Re: what are you listening to RIGHT NOW?

Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 16:05:38 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical.recordings
Size: 1,674 bytes

Bob Lombard wrote:
> On Tue, 15 Jul 2003 18:32:12 -0700, "Sonarrat" <email-address-deleted>
> wrote:
>
>
>>Compared three Fete-Dieux a Seville (sorry, no accents on this keyboard).
>>Sanchez was the first, and then, thanks to the Morgan Hill library, the most
>>recent de Larrocha, and Arrau in the GPot20C... I'm glad I only paid for the
>>Sanchez. The two others aren't even in the same ballpark IMO.
>>
>>-Sonarrat.
>>
>
> My reference for de Larocha's Iberia is the mid-70s recording, but
> based on that I think that she and Arrau expressed their viewpoints
> very well. Alicia interpreted form the Iberia she knew, Claudio from
> outside. Arrau's interpretation sounds to me more like Granados than
> Albeniz, but that doesn't have to be a drawback.
>
> I'd be interested in what inhabitants of the subject peninsula have to
> say about this music, and the effects of 'viewpoints'.
>
The issue of ethnicity is interesting. We always assume that Spanish
composers (1) tried to make Spanish music (as opposed to just music) and
(2) that Spanish interpreters are more likely to bring out those
supposed qualities. I wonder if either of these assumptions is true.
(I remember reading a review of some Bartok by a Hungarian musician
saying that the interpretation "oddly" lacked Hungarian-ness.)
These Spanish composers were probably influenced by other European
composers (especially French for Albeniz and Falla) as much as by
Spanish music.
BTW the best art show I've seen in ages addressed that topic: the
Velasquez-Manet exhibition that was in New York and is now somewhere
else (Madrid?). Highly recommended to anyone who has a chance to see it.
ad