Alma Española

• Main performer: Idit Arad
• Booklet languages: English
• Libretto languages: English, Spanish
• Time: 57:09
• Release Date: 2006

Review

Israeli soprano Idit Arad is not a typical interpreter of Spanish song -- her voice is on the light side, and smoldering is not really her thing. Her approach to this body of material is personal -- but no less effective as a result, for with Alma Española (Spanish Soul) she has picked a program that fits her talents and delivered it beautifully. Arad's voice is agile, capable of descending quickly through figuration and landing on a dissonant note freighted with complex emotion. One of the most challenging songs on the album is the very first one on the disc, the opening number in a set by Enrique Granados, La maja dolorosa (The Sorrowful Woman); Arad opens with subtle, angular material, later introducing songs with more popular contours into the mix. Many of the pieces by Granados and Joaquín Turina are fairly unfamiliar, with complex poetic elaborations on the simmering, frustrated romantic ideas common to Spanish songs. And with the most familiar piece on the album, the Siete canciones populares españoles (Seven Spanish Popular Songs) of Manuel de Falla, Arad tries something innovative: she has commissioned a flamenco guitarist, Luis-Miguel Manzano, to arrange Falla's songs for voice and flamenco guitar, thereby returning them partway into the sphere from which they originally came. Arad writes her own liner notes, describing the presence of these songs in folk tradition and locating her own efforts in a continuum by which they have been varied over time. She also translates the texts of all the songs into English herself, producing readable and helpful renderings. There are, however, some misprints in the Spanish texts themselves. This is a distinctive and worthwhile recital of Spanish song. ~ James Manheim, Rovi

Performances

Composer	Title	Time
Enriqué Granados	La maja dolorosa, 3 songs for soprano, English horn & piano (Tonadillas al estilo antiguo, No. 9), H. 136/9	7:31
Manuel de Falla	La Vida breve, opera, G. 35/39 (2 versions) (Aria de Salud Vivan los que ríen)	4:54
Manuel de Falla	El pan de ronda, song for voice & piano, G. 47	1:19
Manuel de Falla	Oracion de las madres, for mezzo-soprano & piano, G. 42	2:05
Joaquín Turina	Triptico, for voice & piano, Op. 45 (Farruca (A Conchita Supervía))	3:41
Manuel de Falla	Popular Spanish Songs (7), for voice & piano, G. 40	16:08
Joaquín Turina	Poema en forma de canciones, for voice & piano (or orchestra), Op. 19	11:25
Enriqué Granados	Tonadillas al estilo antiguo, songs (10) for voice & piano, H. 136 (Amor y odio (a María Barrientos))	2:22
Enriqué Granados	Tonadillas al estilo antiguo, songs (10) for voice & piano, H. 136 (El majo tímido)	0:52
Enriqué Granados	Tonadillas al estilo antiguo, songs (10) for voice & piano, H. 136 (El mirar de la maja (a María Barrientos))	2:37
Enriqué Granados	Tonadillas al estilo antiguo, songs (10) for voice & piano, H. 136 (El tra la la y el punteado)	1:15
Fernando J. Obradors	Canciones clásicas españolas, for voice & piano in 4 books (Coplas de Curro Dulce)	3:00

Previous:	Alma Brasileira, Vol. 2
Next:	Alma Gluck