Conciertos Románticos
Ricardo Castro (1864-1907)
Piano Concerto in A minor Op.22 (c. 1886)
Berceuse Op.36 No.1
Canto de amor
Plainte Op.38 No.2
Manuel María Ponce (1882-1948)
Piano Concerto No. 1 “Romántico” (1911-1912)
Arrulladora mexicana
Gavota
Romanza de amor
Intermezzo No.1
Jorge Federico Osorio (piano)
Orquestra Sinfónica de Minería/Carlos Miguel Prieto
rec. 2022, Sala Nezahualcóyotl, Mexico City, Mexico; Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago, USA
Cedille CDR90000221 [75]
I have been a devotee of Hyperion’s Romantic Piano Concerto series, but they missed these two, and so did I. Manuel Ponce’s concerto appeared earlier on a monographical Sterling CD (review), and on disc 6 of a Brilliant reissue of an ASV series Musica Mexicana (review). Ricardo Castro’s concerto ws issued on another monographical Sterling CD (review).
Manuel María Ponce is regarded as the initiator of the Mexican Nationalist movement in music after the revolution. His output can be divided into the romantic and the modern; the latter begins around 1925, when he visited Paris and became familiar with Impressionism in music. His three-movement Piano Concerto No. 1, set firmly in the romantic period, has the characteristics of a European virtuoso concerto. Nothing in it strikes me as showing particularly nationalist folk song derivations, unless the tender slow movement is taken from a Mexican love song.
The Allegro appassionato begins with Germanic tutti followed by Lisztian fire and fury mixed with lilting passages. This is perhaps not surprising since Ponce studied in Germany with Martin Krause, a student of Reinecke and then Liszt. Without a break, we go into the slow Andantino amoroso, as long as the outer movements together. It is built around a pleasant melody, first played by the strings. The piano, alternately accompanied and solo, elaborates on the tune. It becomes virtuosic in the four-minute solo cadenza which leads directly into the Allegro. This is a summation of what had gone on before, with a climactic peroration on the slow-movement tune. Overall, it is an enjoyable piece, but without truly memorable themes, so it may be rarely performed even in Mexico.
There follow Ponce’s short piano works. The most highly regarded may be the Intermezzo No. 1 in a two-and-a-half minute sonata form. It is unsurprising that it has become well known: the satisfying structure and the memorable principal tune have recommended it to pianists over the years.
The other rarely encountered large piece here is the Piano Concerto by Ricardo Rafael de la Santísima Trinidad Castro Herrera. It is a work much earlier Ponce’s Concerto, yet it sounds rather more modern. The individuality of its themes makes it a more enjoyable listen for me. The booklet says: “This Concerto constitutes the first concertante piece for piano that any
Mexican – or Latin American – composer had written up to that time.” The opening tune on the strings (maybe accompanied by woodwinds; a bit difficult to tell) has a strangely memorable quality, but is not particularly beautiful. The orchestration is more adventurous than in Ponce’s piece, and this makes the work more striking. Naturally enough, one can detect its roots in the music of Liszt, Grieg, Scharwenka and so on. The piece is cyclic, so it can even be related to Liszt’s great Sonata and to César Franck’s music. That opening tune, pretty much omnipresent, returns in full orchestral panoply at the end of the Allegro finale.
I like this Concerto more than Ponce’s. The disc also includes Castro’s three piano pieces. The longest of them is the six-minute Canto de amor, which storms the heights of romantic passion.
The recording is fine, and the piano is well balanced against the orchestra, who play with unanimity and commitment. Pianist Jorge Federico Osorio, whose career has taken him around the world, gives a performance of sustained virtuosity that certainly makes the case for both concertos. The booklet includes a long informative essay (in English and Spanish) by José-María Álvarez, with biographical facts and comments on the music.
Jim Westhead
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