GLINKA : Rondena con variaciones para Guitarra: INZENGA : Rondena : ISABEL: Rondena de Granada: ARCAS : Rondo: DAMAS : La Macarena : BARRIOS: El Pregon de la Flores:FALLA: Homenaje ‘ Le Tombeau de Claude Debussy’:MONTOYA: Rondena : ISABEL :Rondena de Granada(2nd version) ;INZENGA : Rondena (2nd version) : EL MOCHUELO : El Tronco Siente Dolor: ALMADEN: Navegando Mi Perdi: ROMERO: To Vi Un Bicho Correr
Juan Francisco Padilla with Esther Crisol vocals (tracks 8 – 13)
IBS Classical IBS 162018
If you see this album, and see Glinka, the Russian composer, you probably won’t expect what you find on this first track, as the piece is entirely Flamenco driven, very Spanish, and not any of it sounding Russian! It is very well played, but it is such a surprise, stylistically! The next surprise is that the second piece, another Rondena by Inzenga, is in the same key, and the same style. In fact for as moment I thought that track 2 was the same as track 1! To my mind, I would have wanted something at least in a different key, to avoid it sounding SO similar. The next track by one Isabel is in fact in a different key, but is again very much the same as the first two and by now I was getting a little fed up by the lack of contrast in the music. Track 4, by Julian Arcas, a composer I do recognize is yet another clone from the same genes as the first three. If the idea of this CD was to make all the music sound utterly the same, and give no listeners any variation whatsoever, then they were succeeding. Damas’s La Macarena was subtly different, but not so much that the feeling of déjà vu had gone yet. As for the next piece I can only imagine that the Barrios was not Agustin Barrios as the piece here, El Pregon de la Flores, is in no collection I have ever seen or heard, and besides it again had lots of Flamenco inspired moments. The Manuel De Falla Homenaje was really the first piece that sounded like a different piece of music. Of course this well – known piece by one of Spain’s greatest composers is apiece every player should know and our player gave a fine version of it.
The remaining pieces had a different sound quality on the CD and sounded much more amateur in the actual sound recorded, which did detract quite a bit. Not only that the rest of the CD included Esther Crisol a Flamenco singer on every track, and it is one of those styles that you either love or hate, so I will leave that decision to you.
If you like Flamenco and the fact that the musical style hardly alters from one track to the next, then this won’t bother you. Me? I’ll definitely skip this sort of music in future. Not for me!
Chris Dumigan