95095
Nana Spanish Lullabies Spanische Wiegenlieder
Carmen Solis soprano Eduardo Moreno piano
“A few years ago, I was wandering through the outskirts of Granada when I heard a village woman singing her child to sleep. I had always been struck by the intense sadness of our country’s lullabies, but never had I felt it quite as viscerally as I did at that moment. As I approached the singer with a view to noting down her song, I saw that she was a cheerful, attractive Andalusian woman, not melancholy in any way; nevertheless, a living tradition was at work within her and she was faithfully obeying its dictates, as if she were listening to ancient and imperious voices flowing through her veins. Ever since then, I have tried to collect lullabies from every part of Spain; I wanted to know how the mothers of my country sang their children to sleep, and after a while I began to feel that Spain uses her melodies to colour her children’s early slumber … A mother needs words to keep her child’s attention and, rather than singing only about light-hearted things as he falls asleep, she wants to alert him to the harsh realities of life and, gradually, to imbue him with all the drama of the world. The lyrics of our lullabies, therefore, go against the tranquil flow of the river of sleep. They stir up a child’s emotions and fill him with uncertainty or terror, leaving the hazy hand of the melody to stroke and tame the little horses that rear up and prance around in his eyes.” Federico García Lorca: Lecture on Spanish Lullabies, 1928 The two pieces on this album by Manuel de Falla (1876–1946) bear witness to the composer’s mastery at writing for voice and piano. Both are taken from the Siete canciones populares españolas (Seven Spanish Folk Songs), composed in 1914 and dedicated to Ida Godebska. Nana is a simple folk tune of disputed origins, whose pared-down, almost metronomic accompaniment uses minimal means to construct what is nevertheless a fascinating harmonic structure. Falla 2
had been living in Paris for some years, but returned to Spain in 1914, following the outbreak of war. Oración de las madres que tienen a sus hijos en brazos, written in Madrid soon after his return, sets an anti-war text by María Lejárraga (1874–1974). Xavier Montsalvatge (1912–2002) wrote his Cinco canciones negras (Five Black Songs) in 1945, during what biographers and musicologists have dubbed his “West Indian” phase. In them he uses a variety of exotic rhythms to create a subtle and expressive synthesis of different ethnic styles. The Canción de cuna para dormir a un negrito, whose text is by Uruguayan poet Ildefonso Pereda Valdés (1899–1996), is delightfully evocative, with its chromaticisms, habanera rhythm and jazz-like swing all blended together to perfection. Cantarcillo is a gem of Spanish music that combines the genius of playwright and poet Lope de Vega (1562–1635), whose carol Pues andáis entre palmas it sets, and the rich talents of Catalan composer Eduard Toldrà (1895–1962). Brimming with melodic and harmonic charm, it was written in 1941 and is one of a set of six songs setting works by classical Spanish poets. In 1965, Joaquín Rodrigo (1901–99) wrote his Cuatro canciones sefardíes (Four Sephardic Songs), adapting both music and lyrics from an anthology of fifteenth-century Judeo-Spanish songs collated by Isaac Levy (Chants judéoespagnols, 1959). In the case of Nani, nani, Rodrigo made only minor changes to the original melody. Corderito blanco, one of his Dos canciones para cantar a los niños (Two Songs to Sing to Children), was written a few years later, in 1973; its anonymous text was adapted by Rodrigo’s wife, the Turkish pianist Victoria Kamhi (as was that of Nani, nani). Nana de primavera is the first of the Deux Berceuses (Two Lullabies) and was written and first performed in 1928. Antón García Abril (b.1933), one of the greatest exponents of Spanish songwriting, wrote his Tres nanas (Three Lullabies: Nana de la cigüeña, Nana de la negra flor and Nana del niño malo) in 1961, taking the texts 3
from a collection of poems by Rafael Alberti (1902–99) entitled Marinero en tierra (Sailor on Dry Land, 1924). Text and music together recreate a child’s imaginative world with lyrical simplicity. Ernesto Halffter (1905–89), a member of the group of artists known as the Generation of ’27, was a man of exceptional creative genius. His piano piece Lullaby is part of Crepúsculos (Twilights), an early work which he wrote between 1920 and 1921 and revised in 1936. La mujer del héroe (The Hero’s Wife), a play by Gregorio Martínez Sierra (1881–1947) and his wife María Lejárraga, was first staged in 1914. An adaptation two years later saw the addition of musical numbers by Joaquín Turina (1882–1942), one of which was Canción de cuna, a piece which defies our expectations in terms of the dynamics and vocal range we might ordinarily associate with a lullaby. Berceuse, from Turina’s Niñerías, op.21 (Children’s Games), is a piano piece dedicated to his children. It was written in 1919 and published in 1928. The art song was a key part of the output of Argentinian composer Carlos Guastavino (1912–2000). Nana del niño malo is the fourth in his cycle Siete canciones sobre poesías de Rafael Alberti (Seven Songs on Poems by Rafael Alberti, 1946). It dates from a relatively early stage in his career and is clearly influenced by French music. Guastavino grew up in a musical family, and the folk music he heard in his youth undoubtedly inspired the Seis canciones de cuna (Six Lullabies), written in 1945 to texts by Gabriela Mistral (1889–1957), a collection to which belong Encantamiento, Meciendo and Rocío. Guastavino’s fellow-countryman Alberto Ginastera (1916–83) divided his catalogue into three stylistic phases. The Cinco canciones populares argentinas, op.10 (Five Argentinian Folk Songs, 1943) belong to the first of these, which he dubbed “objective nationalism”. They display an overtly folk-based nationalism, 4
