Marta Almajano - Music in the Time of Goya - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Various Artists - Art & Music Goya Music of His Time / Various [COMPACT DISCS] date 08/26/2008

Swiss-born Bloch, a pupil of Eugene Ysaee, emigrated to the United States in 1916. Written in 1926, two years after Bloch had become an American citizen, America An Epic Rhapsody, is the composer's tribute to his adopted country. This romantic and patriotic score vividly surveys the history of the US from the native American melodies of pre-colonial days to the modern era of 1920s jazz and beyond. The Concerto Grosso No. 1 is a bold statement which unites the eighteenth-century concerto grosso form with a modern tonal language.

Along with the Canto del Caballero (GCD C80101), a vihuela disc also in the care of José Miguel Moreno, this was the first recording of the Glossa tag to be released, back in 1993. In a vivacious and colourful tour of music for the stage, tonos humanos and instrumental pieces from 17th-century Spain, the Ensemble La Romanesca (with the soprano Marta Almajano, the gambist Paolo Pandolfo and José Miguel Moreno, playing the guitar, as it's principal contributors) conjured up a legendary disc which continues being an unsurpassed recommendation and, we would even go as far to say, an unsurpassable one.