Guastavino: Song Cycles Letizia Calandra & Marcos Madrigal

• Carlos Guastavino (1912 - 2000): Flores Argentinas:
• 1 Flores Argentinas: I. Cortadera, plumerito 03:09
• 2 Flores Argentinas: II. el clavel del aire blanco 02:58
• 3 Flores Argentinas: III. Campanilla ¿a dónde vas? 01:45
• 4 Flores Argentinas: IV. el vinagrillo morado 01:56
• 5 Flores Argentinas: V. ¡Que linda la madreselva! 01:49
• 6 Flores Argentinas: VI. las flores del machachín 02:41
• 7 Flores Argentinas: VII. las achiras coloradas 03:36
• 8 Flores Argentinas: VIII. Jazmín del país. ¡Qué lindo! 02:14
• 9 Flores Argentinas: IX. Aromito, flor de tusca 01:04
• 10 Flores Argentinas: X. la flor del aguapé 03:30
• 11 Flores Argentinas: XI. Ay, aljaba, flor de chilco 02:58
• 12 Flores Argentinas: XII. Ceibo, ceibo zuiñandí 02:42
• 13 Flores Argentinas: XIII. la rosa y el sauce 02:44
• Carlos Guastavino:
• 14 Elegía para un gorrión 02:42
• 15 Se equivocó la paloma 02:46
• 16 Jardín de amores 02:22
• 17 ¡a volar! 01:40
• 18 Nana del niño malo 02:15
• 19 La novia 01:02
• 20 Geografía física 02:08
• 21 ¡al puente de la golondrina! 02:19
• 22 Elegía 03:48
• 23 El sampedrino 03:50
• Total Runtime 57:58

Info for Guastavino: Song Cycles

Carlos Guastavino (Santa Fe, Argentina, 1912-2000) was very unusual among his contemporaries in being unafraid to “distance himself” from the modernist and avant-garde tendencies of his day. He resolutely followed his own path, leaving experimentation to others, creating a catalogue of over 500 intimate, autobiographical works harking back to the nineteenth century, many of them for voice and piano.

Guastavino’s songs bear witness to a masterful ability to pair voice and piano – a gift that led some to call him the “Schubert of the Pampas”. They also benefit from the fact that he chose to set the words of some of the leading poets working in Latin America at the time, including such luminaries as Rafael Alberti, Atahualpa Yupanqui, Pablo Neruda, Gabriela Mistral and Jorge Luis Borges. All in all, he was primarily recognised during his lifetime as a songwriter, creating works that stand as archetypes of a compositional idiom notable for both its rigour and its authenticity, as well as for its sheer craftsmanship and profound self-referential sincerity.

Deciding to record a selection of Guastavino therefore seems a pretty wise move, and the choice of performers makes that decision an even safer bet. The intelligence and artistic sensitivity of Cuban pianist Marcos Madrigal and Italian soprano Letizia Calandra, combined with the poetics of Guastavino, make for an album of wonderful warmth and sensuality. Listeners will lose all sense of time and place as, from the first track onwards, these songs conjure tranquillity and delight, sensations so necessary in our own turbulent times.

Letizia Calandra, Sopran
Marcos Madrigal, Klavier

No biography found.

Booklet for Guastavino: Song Cycles