Gerhard Shahrazada; Cancionero de Pedrell
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Roberto Gerhard
Label: Etcetera
Magazine Review Date: 2/1989
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 52
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: KTC1060
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (L')infantament meravellós de Schahrazada |
Roberto Gerhard, Composer
Benita Valente, Soprano Roberto Gerhard, Composer Tan Crone, Piano |
| Cancionero de Pedrell |
Roberto Gerhard, Composer
Benita Valente, Soprano Roberto Gerhard, Composer Tan Crone, Piano |
Author: Arnold Whittall
This is one of those examples of commendable enterprise with regard to repertory that yields only modest musical rewards. The dearth of Gerhard available on disc—especially CD—at the moment is an absolute scandal, but his cause would be better served by reissues, and even new recordings, of his major works, to provide a context for such prentice efforts as L'infantament meravellos de Schahrazada (1917).
In this, his Op. 1, composed when he was 21, Gerhard set 12 poems from what Malcolm MacDonald in his notes describes as ''a fin de siecle Catalan version of the Arabian Nights''. The result is a first-class demonstration of those qualities of dutifully protracted late-romanticism and generalized emotional attitudinizing that Gerhard needed to react strongly against in order to find his own true voice. Only a core of positive musical nationalism would survive this process of reaction. A few of the songs are impressive and imaginative: in Nos. 9 and 11, for example, a burgeoning mastery is undoubtedly evident. But in bulk, not least because of the consistently heavy piano accompaniments, the songs try one's patience, their lack of variety, and their derivativeness, betraying the composer's inexperience all too graphically. Benita Valente sounds well when she scales down her large, vibrant voice, but (in a fairly close recording) that voice tends to spread, or grow hard-edged under pressure. The piano sound is also rather clangorous.
With the Cancionero de Pedrell (1941) there is by contrast a vitality and economy that instantly proclaim the true Gerhard. These brilliantly inventive arrangements (of folk-songs collected by Gerhard's mentor Felipe Pedrell) are well performed, and the recording is more flattering to the voice, if not to the piano. Play the haunting No. 7—the voice of a composer in exile, as Gerhard was by 1941—and you will readily forgive him the romantic excesses of his Op. 1.'
In this, his Op. 1, composed when he was 21, Gerhard set 12 poems from what Malcolm MacDonald in his notes describes as ''a fin de siecle Catalan version of the Arabian Nights''. The result is a first-class demonstration of those qualities of dutifully protracted late-romanticism and generalized emotional attitudinizing that Gerhard needed to react strongly against in order to find his own true voice. Only a core of positive musical nationalism would survive this process of reaction. A few of the songs are impressive and imaginative: in Nos. 9 and 11, for example, a burgeoning mastery is undoubtedly evident. But in bulk, not least because of the consistently heavy piano accompaniments, the songs try one's patience, their lack of variety, and their derivativeness, betraying the composer's inexperience all too graphically. Benita Valente sounds well when she scales down her large, vibrant voice, but (in a fairly close recording) that voice tends to spread, or grow hard-edged under pressure. The piano sound is also rather clangorous.
With the Cancionero de Pedrell (1941) there is by contrast a vitality and economy that instantly proclaim the true Gerhard. These brilliantly inventive arrangements (of folk-songs collected by Gerhard's mentor Felipe Pedrell) are well performed, and the recording is more flattering to the voice, if not to the piano. Play the haunting No. 7—the voice of a composer in exile, as Gerhard was by 1941—and you will readily forgive him the romantic excesses of his Op. 1.'
Gerhard Shahrazada; Cancionero de Pedrell
Discover the world's largest classical music catalogue with Presto Music.
Gramophone Digital Club
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £8.75 / month
Subscribe
Gramophone Full Club
- Print Edition
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £11.00 / month
Subscribe
If you are a library, university or other organisation that would be interested in an institutional subscription to Gramophone please click here for further information.