Various Composers - Cantilena (Tabea Zimmermann; Javier Perianes)

Information

• Astor Piazzolla - Le Grand Tango
• Xavier Montsalvatge - Cinco canciones negras
• Manuel de Falla - Siete canciones populares españolas
• Heitor Villa-Lobos - Aria (Cantilena), from Bachianas Brasileiras, No. 5
• Pablo Casals - En sourdine
• Pablo Casals - En el mirall canviant de la mar blava (Cançó catalana, No. 1)
• Pablo Casals - El ángel travieso
• Pablo Casals - Tres estrofas de amor
• Enrique Granados - Tonadillas en un estilo antiguo
• Isaac Albéniz - Tango (from España, Op. 165)

Tabea Zimmermann, viola

Javier Perianes, piano

Date: 2020

Label: harmonia mundi

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Review

Tabea Zimmermann makes quite an entrance with the programme-opener on ‘Cantilena’, Piazzolla’s Le Grand Tango. Not because it’s an explosive bang, but because of the velvety warmth and soft clarity of her tone, even when she climbs into her upper registers and really starts slicing through the air. Essentially, there are no rough edges, which very much fits with the album concept: to offer an overview of the way in which the viola’s warm, rich and penetrating timbre adapts to ‘carrying the tune’ across a programme of Spanish and Latin American works originally written for the voice. Of course, Le Grand Tango wasn’t originally a vocal piece but a cello one, written for Rostoprovich in 1982. However, it sits as one of the programme’s purely instrumental tango bookends along with Henri Classens’s viola transcription of the Tango from Albéniz’s España piano cycle.

Onwards from the Piazzolla, and the programme’s vocal origins do indeed shine forth from Zimmermann’s sumptuous timbres and lyrically sculpted phrases. Take the lilting lento rise and fall of the ensuing ‘Cuba dentro de un piano’ from Xavier Montsalvatge’s Cinco Canciones negras (first sung in 1945 by the Catalan soprano Mercè Plantada), where it takes little imagination to hear a languorous human voice across Zimmermann’s sultrily dark tone, gentle rubato and subtle portamento shading. Further pleasures come via Falla’s Siete Canciones populares españolas of 1915, in the viola-and-piano transcriptions made with Falla’s blessing by the Spanish viola player and pedagogue Emilio Mateu and pianist Miguel Zanetti. Here, the outer movements require the viola to take on the dual role of soaring, tenderly piercing soprano voice and mellow-stringed guitarist, and Zimmermann flicks out the guitar’s pizzicato chords with satisfyingly rhythmic, soft-edged panache.

Perianes meanwhile is both a selflessly sympathetic partner to Zimmermann and effortlessly under the music’s skin, whether he’s floating swirling, dreamlike figurations underneath her in Casals’s art song-esque ‘En sourdine’ (and the legendary cellist’s four songs, transcribed by Zimmermann herself, have been the disc’s happy discovery for me), or tapping out with fiery precision the rapid repeated notes of Falla’s ‘Polo’. So three cheers to the engineering for bestowing every bit as much love and immediacy of tone on him as it does on Zimmermann herself – the icing on the cake of this thoroughly distinctive and enjoyable album.

— Charlotte Gardner

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Tabea Zimmermann (born 8 October 1966 in Lahr) is a leading German violist. Trained in Freiburg and Salzburg, she won major competitions including Geneva (1982) and Budapest (1984), and has taught in Saarbrücken, Frankfurt, Berlin's Hanns Eisler, and Kronberg Academy. She performs with top international orchestras and has held notable residencies across Europe. Zimmermann has premiered numerous important contemporary works, including Ligeti's Sonata for Solo Viola. Her extensive discography spans over 50 recordings, and her many honors include the 2020 Ernst von Siemens Music Prize.

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Javier Perianes (born 24 September 1978) is a Spanish pianist. His international career features performances in prestigious concert halls with leading orchestras and conductors such as Barenboim, Dutoit, Mehta and Dudamel. A versatile recitalist and chamber musician, he collaborates frequently with Tabea Zimmermann and the Quiroga Quartet, appearing at prominent festivals worldwide. Perianes has performed with premier ensembles including the Vienna Philharmonic and Leipzig Gewandhaus. His exclusive harmonia mundi recordings span a wide repertoire from Beethoven and Debussy to Falla and Granados.

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