CANCIONES ESPAÑOLAS
SPANISH SONGS

With this first release from Arte Verum, the new label created by Barbara Hendricks for which she now exclusively records, the great soprano offers us a veritable novelty, in a musical genre that she very specially appreciates: song.

In recording, for the first time, works from the Spanish repertory, Barbara Hendricks highlights the orientation of her label: the return to a discographic production that mirrors her activity as a concert artiste. She has sung these songs by Granados, Obradors, de Falla and Montsalvatge dozens of times in concert, not only for an ever faithful Spanish audience but also for musiclovers from Tokyo to Buenos Aires. It was therefore logical to record them on disc; now it is done, and what a pleasure it was!

The programme, bringing together these four Spanish composers, is rooted in the fertile soil of folklore and traditional song. The turn of the twentieth century in Europe witnessed a rebirth of interest as well as a sense of pride in folk heritage, something that led to the development of currents of ‘musical nationalism’. Spain did not escape this phenomenon and its highly diverse folklore was to be a source of inspiration to many composers: the marriage between the popular and the artistic thus came about, as did the osmosis of words and music, which was to reach a peak.

Each of the pieces on this disc is a little gem: Granados perfectly conveys the atmosphere of late eighteenth-century Madrid in his Tonadillas, and his Canciones amatorias are of moving simplicity and expressivity. The clarity of Obradors’s songs gives them a seductive freshness, whereas the Catalan Montsalvatge blends Cuban and Spanish folklore in one of his major works, the highly evocative Canciones negras. They are followed by Siete canciones populares españolas by Manuel de Falla, an inventive, elaborate and varied song cycle that is full of charm. Finally, the programme is rounded off by the traditional Catalan song El Cant dels Ocells, a homage from Barbara Hendricks to another grand lady of the opera stage who died in January 2005: Victoria de Los Angeles.

Canciones Españolas is a disc full of freshness: it is both festive and tender. It is flattered by the voice of Barbara Hendricks, a unique voice, instantly recognisable among all others, with a transparent tone-colour full of vitality and emotion. The formidable Swedish pianist Love Dewinger is her ideal partner, his playing full of both refinement and creativity.

This first disc from Arte Verum is a festive event celebrating the birth of a great label.