Cuando Acaba De Llover – Spanish & Latin American Songs

WHEN THE RAIN STOPS FALLING

This debut CD by soprano Itziar Martinez Galdos and pianist Per Arne Frantzen entitled «Cuando Acaba De Llover» («When the Rain Stops Falling») was recorded by LAWO Classics and offers a collection of Spanish and Latin American classical song.

Martinez Galdos and Frantzen have enjoyed a close musical collaboration for over 25 years. They have performed throughout much of Europe, and their Spanish repertoire is the centerpiece of these performances. The songs on the CD embrace many moods, colours, and contrasts and will appeal to a wide audience.

What can we expect to hear when we listen to these songs? Rhythm, sun, colours, passion, castanets, dark eyes, bullfighting . . .? They are all to be found in «When the Rain Stops Falling,» plus one other essential ingredient-a big heart. The heart was the driving force behind this recording.

The Composers

Many great composers have, down through the years, set Spanish poetry to music and arranged popular folk tunes. For this CD we have chosen a set of Spanish and Latin American songs. The songs span a broad range of moods, colors, and contrasts and will appeal to a wide audience.

Why did the choice fall on the composers Montsalvatge, Guridi, Nin, Guastavino, and Turina?

This project actually began with Xavier Montsalvatge, who was born in Gerona in the northern part of Catalonia. His compositions embrace all genres of music, from symphonies to opera, and from ballet to film music. And while he was strongly influenced by twelve-tone technique and the music of Wagner in the beginning, his later works show the influence of French and Creole music and music of Cuban origin. In addition to his life as a composer, Montsalvatge was a professor of composition in Barcelona at the Academia Marshall and the Municipal Conservatory of Music. He became one of the greatest composers of Spanish music, perhaps the greatest in the last half of the 20th century.

It was as music critic for the newspaper "La Vanguardia" that we met Montsalvatge at the Quincena Musical Festival in San Sebastian in the late 1980s. There we had the unique honor of being instructed by him. We performed "Cinco canciones negras," after which he shared his ideas regarding tempos, mood, etc., even suggesting changes in the edition we had. Above all, we received inspiration from the composer on how we could "add some seasoning" to our own interpretation.

And then we changed course. We had a Spanish composer who wrote in the Cuban style. What if we found a Cuban composer who wrote in the Spanish style? The answer was Joaquin Nin.

It is both surprising and amusing that "Polo," "Canto Andaluz," and "El Vito," the songs on this CD most representative of flamenco, a genre so closely linked to Spanish music, were written by a Cuban composer. Joaquin Nin moved to Spain as a boy and studied in Barcelona. In 1902 he left for Paris, where he immersed himself in composition and counterpoint at the Schola Cantorum. As pianist, he toured throughout Europe and South America. He was a celebrated interpreter of Bach and early Spanish works, and his enthusiasm for the Spanish Baroque is evident in a number of his compositions. Likewise, his work shows the influence of French Impressionism.

In order to achieve greater balance, we felt like including yet another composer from the Americas, but this time one with a totally different style.

The Argentine composer Carlos Guastavino was born in 1912, the same year as Xavier Montsalvatge. He studied music in Santa Fe and Buenos Aires. He is regarded as one of the foremost composers of the 20th century in Argentina, with more than 200 works, of which some 150 are romances for voice and piano. By his rejection of modernist and avant-garde movements he became a model for Argentina's younger generation of popular and folk musicians of the 1960s. Besides songs, he wrote chamber music and a great number of choral works. "Cuatro canciones coloniales" are four lyrical songs, moving in their simplicity, and a delicate contrast to the more carefully composed Spanish cycles.

One of the great Basque composers, Jesús Guridi, was born in Vitoria, Basque Country. Sometimes called "the Spanish Respighi," he is held in high regard in music circles in Spain. He attained national prominence as a composer with his much beloved zarzuela "El Caserio," and with his "diez melodias vascas." Following studies at the conservatory of music in Madrid, the 16-year-old Guridi received a generous scholarship which made it possible for him to spend two years studying piano, organ, and composition at the Schola Cantorum in Paris. "Seis canciones castellanas" is a cycle of profound contrasts. Here things shift from sad love songs to flirtation and coquettishness, from temperamental moods to the most beautiful melodies.

Joaquin Turina was destined to become one of his generation's most prominent composers. His style is entirely dedicated to national ideals, and his musical interest is wholly focused on Andalusian folk music, in particular, from his own home region around Seville. Turina's career was, it is true, overshadowed to a great extent by that of the older de Falla, but, even so, Turina's music can be regarded as the most important of its time. "Poema en forma de canciones" begins with an impressive piano solo—one can almost call it a piano overture—which later in the cycle is elegantly woven into the song "Los dos miedos."

It is interesting to note in closing that Nin, Turina, and Guridi were born in the same period, all three within seven years of each other.

We wish you a pleasurable listening experience together with us.

— Notes: Itziar Martinez Galdos & Per Arne Frantzen, in collaboration with Geirr Oppi · English translation: Jim Skurdall