España

• Main performer: Ataulfo Argenta
• Booklet languages: English
• Time: 39:18

Review

España? With three-quarters of the disc taken up with works by Russian, French, and Polish composers, it's more like pseudo-España. But what else could the original producers do? Spain was a musical backwater for most of the nineteenth century and the best-known Spanish orchestral music was written by non-natives. So here's Rimsky-Korsakov's Cappricio Espagnol, Chabrier's España, and Moszkowski's Spanish Dances Book 1 coupled with Granados' Andaluza performed with style, dash, and panache by the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Ataulfo Argenta. The leading young Spanish conductor of his time, Argenta was at the start of an international career when he died in 1958 at the early age of 44 -- only two years into a recording contract with British Decca -- and this disc shows great accomplishment and tremendous promise. With a strong technique, a brilliant sense of color, and a vigorous feeling for rhythm, Argenta leads the London Symphony through terrifically exciting performances of these pseudo-Spanish warhorses. Recorded originally in stereo on December 31, 1956, and January 1, 1957 -- imagine the condition of the performers -- these performances sound vivid and immediate on these superlative JVC XRCD 24-bit super analog remastering. ~ James Leonard, All Music Guide

Performances

Composer	Title	Time
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov	Capriccio espagnol (Kaprichchio na ispankskiye temï), for orchestra, Op. 34	14:40
Enriqué Granados	Andaluza (Playera), for guitar or other instrument (arrangement of No. 5 of 12 Spanish Dances)	4:07
Emmanuel Chabrier	España, rhapsody for orchestra, also arranged for 2 pianos	6:26
Moritz Moszkowski	Spanish Dances (5), for piano, 4 hands, Op. 12	14:05