Ginastera also introducing certain more avant-garde timbres and rhythms, in which the influences of Falla, Bartók and Stravinsky are discernible. His adaptation of Arrorró is, of the five pieces, the one that remains closest to the rhythm, melody and text documented in the original folk sources. Nana de Sevilla, part of the Cantares populares cycle whose songs, according to the score, were “collected and arranged” by Federico García Lorca (1898– 1936), illustrates the above-quoted point made by the poet about the contrast frequently to be found in Spanish lullabies between a disturbing lyric and a soothing melody. Lorca’s arrangement, with its echoes of flamenco, is clearly inspired by Andalusian folk music. The Madrid-born composer Federico Moreno Torroba (1891–1982) is known today for his zarzuelas and, to a lesser degree, for his songs for voice and piano or orchestral accompaniment. Far removed from the twentieth-century avant-garde, his songs are traditional and distinctly Spanish in character, employing lyrical melodies and tonal harmonies. Ea, la nana is a folk song from Extremadura, recorded in the Cancionero popular de Extremadura collated by Bonifacio Gil in 1931. Torroba’s version is included in the second volume of his Canciones españolas (Spanish Songs, 1956). Both Nana del niño malo by Guillermo Alonso Iriarte and Nana de la lejanía by Jorge Montero were written especially for this album and are therefore world premiere recordings. © Víctor Sordo Translation by Susannah Howe
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Carmen Solís (soprano) Soprano Carmen Solís was born in the Spanish city of Badajoz and studied piano before focusing on singing with María Coronada Herrera and choral music with Carmelo Solís. Since then she has also worked with such leading musicians as Teresa de Berganza, Peter Philips, Fernando Eldoro, Graham O’Reilly, Owen Rees, Ricardo Requejo, Tamara Brooks, Kevin Smith, Francisco Rodilla, Daniel Vega, Jordi Casas and Alonso Gómez Gallego, among others. She has appeared in Germany, Italy, France, Croatia, Portugal and Canada, as well as at the leading venues in her native Spain, including Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional, Teatro Real and Teatro Monumental, Seville’s Teatro de la Maestranza, Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu and Palau de la Música, Oviedo’s Teatro Campoamor, the Palacio Euskalduna, Teatro Campos Elíseos and Teatro Arriaga in Bilbao, Teatro Gayarre in Pamplona, the Auditorio de Palma, and the Auditorio de Zaragoza. Carmen Solís has performed with Al Ayre Español, the Spanish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra (ORTVE), Orquesta Clásica Santa Cecilia, the Orchestras of the Teatro Real and Gran Teatre del Liceu, Symphony Orchestras of Navarre, Vallés, Extremadura, Castilla y León and the Balearic Isles, Orquesta 6
Sinfónica Verum, Orquesta del principado de Asturias and Orquesta Ciudad de Granada; Orchestra della Toscana; Orchestra of the Croatian National Theatre, Zagreb; and Orchestra of the Opéra de Québec. She has worked with such eminent conductors as Plácido Domingo, Thomas Sanderling, Pedro Halffter, Daniel Lipton, Adrian Leaper, José Luis Temes, Antoni Ros Marbà, Oliver Díaz, José Miguel Pérez Sierra, Nikša Bareza, Julian Kovatchev, Rubén Jimeno, Paolo Arrivabeni, Guerassim Voronkov, Eduardo López Banzo, Manuel Coves, Miguel Romea, and stage directors such as Emilio Sagi, Andrejs Zagars, Curro Carreres, Nacho García and Gilbert Defló. She has taken part in some of Europe’s leading festivals and concert cycles, accompanied by pianists such as Lucjan Luc, Rubén Fernández Aguirre, Eduardo Moreno, Víctor Sordo, Andrea Severi, Carlo Bernini and Ricardo Estrada, and has won prizes at the Manuel Ausensi, Villa de Abarán, Nuevas Voces Ciudad de Sevilla, Operalia, Francisco Viñas, José A. Alegría and Logroño International singing competitions, as well as the “Luciana Pardini” silver plate awarded by the Circolo Amici della Musica Alfredo Catalani in Lucca. She has recorded a CD of zarzuela excerpts with tenor Manuel Sirera, the ORTVE and Adrian Leaper, for the RTVE label, as well as an album of contemporary music with Ensemble XX-XXI. She divides her time equally between oratorio, song and opera – in the latter arena her roles include Leonora (Il trovatore), Tosca, Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana), Madame Butterfly, Mimì (La Bohème), Amelia (Un ballo in maschera), the Countess (Le nozze di Figaro), Suor Angelica, a Fury (Orfeo ed Euridice), Aurora (La del Soto del Parral), Luisa Fernanda and Reyes (Entre Sevilla y Triana).
