Spanish Anonymous, Miguel de Fuenllana, Luis de Milan, Alonso de Mudarra, Luys de Narvaez, Diego Pisador, Enriquez de Valderrabano, Montserrat Caballé - Songs of the Spanish Renaissance, Vol. 1
Band: Spanish Anonymous, Miguel de Fuenllana, Luis de Milan, Alonso de Mudarra, Luys de Narvaez, Diego Pisador, Enriquez de Valderrabano, Montserrat Caballé Title: Songs of the Spanish Renaissance, Vol. 1 Rating: Release Date: 20 May, 2003 Media: Audio CD
Tracks: 1: Isabel, Perdiste La Tu Faxa 2: Recuerde El Alma Dormida 3: Dindirindin 4: De Los Alamos Vengo, Madre 5: Arded Corazon Arded 6: Falai Mina Amor 7: Morenica, Dame Un Beso 8: Un Cuydado Que Mia Vida Ten 9: En La Fuente Del Rosel 10: Poys Dezeys Que Me Quereys Ben 11: Madonna Per Voi Ardo 12: Perdida Tenyo La Color 13: De Donde Venis Amore 14: La Bella Mal Maridada 15: Quien Amores Ten 16: Si Tantos Balcones 17: Con Que La Lavare 18: Aquel Cavallero, Madre 19: Triste Estava El Rey David 20: Durandarte
Customer Reviews Montserrat's voice casts a seductive spell,Viva Diva!!!! She continues to bring joy to millions around the world. Montserrat Caballe is the voice of all ages. This latest recording finds caballe in lovely voice,with plenty of lush pianissimos. While I was listening to this album I felt immersed into a very spiritual atmosphere,that nearly carried me out of my body. I realised this peaceful music with caballe's ethereal singing was levitating me closer to the pearls of spanish mysticism.
I will treasure this 24 bit recording for the rest of my life!
Beautiful singing from Caballe's later years. She was in her late 60s during the recording of this beautiful little gem of spanish renaissance songs!Highly reccomended to all who love the ethereal voice of montsy and/or intrigued by early spanish music!.
'Spirit and music, song and instrument...' I can think of few artists who better exemplify the humility required to consistently reveal art as an essential component of human progress. The heart of this collection of Spanish Renaissance canciones is the enduring musical presence of Montserrat Caballe, whose vivifying art spans the second half of the twentieth century like a colossus. Caballe, among them all, is the complete humanist, the complete artist. Who can afford not to be grateful for these things?
She sings accompanied only by the intriguing vihuela de mano, masterfully played by Manuel Cubedo. Fittingly used for these musical gems of renaissance Spain, this stringed instrument possesses a complex intonation conformed to the human voice. The CD notes hold another gem - an essay (printed in three languages) by Cesar Rodriguez Campos, called "The Enraptured Spirit: Song and Vihuela de mano in the 16th Century", an informative addition to a compelling disc. The Spanish text of each song is also provided.
Caballe's genial musical majesty pervades every track. Those elements of her art that inform and transcend the operatic canon, are present here, refined to mystical simplicity and pleasure: the artist in her native tongue, lissome ornamentation, serious preparation and scholarship. What emerges is a portrait of the artist as carriage of the spiritual. So, this is a transforming recording. You can say this is Montserrat after opera. I think the arc of her art extends even to these delicacies. Only one whose gifts replenished the operatic art's true conformation, as being one that must rest upon the human voice alone as on an unchangable foundation, could create a recording as revealing as this one. Recommended.
.
"Great" she may be, BUT ABSOLUTELY NOT in this repertory!! I'm really not sure what this recording (or should I say this series) is getting at. .
Presumably, Montserrat Caballe had either lost enthusiasm for playing endless operatic divas, felt she had lost her youthful agility and technique (resorting to "easier"[?] music), or perhaps even wanted to exhibit a sense of patriotism by showing that - yes - Spain had an equivalent to the German Lieder tradition (albeit an earlier one).
But just who is this recording aimed at. . . ? Are seasoned Caballe fans really interested in music from 15th and 16th century Spain. . . ? Are passionate early music listeners - familiar with this repertory from the numerous infinitely superior recordings available - really wanting to hear a fruity and unashamedly operatic interpretation of this repertoire. . . ? Indeed the most irritating feature of this recording is the sheer arrogance with which these performances are presented. No performer, no matter how great or experienced, is appropriate for every type of music. Would Emma Kirkby be a suitable Carmen in Bizet's renowned Opera. . . ? Would Ella Fitzgerald be appropriate for a recital of Wolf's 'Italienisches Liederbuch', or Michael Jackson for Schubert's 'Die Winterreise'. . . ? I think not. Suffice to say that there is not a single scrap of evidence which could be called upon to justify Caballe's wobbly style in this music. . .
And of course, it would all perhaps be infinitely more acceptable if both she and her accompanist could at least attempt to sing and play in tune. Caballe's intonation is decidedly unreliable; indeed, she is often flat as a pancake, and in certain tracks completely off-key (try track 19 for starters). Perhaps this is partially the result of her dire accompanist, who is quite simply one of the most abysmal vihuela players I've EVER heard (and not a patch on exponents like Rolf Lislevand, Jose Miguel Moreno and Xavier Diaz-Latorre). If you're looking for a recording to shatter the myth that opera singers are better than early music singers, THIS most definitely is it. Personally, I believe she should stick to her dying diva roles. Indeed, looking at the photograph on the back of the CD (in which she wears pastiche "Elizabethan" frocks), one could believe she has just walked out of a production of Donizetti's 'Maria Stuarda' - she certainly sounds like she has.
Spanish Anonymous, Miguel de Fuenllana, Luis de Milan, Alonso de Mudarra, Luys de Narvaez, Diego Pisador, Enriquez de Valderrabano, Montserrat Caballé menu:
