Habanera
Ana Beard Fernández (soprano), Roderick Williams (baritone), Iain Hall (recorder)
The Endellion Cellists/William Vann
rec. 2024, The Menuhin Hall, Stoke d’Abernon, UK
Reviewed as a WAV download
SOMM Recordings SOMMCD 0699 [61]

The booklet notes for this enterprising release tell us that its origins came about at the 2023 Endellion Summer Festival, at which soprano Ana Beard Fernández and Roderick Williams developed a programme expanding on his cello ensemble arrangements of songs by Xavier Montsalvatge. With these Cornish foundations and recorded in the Menuhin School in picturesque Cobham this is a very English production, so its convincing Spanish flavours are all the more impressive. All of the sung texts are included in the booklet, both in their original language and in English translation.

Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 is deservedly famous, and Ana Beard Fernández’s voice floating over the cello octet leads us into the programme with a feast of familiarity. The Aria is nicely expressive and the following Dance suitably rhythmic, with skipping syncopations and a symphonic richness to the sound. Manuel de Falla’s Siete canciones populares españolas, a set of Spanish folk songs arranged and adapted by the composer and further arranged for cellos by Roderick Williams, is full of beautiful things. There are one or to moments of suspect intonation, in the Jota for instance, but the whole is imaginatively colourful and authentic to my ears, from the sparing version of Nana to the pithy finale Polo, with the cellos strumming like guitars.

With their Cuban influences and popular African-Caribbean character, Xavier Montsalvatge’s Cinco canciones negras are as distinctive as anything in this programme, but with a hint of the Western ‘musical’ in their art song aesthetic. These rhythms and atmosphere slide seamlessly into Ravel’s Vocalise-étude en forme de habanera, Roderick Williams’ arrangement enhancing the darker mood in this evocative piece. This is followed by a nice set of three songs arranged by Ana Beard Fernández that include the burnished baritone of Roderick Williams, and also introduce the gentle recorder tones of Iain Hall for Xoán Montes’ melancholy Negra sombra. Rachmaninov’s famous Vocalise has the effect of raising us into transcendence before the final two tracks. Stern Russianness in Shostakovich’s Farewell, Grenada! keep the Spanish inflections in the vocal line firmly on cold ground, and we are given a rousing if subtly nuanced Pied-Piper dance out of the concert from the entire ensemble and all voices in Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Forêts paisibles, a piece straight from France’s baroque grand opera-ballet tradition.    

The quality of Ana Beard Fernández’s voice raises this recording beyond that of a novelty for cello fans, but all of the arrangements are effective and there is plenty of musical contrast throughout. This is clearly a production in which everyone is involved with full dedication, and if there are one or two mildly scrappy moments in the ensemble I can happily overlook these for the value of the recording as a whole.

Dominy Clements

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Contents
Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959)
Bachianas brasileiras No.5 W.389 (1938-45)
Manuel de Falla (1876–1946)
Siete canciones populares españolas (1914)
Xavier Montsalvatge (1912–2002)
Cinco canciones negras
Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
Vocalise-étude en forme de habanera M.51 (1907)
Henri du Bailly (?–1637)
Yo soy la locura
Anon
So el encina
Xoán Montes (1840–1899)
Negra sombra
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943)
Vocalise Op.34 No.14 (1915)
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975)
Proshchaj, Grenada! Op.100 No.1 (1956)
Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764)
Forêts paisibles (from Les Indes galantes, 1735)*