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Eduardo Moreno (piano) Pianist Eduardo Moreno began his musical education at the age of nine at the Conservatory of Almendralejo (Extremadura), where he studied under Juan Antonio Grillo and won the end of course prize. He then went on to the Conservatory of Badajoz, studying with Alexander Kandelaki and graduating with highest honours. He was also advised by leading teachers such as Nino Kereselidze, Claudio Martínez Mehner, Jeffrey Swann and Emanuel Krasovsky, and studied at postgraduate level with Vadim Sukhanov at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich. He has performed at prestigious venues and festivals in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Germany, including the Sala María Cristina in Málaga, Palácio da Bolsa in Porto, Arthur-Rubinstein-Saal (Steinway-Haus) in Munich, Córdoba’s Ciudad de Lucena Festival and the Festival Dino Ciani in Cortina d’Ampezzo, working with orchestras such as the Chicago Midwest Youth Orchestra and Camerata Extrema (made up of players from the Orquesta de Extremadura). His awards include the regional Ciudad de Almendralejo and Promúsica 2000 (Badajoz) prizes; first prize and a special prize for musicality at the Marisa Montiel Piano Competition in Linares (Jaén, 2004); second prize at the Infanta Cristina Piano Competition in Madrid (also 2004), which led to the chance to 8
perform at the Hamburg Steinway Festival; first prize at the Ciutat de Carlet International Piano Competition (Valencia, 2005); and second prize at the Ciudad de la Línea National Piano Competition (2008). One of the most significant aspects of his career in recent years has been his ongoing work with soprano Carmen Solís, whom he has accompanied in recital and at festivals such as Seville’s Las Noches en los Jardines del Real Alcázar. As a very experienced accompanist, he has given masterclasses with leading teachers such as Igor Malinovsky (violin), Daniel Grosgurin (cello) and Jean-Marie Londeix (saxophone), and is currently staff accompanist for the strings and woodwind/percussion departments at the Conservatory of Badajoz.
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Zsuzsanna Brezovai (cello) Hungarian cellist Zsuzsanna Brezovai graduated with highest honours from the Music Faculty of the University of Szeged. She has also taken part in masterclasses with Márta Gulyás, Alexander Baillie and Lluís Claret. In 2004 she and her accompanist, with whom she has also given recitals in Prague, Budapest and Szeged, won the special jury prize at the National Chamber Music Competition in Debrecen (Hungary). While still a student she worked with the Szeged Symphony Orchestra, and she began her professional career as a cellist in the Dohnányi Orchestra of Budapest. In 2009 she moved to Spain, after being awarded a grant by the Orquesta de la Academia del Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. She has also been a member of the Portuguese Orquestra Clássica do Sul, and currently works on a regular basis with both the Orquesta de Extremadura and the Orquesta Nacional de España.
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Sincere thanks are due to the following people: Pilar Ordoñez at the Centro de arte Matisse, for allowing us to record there, and for her generous support; Jorge Montero and Guillermo Alonso Iriarte, for two wonderful new compositions; María Coronada Herrera, for her wisdom, warmth and humanity; Evaristo Valentí, for his patience and expertise, and for his laughter and friendship; Zsuzsanna Brezovai, for playing a small but absolutely vital role in our musicmaking; and Marta and Raquel, for their advice and support, and for always being there. This album is dedicated to the person who inspired it – my son Marco, who continues to inspire me each and every day.
Recording: 17–19 January 2014, Sala Cristóbal de Morales, Centro de arte Matisse, San Lorenzo de El Escorial Producers: Carmen Solís and Víctor Sordo Sound engineer: Evaristo Valentí Recording assistant: Víctor Sordo Photos: Víctor Sordo P & © 2015 Brilliant Classics 11