59.00 PLN

CD:

Nr kat.: 4667642
Label  : DECCA

It seems just a little surprising that a CD purporting to feature ‘Tangos of Barcelona’ should open with music by a Danish theatre conductor. Not that I object. Jacob Gade’s Jealousy encapsulates the genre’s very soul and Lawrence Foster grants it a dashing performance. Pianist Albert Guinovart adds significantly to the colour, much as he does on most other tracks, while violinist Angel Jesus Garcia opens Astor Piazzolla’s haunting Los pajaros perdidos. Many readers will know that one of the tango’s most glamorous 20th-century exponents was the French-born Latin American singer Carlos Gardel, the ‘Creole Thrush’, as he was called, whom Piazzolla had befriended while still a relative youngster. Gardel’s El dia que me quieras isn’t quite the heart-stopping experience it would have been with the master himself – this version is just a tad too ‘cumfy’ – but Marcelo Mercadante’s bandoneon is a seductive presence and the Barcelona orchestra has the idiom on tap. Julia Migenes sings on five of the tracks, not in situ (Spain, June 1998) but at Capitol Studios, Los Angeles a year later (in duplicate at 3'28'' into Los pajaros perdidos, where she appears to be entering into duet with herself). Albeniz is represented initially by his famous D major Tango, then with a less well-known piece in A minor, where cellist Vincent Ellegiers adds a sombre voice to the texture. Infamia, the title track, features some effective solo work for the bassoon and the programme ends with three relatively up-tempo tangos by Ernesto Nazareth. The sound is excellent, the playing by turns plush or spirited, and the programme nicely put together. It’s the sort of production that years ago would have earned itself ‘plum label’ status – that’s one notch down from full price. As it stands, ‘Infamia’ is good background music, but I can’t imagine many readers wanting to settle with it for an evening’s concentrated listening. For that you need Gardel or Piazzolla himself.' GRAMOPHONE: https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/infamia-tangos-de-barcelona