courtesy of PIAS
I am sure that all regular readers have their own regrets about performances they missed as a result of cancellations of performing arts events due to COVID-19. However, in the process of trying to make the best of a bad situation, I was able to listen to a recording that accounted for one of the recitals I had most anticipated. This was the last of the four programs to be presented by San Francisco Performances (SFP) in its Great Artists and Ensembles Series.
This particular recital would have served for violist Tabea Zimmermann to make her San Francisco debut. She was to have performed with pianist Javier Perianes, who had given a solo SFP recital in May of 2017 and had made his San Francisco debut in June of 2015 with the San Francisco Symphony under the baton of Charles Dutoit in a performance of Manuel de Falla’s “Nights in the Gardens of Spain.” Fortunately, much of the program that Zimmermann and Perianes had prepared was to serve as a “preview” for an album they had recorded for harmonia mundi entitled Cantilena.
This album was scheduled for release this coming Friday, April 17. As of this writing, it appears that the release will still take place; however, because Amazon is currently trying to limit its physical shipments, the album will only be available for digital download. As expected, the album may be pre-ordered. Current conditions are that two of the tracks are currently available. The pre-order will consist of paying for those two tracks when the order is placed and then paying the remaining balance once the full album is available. The only indication of a physical release I have encountered to date comes from Presto Music, based in the United Kingdom; and its release date is not until May 8.
As may be guessed from the title, the entire content of this album draws upon Iberian sources. Seven composers from both Europe and South America are represented, and the music by six of them has been either transcribed or arranged. The only composition to be performed as originally written is on the opening track, Astor Piazzolla’s “Le Grand Tango.” This was composed for cello and piano and dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich; but, because the viola strings are tuned to the same pitches as those of the cello, the cello part can be played on viola, sounding an octave higher. I have to confess that, where this piece is concerned, my heart still belongs to Rostropovich. Zimmermann’s account captured many of Piazzolla’s passionate gestures, but Rostropovich’s account came across as gutsier and less inhibited.
That said, I certainly cannot complain about how the remaining six composers on this album were treated. This was particularly the case for the compositions by Xavier Montsalvatge and Enrique Granados, which were jointly transcribed by violist Kim Kashkashian and pianist Robert Levin. Both of these were originally vocal compositions, the five “canciones negras” (black songs) that Montsalvatge composed for mezzo and orchestra and four of the songs for voice and piano that Granados collected in his Tonadillas al estilo antiguo. In both of these sets, Zimmermann plays with an awareness of the vocal qualities of the music that is likely to satisfy those familiar with the original sources.
Almost all of the other arrangements were also originally written for voice. The best known of these are Manuel de Falla’s Siete canciones populares españolas (seven Spanish folksongs) and “Ária (Cantilena),” the first of the two movements of the fifth of Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras compositions. Both of these works have held up to any number of different approaches to arrangements. (I am still trying as hard as I can to forget the recording made by Johnny Mathis!) On the other hand Zimmermann’s own transcriptions of four songs for voice and piano by Pablo Casals are likely to be unfamiliar to most listeners, presenting a side of the master cellist that gets almost no attention. Finally, the album concludes with Henri Classens’ transcription for viola and piano of Isaac Albéniz’ “Tango” movement, originally written for solo piano as part of his Opus 165 España suite.
Taken as a whole, this makes for a generally satisfying listening experience; but it is hard to avoid wondering how these selections would have sounded in recital!
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