Ginastera Orchestral Works Volume I

Lucas Somoza Osterc (baritone)
BBC Philharmonic
Juanjo Mena

Impressive in Chandos’s ongoing, very successful Spanish music series, the BBC Philharmonic and its chief conductor, Juanjo Mena, also explores the works of the Argentinean composer Alberto Ginastera in three orchestral volumes. Not only acknowledged as a leading South-American composer of his day, Ginastera is also seen as one of the heroes of Latin-American music in general, whose enduring source of inspiration was Argentina itself: its pre-Columbian legacy on the one hand and the vast landscapes of the pampas on the other.

Indeed, if Ollantay is inspired by the former, and more especially by a dramatic poem of Inca origin, Ginastera turned to the latter for the setting of his second ballet, Estancia, based on the life of the gauchos who work in those wide open spaces. The essential genre of music in this piece is the malambo, an exclusively masculine, competitive traditional dance, far from the seductive tangos of Ginastera’s now more famous compatriot and pupil Astor Piazzolla. While the landscape is the same in Pampeana No. 3, the music is more abstract and contrasted, marking the transition from what the composer called a compositional period of ‘objective nationalism’ to a ‘subjective one’.

Tracks

Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983)
Pampeana Nº3, Op 24 (1954, revised 1967) 18:11
Pastoral Sinfónica en Tres Movimientos
(Symphonic Pastorale in Three Movements)
1 I Adagio contemplativo – Poco più mosso – Tempo I – A tempo ma pochissimo più lento 6:49
2 II Impetuosamente – Intermezzo quasi Trio. Un poco meno mosso [Tempo I] – 5:38
3 III Largo con poetica esaltazione – Piochissimo più lento 5:37
BBC Philharmonic
Juanjo Mena

Ollantay, Op 17 (1947) 13:30
Tres Movimientos Sinfónicos
(Three Symphonic Movements)
A Erich Kleiber, afectuosamente
4 Paisaje de Ollantaytambo (The Landscape of Ollantaytambo). Lento 4:25
5 Los guerreros (The Warriors). Allegro – Poco più mosso – Tempo I – Presto e agitato 3:02
6 La muerte de Ollantay (The Death of Ollantay) Andante – Adagio – Presto e agitato 5:53
BBC Philharmonic
Juanjo Mena

Estancia, Op 8 (1941) 34:17
Ballet in One Act and Five Scenes
Cuadro I (Scene 1). El Amanecer (Dawn)
7 I Introducción y escena (Introduction and Scene). Allegro – Andante – 3:15
8 II Pequeña danza (Little Dance). Allegro – Meno mosso 1:34
9 III Danza del trigo (Wheat Dance). Tranquillo – [ ] – Tempo I ma un poco rubato 3:12
10 IV Los trabajadores agricolas (The Farm Workers). Tempo gusto 3:05
11 V Los peones de hacienda (The Cattlemen). [ ] – Mosso e ruvido 1:58
12 VI Los puebleros (The Townsfolk). [ ] 2:32
13 VII Triste pampeano (Pampas Melancholy). Lento 3:24
14 VIII La doma (The Rodeo). Allegro molto 2:02
15 IX Idilio crepuscular (Twilight Idyll). Adagio 2:47
Cuadro IV (Scene 4). La noche (Night)
16 X Nocturno (Nocturne). Lento – Più lento – Tempo I – Più lento, quasi larguetto 4:24
Cuadro V (Scene 5). El Amanecer (Dawn)
17 XII Escena (Scene). Andantino – Lento 1:43
18 XII Danza final. Malambo (Final Dance. Malabo). Allegro – Tempo di malambo 3:43
Lucas Somoza Osterc speaker / baritone
BBC Philharmonic
Juanjo Mena

TT 66:18

Recorded at MediaCity UK, Salford
14 January 2014 (Estancia) and 4 March 2015 (other works)

Producers
Ralph Couzens (Executive)
Mike George

Sound Engineers
Stephen Rinker
Sharon Hughes (Assistant)
Owain Williams (Assistant, Estancia only)

Format: Digital CD 16Bit 44.1Khz
Originally recorded in: 24Bit 96Khz

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