lorengar and Behrend are joined by the gambist Richard Klemm.
 
A decade on from the album of folksongs, Lorengar had become a Decca artist, making delightful contributions to complete opera sets such as Mozart’s Così fan tutte and Die Zauberflöte (conducted by Solti). With the label’s ‘house’ Spanish pianist, Alicia de Larrocha, she recorded an album of tonadillas by Granados in which native wit and warmth shines from every bar, responsive to every quick turn of emotion. Reflecting in 2003 on her career as a whole, Max Loppert in Opera noted this distinctive quality: "I cannot think of another soprano of the period who could so freely soar and be plangently affecting at one and the same moment."

TRACK LIST

CD 1
1. MILÁN: Romanze ‘Durandarte’
2. ANONYMOUS: Tres morillas m’enamoran
3. MILARTE: A la sombra de mis cabellos
4. DAZA: Enfermo estaba Antioco
5. PISADOR: Guarte el Rey Don Sancho
6. BERMUDA: Mira Nero
7. VASQUEZ: De los álamos vengo
8. MUDARRA: Isabel, perdiste la tu faxa
9. NARVÁEZ: Con qué la lavare
10. HANDEL: No se emenderá jamás
Nine Spanish Folk Songs
11. Zorongo
12. Las tres hojas
13. El café de chinitas
14. Anda, jaleo
15. Los cuatro muleros
16. Los reyes de la baraja
17. Romance de Don Boiso
18. Los pelegrinitos

19. La tarara

CD 2
GRANADOS
Tonadillas en estilo antiguo
1. La maja de Goya
2. Amor y odio
3. El tra-la-la y el punteado
4. El majo olvidado
5. El majo tímido
6. Callejeo
7. El mirar de la maja
8. Las currutacas modestas
9. El majo discreto
10. La maja dolorosa 1
11. La maja dolorosa 2
12. La maja dolorosa 3
 
Colección de canciónes amatorias
13. Mira que soy niña
14. Iban al pinar
15. Mañanica era
16. No lloreís, ojuelos
17. Llorad, corazón
18. Gracia mía
 
Pilar Lorengar, soprano
Siegfried Behrend, guitar (CD 1)
Alicia de Larrocha, piano (CD 2)
 
*CD1: FIRST RELEASE ON CD