Manuel Ponce - Complete Piano Works, Vol. 1 (Álvaro Cendoya)

Information

Composer: Manuel Ponce

1. Estrellita 'Metamorfosis de concierto'
2. Preludio mexicano 'Cielito lindo'
3. A la orilla de un palmar
4. Serenata mexicana 'Alevántate'
5. Valentina
6. Ven, ¡Oh luna!
7. Preludio mexicano 'Cuiden su vida'
8. Arrulladora mexicana 'La Rancherita'
9. Barcarola mexicana 'Xochimilco'
10. Mañanitas
11. Scherzino mexicano
12. Scherzino maya
13. Intermezzo (No. 1)
14. Mazurka de salón in A flat major
15. Mazurka in D minor
16. Mazurka a la española
17. Preludio romántico
18. Deux Études pour Piano: No. 1, Allegretto mosso ma espressivo
19. Deux Études pour Piano: No. 2, Allegro non troppo
20. Sonatine: I. Semplice, in tempo d'allegretto
21. Sonatine: II. Andante, alla maniera d'un notturno
22. Sonatine: III. Allegro
23. Cuatro danzas mexicanas: No. 1, Vivo. Meno messo, espressivo
24. Cuatro danzas mexicanas: No. 2, Vivo. Più lento
25. Cuatro danzas mexicanas: No. 3, Vivo. Meno mosso
26. Cuatro danzas mexicanas: No. 4, Vivo. Poco meno

Álvaro Cendoya, piano

Date: 2013

Label: Grand Piano

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Review

This is the first of eight volumes from Grand Piano offering the complete solo piano music of Mexican composer Manuel Ponce. Though best known for his influential guitar works, which his friend Andrés Segovia lauded and promoted, and a number of which are now part of every guitarist's repertory, Ponce wrote fluently in most genres, leaving a substantial and impressive corpus to posterity.

 

Nevertheless, this first disc does not make an immediate case for Ponce's piano music. Though taken from across the composer's career, most of the pieces performed here by Basque-Iranian pianist Álvaro Cendoya are little more than bagatelles, of a nature such that they might have been improvised by Ponce on rainy days stuck indoors at the keyboard. The stylistically eclectic Sonatina, itself diminutive by most measures, dwarfs the rest in terms of length.

 

Yet Ponce was by all accounts a terrific pianist and his music is nothing if not idiomatic and evocative. As some of the titles here suggest, he combines lyrical nationalism, stemming from his interest in folk/traditional music, with mild-mannered Romanticism to rustle up a series of attractive miniatures brimming with warm tunes and casual elegance. His best known work, Estrellita, appears in its piano version, and many will recognise the classic mariachi tune of the Mexican Prelude; some pianophiles may be familiar with the Intermezzo too. Paolo Mello's booklet notes describe the material of this initial recital as ranging "from European-influenced Romanticism to nationalist Romanticism and indigenous nationalism, and on again to advanced modernism". This is chiefly true, although any modernist leanings detectable here are very modest.

 

Cendoya, professor at the Basque Conservatory of Music, already has two CDs to his credit for Naxos, the piano and chamber music of one of the Basque Country's most significant composers, Tomás Garbizu (8.557630, 8.572096). He will not have been stretched by much of this programme, which is at any rate rather short and contains only five minutes of premieres, but he makes it an enjoyable experience for the listener nonetheless. Sound quality, whilst not jaw-dropping, is good, and the English-Spanish notes informative and well written/translated.

 

Though this opener is not a must-have, it augurs well on the whole for the rest of the series, which should bring a better look at what Mello calls Ponce's "vast gamut of harmonic sonorities, stylistic variation and tonal riches." If Grand Piano's previous form is anything to go by, the next one will appear sooner rather than later.

 

— Byzantion

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Manuel Ponce (8 December 1882 – 24 April 1948) was a Mexican composer. After early studies in Mexico, he trained in Italy and Germany before returning to teach at the National Conservatory. Ponce bridged classical music with Mexican folk traditions, promoting national identity through works that blended popular melodies and classical forms. His 1912 piece Estrellita became an international success, helping earn him the title "Creator of the Modern Mexican Song". He also made major contributions to guitar repertoire, notably with Variations and Fugue on La Folia and Sonatina Meridional.

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Álvaro Cendoya (born 1960 in San Sebastián), the son of a Basque father and an Iranian mother, is a Spanish pianist. He began his studies locally before continuing in Buenos Aires with Bruno Leonardo Gelber and later in London with Peter Feuchtwanger. Winner of the prize for best interpretation of Spanish music at the Jaén International Piano Competition (1989), he has performed as soloist with major orchestras and appeared in leading venues such as Geneva's Victoria Hall and London's Wigmore Hall. A Naxos recording artist, he is professor at Musikene and is currently recording the complete piano works of Manuel M. Ponce.

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