Xavier Montsalvatge - Manfred; Bric à brac; Simfonia de rèquiem (Víctor Pablo Pérez)

Information

Composer: Xavier Montsalvatge

• Manfred
• Bric à brac
• Simfonia de rèquiem

Marta Matheu, soprano

Barcelona Symphony Orchestra

Víctor Pablo Pérez, conductor

Date: 2014

Label: Naxos

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Review

Although Naxos do not claim that any of the works featured on this disc are world première recordings, the current catalogues do not appear to show any alternative versions of either Manfred or Bric à brac. The Simfonia da Requiem made its first appearance on disc as long ago as 1995 in a live Madrid concert performance, and has also been included in a Chandos anthology issued in 2012. It is the most substantial work on this disc, which is described as an “overview” of Montsalvatge’s orchestral music. Like the similarly named Britten Sinfonia da Requiem, it consists of a series of movements taking their title from various sections of the Requiem Mass. Unlike the Britten, it also includes a vocal section in the shape of a soprano soloist who enters towards the end of the final movement to sing the words “Requiem aeternam dona nobis, Domine, Amen” in a brief contribution. The informative booklet notes (in English and Spanish) by David Puertas Esteve inform us that this soprano solo is shown in the score as “optional”, but all the recordings feature a soprano to bring the work to a conclusion. Marta Matheu is effective here.

 

Again unlike Britten, Montsalvatge makes some use of plainchant in the shape of the familiar “Dies irae” during the third movement with that title (track 8). However the work, with its six disparate movements, does not make the same impact as Britten’s piece written over forty years earlier. It may be that the individual movements are too brief - all under four minutes - to build up a real symphonic head of steam. The orchestra play excellently throughout, and the sound is thoroughly acceptable even if I imagine it lacks the richness of the standard Chandos acoustic (although I have not heard that disc). It is certainly a decided improvement on the earlier Madrid performance which appeared on Naxos’s sister label Marco Polo … which I have heard. That was also considerably slower: all of the movements in the earlier version were over four minutes long, with the Lux aeterna (track 10) extended from three-and-a-half minutes here to over five minutes. That’s an extraordinary difference in such a short movement. The playing of the Barcelona orchestra in the studio is considerably ahead of the sometimes rather tentative approach of the Madrid instrumentalists under concert conditions.

 

The other two works on this disc come from opposite ends of Montsalvatge’s composing career. Manfred is a suite extracted from a ballet, but the music sounds very symphonic indeed during the opening pages, more like a tone poem than a score designed for dancing. The booklet notes refer to the “rhythmic influence of Stravinsky” but certainly during the first half of the score one detects more the shade of Richard Strauss, with the darting woodwind figuration - presumably intended to depict the Alpine fairy appearing to Manfred in a waterfall - oddly reminiscent of the music for the trainbearer and confidante in Elektra. Quite suddenly, about half-way through, the music becomes much more balletic in mood, with overtones of Russian scores in the same medium - although not so much Stravinsky as Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev. The booklet note does not give us the scenario of the ballet; but presumably it closely follows Byron’s poem, in the same manner as Schumann and Tchaikovsky’s works on the same subject. The complete ballet apparently lasts about an hour, and the excerpts we are given here whet the appetite for the rest.

 

Bric à brac, Montsalvatge’s rather discouragingly titled last orchestral work, lacks the sheer profile of the music for the earlier ballet. It consists of four brief tone pictures, and the conductor on this disc gave the first performance of the work with the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra - not this orchestra, as claimed on the back of the disc. The first movement quotes a folksong from the Canary Islands. I cannot say that any of the movements made much of an impact on me, but the music is eminently approachable and the orchestral playing makes a good case for the work. These players have given performances of virtually all Montsalvatge’s orchestral works over the years, including no fewer than twelve world premières. They clearly have the feeling for their fellow Catalan in their bones.

 

For many years the reputation of Montsalvatge outside Spain rested largely on the occasional appearances of his songs in recitals by Spanish singers. In more recent years his music, always well constructed and appealing to audiences, has gained a wider circulation through such works as the Concierto breve. This Naxos release is a valuable contribution to this continuing process. Is there any possibility that the series could be extended?

 

— Paul Corfield Godfrey

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Xavier Montsalvatge (11 March 1912 – 7 May 2002) was a Spanish composer. Born in Girona, he studied at the Barcelona Conservatory with leading Catalan musicians. Although he began composing before the Spanish Civil War, most of his work came after 1940, blending early 20th-century modernist techniques with his own personal style. A versatile musician, he wrote across many genres and collaborated with renowned Spanish singers, including Victoria de los Ángeles and Montserrat Caballé. Widely honoured with national awards, Montsalvatge became one of Spain's most important composers of the 20th century.

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Víctor Pablo Pérez (born 1954 in Burgos) is a Spanish conductor. He studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid and at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich. Pérez led the Asturias Symphony (1980–1988), the Tenerife Symphony (1986–2005), the Galicia Symphony (1993–2013) and the Orchestra and Choir of the Community of Madrid (2013–2021). He collaborates widely with major Spanish opera houses and festivals and has guest-conducted leading international orchestras across Europe. His notable projects include the CNDM's ambitious "9 Novenas", featuring 5 Madrid's resident orchestras.

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