Manuel de Falla - Complete Piano Music

 2004; 21 tracks, 2 discs
Benita Meshulam, pianist  Manuel de Falla was a Spanish composer of classical music. This collection of his complete piano pieces, played by Benita Meshulam, is truly incredible.

Disc 1

01 El Sombrero de Tres Picos, I. Danza del Molinero
02 El Sombrero de Tres Picos, II. Danza de la Molinera
03 El Sombrero de Tres Picos, III. Danza de los Vecinos
04 Danza de la Vida Breve
05 Homenaje de Claude Debussy
06 Serenata
07 Mazurka
08 Serenata Andaluza
09 Nocturno
10 Cancion
11 Fantasia Baetica

Disc 2

01 Cuatro Piezas Españolas, I. Aragonesa
02 Cuatro Piezas Españolas, II. Cubana
03 Cuatro Piezas Españolas, III. Montanesa
04 Cuatro Piezas Españolas, IV. Andaluza
05 Ritual Fire Dance (from El Amor Brujo)
06 Cortejo de Gnomos
07 Vals vapricho
08 Allegro de concierto
09 Canto de los remeros del Volga
10 Pour le tombeau de Paul Dukas

Disc 1
Disc 2

Arturo Márquez - El danzón según Márquez

2002; 8 tracks
Eduardo García Barrios / Orquesta Mexicana de las Artes

"Arturo Márquez is a mexican composer known for his series of symphonic danzones, a traditional genre of music and dance that originated in Cuba and is now a staple of mexican culture. This is incredibly beautiful music, with a very distinct personality and harmonic language. The orchestration is nothing short of superb, and the Danzon No. 2 is easily one of the finest Mexican orchestral pieces ever written. Anyone who enjoys Latin-American music like Ginastera or Villa-Lobos, or Mexican music like Moncayo and Revueltas, will adore this."

@ andruini: You asked me what an American thought of this. Well, I fucking loved it. The Danzon According to Marquez has such a jazzy freedom to it that I find lacking in so much classical music today, and it suits my ear a little better when I'm not in the mood for Brahms or Liszt. These works by Márquez have such lyrical beauty (just listen to the luscious harp-infused "Pasión según San Juán de Letrán") that the melodies could easily stand alone - though I much prefer them with the latin rhythms that accompany each piece. The Orquesta Mexicana de las Artes (of course, it MUST be Mexican) produces such incredible interpretations of Márquez that I can't imagine any other recording. This is such a brilliant representation of Mexican music in general, and I desperately want to discover anything similar.

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Javier Navarrete - Pan's Labyrinth Soundtrack

2006; 21 tracks

This is a very shadowy, very Spanish soundtrack. It has the perfect balance of mystery and purity. Javier Navarrete is a Spanish-born composer of film music, and even composed the music to another del Toro film (The Devil's Backbone).

Directed by the infamously dark director Guillermo del Toro, Pan's Labyrinth, or El Laberinto del Fauno, is the story of an innocent young girl, Ofelia, who lives a hard life during the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. Taken away to live with her mother and cruel stepfather in the war-torn countryside of Spain, Ofelia is swept up in a fantastical journey. The ancient Princess Moanna resides inside her, and with the help of a magical Faun and his fairy friends, Ofelia is meant to return Moanna to her original state. As Ofelia's pregant mother grows more sick, and Ofelia tries desperately to comply with the Faun's needs, the film grows increasingly disheartening. The moment when Ofelia speaks to her brother in her mother's stomach was when the tears came to my eyes, and this soundtrack carries the tragic story along in infinite gentleness.

In the liner notes, Mr. del Toro describes how the film itself is a bedtime story and how it required a lullaby to carry the tale from start to finish. Javier Navarrete created this score surrounding a simple lullaby, one you will hear many times sung in the film. It is a very lovely melody, and even during the darkest parts of the film you can hear the indistinct notes falling above the destruction, and realize how the film could very well be just a bedtime story. This is an incredible soundtrack for an incredible movie, and I'm sure that everyone who listens to it will instantly fall in love.

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