Alberto Ginastera - Complete Piano Chamber Music, Vol. 3 (Alberto Portugheis)

Information

Composer: Alberto Ginastera

• (01) Dos canciones, Op. 3
• (03) Cinco canciones populaires argentinas, Op. 10
• (08) Las horas de una estancia, Op. 11
• (13) Pampeana 1, Op. 16 (Rhapsody for Violin & Piano)
• (14) Piano Quintet, Op. 29

Alberto Portugheis, piano

Olivia Blackburn, soprano (1-12)

Sherban Lupu, violin (13)

Bingham String Quartet (14-20)

Date: 1994

Label: ASV

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Review

This latest disc in Alberto Portugheis's admirable conspectus of Ginastera's chamber works offers a clear picture of the composer's stylistic changes, but is also to be welcomed for some outstanding performances. The most spectacular is that of Pampeana No. 1, a dazzling rhapsodic violin showpiece that is first cousin to Ravel's Tzigane and should equally be in the repertoire of all virtuoso fiddlers; starting meditatively on the chord formed by the guitar's open strings, it culminates in an exciting burst of pyrotechnics. It is brilliantly played by Sherban Lupu with a substantial input from Portugheis in the exacting piano part.

That work was written in 1947: the Piano Quintet of 1963 is barely recognizable as being by the same composer, though it too makes hair-raising demands on the players' virtuosity. By this time, however, Ginastera had progressed to an idiom embracing serialism, aleatoric procedures and other avant-garde technical elements. Interspersed with three long cadenzas (respectively for viola and cello, for the two violins and for the piano), the Quintet is in four main movements, including a scherzo as ghostly as that in Berg's Lyric Suite, a Piccola musica notturna that is said (improbable as it may appear) to be a tribute to Mozart because the work was commissioned by the Mozarteum Society of Argentina, and a noisily rumbustious finale. If I had a hat I'd raise it high to the intrepid performers here.

The most 'comfortable' listening on the disc is provided by the earlier works, very attractively sung by a pure-toned soprano, Olivia Blackburn, in perfect Spanish and with exemplary enunciation. The 22-year-old composer's Op. 3 songs are both in Argentine dance rhythms; Blackburn treats the well-known first of them, ''Song to the tree of oblivion'', with a touching simplicity—technically more secure than Benita Valente (on a Virgin disc, 9/92) and far removed from Carreras's maudlin handing (for Philips). By Op. 10, five years later, Ginastera, though still depending on nationalistic traits, was considerably bolder harmonically, especially in the first and last of these songs (in the latter of which Portugheis's impassioned gusto is surely a bit over the top). ''Triste'', the second of this group, incidentally appeared in a cello transcription on the previous disc in this series (10/93). But the most impressive of the vocal works here is the atmospheric cycle Times of the day on a farm, in which, except for the monodic ''Midday'', Ginastera opts for chordal impressionism (with a momentary similarity, at the start of ''Afternoon'', to John Ireland's Piano Sonatina).

-- Lionel Salter, Gramophone

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Alberto Ginastera (April 11, 1916 – June 25, 1983) was an Argentine composer of classical music. He is considered one of the most important 20th-century classical composers of the Americas. Many of Ginastera's works were inspired by the Gauchesco tradition. His early nationalistic works often integrate Argentine folk themes, while works in the later periods incorporate traditional elements in increasingly abstracted forms. Ginastera held a number of teaching posts. Among his notable students were Ástor Piazzolla (who studied with him in 1941), Alcides Lanza, Waldo de los Ríos, Jacqueline Nova and Rafael Aponte-Ledée.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Ginastera

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Alberto Portugheis (born on January 1, 1941, in La Plata, Argentina) is an Argentine pianist. He studied with Vincenzo Scaramuzza (the teacher of Martha Argerich and Bruno Leonardo Gelber), before going on to the Geneva Conservatoire. After winning first prize at the Geneva Concours de Virtuosité, Portugheis embarked on an international career, visiting almost 50 countries across the world. His recordings include masterpieces from a repertoire ranging from the Baroque to contemporary. Portugheis’ annual Masterclasses at Steinway Hall attract a wealth of talent from many countries in the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Portugheis

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