Habaneras & Tangos
Ricardo Gallén (guitar)
rec. live, February 2014 & May 2017, The Fundación Juan March, Spain
MarchVivo MV012 [59]

The music on this disc was taken from two live concerts which Ricardo Gallén gave on 8 February, 2014 and 20 May, 2017. While the atmospheric attributes of live guitar recitals are universally accepted, there are aspects of the present performances which are not so complementary. The instrument does not compete well with the chronic background noises which are present in all of this recording. String whistle may be acceptable, but a cacophony of background noise is distracting. The concert guitarist is also aware that, probably, sitting in the front rows are the critics, waiting for a ‘hook’ on which to hang their reviews. Often the consequence of this is a rather more guarded approach, with spontaneity and risk-taking avoided. There are occasions in the programme when one feels this influence may be affecting the playing, but on others, such as tr 13 & 14, that sound totally uninhibited by such constraint.

Ricardo Gallén is a recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist; he has performed globally in prestigious music venues such as Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional.

He studied guitar in his native city of Linares, commencing tutelage under his father, Manuel Gallén, at the age of four. He subsequently studied in a number of conservatories including Madrid, Granada, Salzburg, and Munich. Gallén is the winner of a number of international guitar competitions, including First Prize in the 1999 Francisco Tarrega Competition, Benicasim. He is currently a Professor at the Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimer, and at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo.

The liner notes go into considerable lengthy detail regarding the origins of the habanera and the tango. From the perspective of the guitar, one of the more interesting facts presented relates to track 9 Maria, attributed here to Francisco Tarrega. There never can be a definitive collection of Tarrega’s oeuvre because what he composed, arranged and simply transferred to stave by hand for students is not clearly delineated. The tango entitled Maria has long been under a cloud, its true composer purported to be a contemporary, Carlos Garcia Tolsa. His tango is essentially the same as that originally attributed to Tarrega, the latter of which remained unpublished during Tarrega’s life time. Maria falls outside Tarrega’s compositional style, and is not in a key favoured by him. Additional light is shed on the situation when we observe the way in which Tarrega notated his manuscripts. The score for Albeniz’s Pavane-Capricho, Opus 12, reads: para guitarra por(by) Francisco Tarrega. The notation obviously refers to his transcription. The handwritten manuscript for Maria is not so clear. The notation: Tango para guitarra por Francisco Tarrega is more open to interpretation.

One refreshing aspect of this recording is that some of the programme is relatively unfamiliar, and has not been over-recorded by guitarists. The delightful habanera by Agustin Barrios (tr 3) is a case in point, and few aficionados will be familiar with it.

On this recording, the tone of Gallen’s playing borders on a flesh-only approach, rather than a flesh- nail combination generally favoured by today’s concert guitarists. This impression may be, in part, due to the instrument employed, the details of which are not shared with the listener.

In 2000, Naxos released a disc by Gallén recorded in the now famous St John Chrysostom Church, Newmarket, Canada. This is a significantly different sounding recording and performance, on which occasion he played a guitar by Paco Santiago Marin. This is Gallen at his best, and what an impressive best that is.

Zane Turner

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Contents
Vassilis Tenidis (1936-2017)
Habanera of Smyrna
Jaoquin Turina (1882-1949)
Habanera  Op. 48
Agustin Barrios (1885-1944)
Habanera
Eduardo Sainz de La Maza (1903-1982)
Habanera
Manuel de Falla (1876-1946)
Homenaje
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
La soiree dans Grenade (Estampes)
Emmanuel Chabrier (1841-1894)
Habanera
Isaac Albeniz (1860-1909)
Tango  Op 165
Francisco Tarrega (1852-1909)
Tango
Ernesto Haiffter (1905-1989)
Habanera
Emilo Pujol (1886-1980)
Tonadilla
Tango
Guajira
Flores Chaviano (b. 1946)
Sonata evacacion y boceto
Sebastian Iradier (1809-1865)
La Paloma. Habanera