Xavier Montsalvatge: Orchestral Works - Mena, BBC Symphony Orchestra (2012)

This disc of orchestral works marks the centenary in 2012 of the birth of the Catalan composer Xavier Montsalvatge. It is released as part of our Spanish music series, conducted by Juanjo Mena, a fellow Catalan national and Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic. Montsalvatge was one on the most influential musical figures in Catalan music during the latter half of the twentieth century. He explored virtually every musical form, but many of his most significant works, including Cinco Canciones Negras (Five Negro Songs), were written after his discovery of the art of the Antilles. He was fascinated by West Indian music, which, as he wrote, ‘was itself originally Spanish, exported to the Caribbean, and then re-imported’. In Cinco Canciones Negras for mezzo-soprano and orchestra he set a varied collection of poems from the Caribbean and Spain, adopting the captivating rhythms of the West Indies. ‘Canción de Cuna para Dormira a un Negrito’ can only be described as one of the tenderest lullabies in the repertoire, presenting a vivid contrast to the exhilarating display of rumba-like rhythms in ‘Canto Negro’.

Partita 1958, which, in the words of Montsalvatge, is ‘not entirely unrelated to classicism’, is strongly inspired by the works of Darius Milhaud, who had discovered the intoxicating rhythms of Latin-American music during the First World War, and had introduced them into his own compositions to sensational effect in the 1920s.

Calidoscopi simfònic derives from an early, unfinished ballet, El Angel de la Guarda (The Guardian Angel). The impressionistically evocative introduction is irresistible evidence of Montsalvatge’s genius as a ballet composer, while the finale is an uninhibited celebration of primitive rhythms with thudding percussion, snarling trombones, uproarious trumpets, and, in the slower middle section, a characteristically melodious cor anglais.

In spite of his immense creativity, Montsalvatge never wrote a mass or a symphony. In 1985, however, he did combine the two genres in a symphonic version of the Requiem Mass, the Simfonia de Rèquiem, which features no words and no voices until the very end of the last movement. Montsalvatge intended ‘to ignore the orthodox religious aspect and to concentrate on bringing out its profound, forceful message, which is both sad and sublime, by the means of the orchestra’.

Composer: Xavier Montsalvatge
Performer: Clara Mouriz, Ruby Hughes
Conductor: Juanjo Mena
Orchestra/Ensemble: BBC Symphony Orchestra

Reviews: I included a new Montsalvatge orchestral disc in my 2012 Want List, and now here is another: the third release in Mena’s Spanish series for Chandos. The Catalan composer (1912-2002) is finally getting the recognition on disc that his music deserves, probably as a result of his centenary last year. The new CD is brilliantly performed and recorded in the best Chandos house style, and the program is very welcome. The four-movement Kaleidoscope Symphony is a reworking of music from an unproduced ballet and is advertised as a premiere recording. Previous recordings exist of the Partita and Simfonia de Réquiem, but the first is unavailable and the second suffers from inferior sound.


Partita 1958 finds Montsalvatge in neoclassical mode. Darius Milhaud is called to mind by the bitonal harmony (which is very evident in the opening Fanfare), and a French pastoral strain infiltrates the Sarabande and Intermezzo movements. The finale begins with a vigorous atonal fugue in the strings, but Montsalvatge soon gives up on such an academic idea and the movement swiftly turns into a boisterous concertino for xylophone.


The Simfonia de Réquiem of 1985 is an orchestral rendering of segments of the Requiem Mass, in the same mold as Britten’s similarly titled work. The solo soprano sings only in the final movement. This piece displays a more severe and serious side to the composer: His use of the Dies irae theme in the appropriate movement is subtly integrated, while the closing bars featuring the soprano’s “Requiem aeternam” provide a quietly moving coda. A notable feature of the orchestration is the use of piano in the “Introit” and “Agnus Dei” movements, an effective and memorable touch.


The Kaleidoscope Symphony is a lighter work in a more nationalistic vein, with a habañera for the third movement and easily identifiable Spanish rhythms in the finale, subtitled “a la Indiana.” The composer is completely at home in this idiom, spicing it as usual with some modernist harmonies (though it is nowhere near as dissonant as his later ballet scores like Laberinto ). This 16-minute work is an enjoyable addition to the Montsalvatge discography.


The most familiar music here is the song cycle. Indeed, it appeared on the recent disc mentioned above, sung by Lucia Duchoñová. I was very impressed with her interpretation, but Clara Mouriz (a rising star in Britain) is not far behind. Mouriz brings greater depth of tone to the songs—she is a mezzo as opposed to Duchoñová’s soprano—and is equally characterful in her interpretation. I like a soprano in this work, but this is an entirely personal preference. Duchoñová’s brighter tone better suits the buoyant mood of the five songs. Victoria de los Angeles represents the best of both worlds in her 1962 EMI recording.


In the Lullaby—arguably Montsalvatge’s single most famous composition—the Chandos sound engineer fades Mouriz’s voice and the orchestra into the distance at the end, as though the mother who is gently crooning to her child softly tiptoes out of the room (and into the Grand Canyon, by the sound of it). I could do without this effect. A sense of closure is written into the music already, so let the artists make it work! Putting aside that insignificant caveat, I am delighted with this disc of first-rate music and I heartily recommend it.