A Spaniard of Italian descent from Andalucía, Joaquín Turina went to Paris to study with d'Indy and came under Debussy's spell. In the course of a 1907 café meeting with Falla and Albéniz, he swore allegiance to the ideal of Spanish nationalism. But French impressionism continued to color his music, which more often fell into conventional pan-European forms than did the productions of his more individualistically Spanish contemporaries. Especially in his works for his own instrument, the piano, Turina's music offers grace and an appealing warmth that sometimes verges on the popular, suggesting what might have happened if Debussy had taken an extended southern vacation (or if a Spanish zarzuela composer had been bitten by the modernist bug). Examples of all these strands in his output are offered by the Album de viaje (Travel Album), Op. 15, which the composer undertook after a 1916 tour around the Mediterranean shore. The travel album was by then a time-honored and even hoary Romantic form, and Turina's five little descriptive pieces, totaling perhaps 20 minutes in performance, offer little in the way of a distinctively modern psychology. But they're lovely, evocative pieces that would make a perfect gift for anyone headed to this part of the world. A special highlight is the third piece in the set, "Gibraltar," which pokes fun at that British-ruled island's population by skewering "God Save the King [Queen]" with Ivesian dissonances amid a colorful bustle of town streets. Three movements are slow and quiet: the opening "Retrato" (Portrait), the following "El casino de Algeciras," and the fourth piece, "Paseo nocturno," which features a brisker evening promenade in the middle, sandwiched by almost bluesy outer sections. Tonally, Turina often relies in these pieces on a gentle pentatonic sound that can be sharpened into quartal harmonies at times, and the vaguely Bartók-like finale, the vigorous "Fiesta mora en Tanger" (Moorish Fiesta in Tangier), features a sharp contrast of major third and perfect fourth. Colorful and thoroughly accessible, this is one set of musical postcards that anyone would be happy to receive in the mail. ~ James Manheim, All Music Guide
