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Ginastera Comes to Chandos: Yawn…

David Hurwitz

Artistic Quality:

Sound Quality:

What is Chandos thinking? Here we have the first volume in a new series of what will be, presumably, the complete orchestral works of Ginastera. Nice idea, but do we need to hear these pieces played by a mediocre orchestra under the not-terribly-interesting Juanjo Mena? You can get all of this music (well, Estancia appears in the form of the suite) more characterfully performed by the Odense Symphony under Jan Wagner on Bridge. Mena isn’t bad, and the music isn’t difficult to put across, but a terminally bland orchestra like the BBC Philharmonic needs a genius at the podium to wake them up, and they don’t find one here.

Consider the exciting central movement of Pampeana No. 3. Why is the melody in the bassoons so difficult to hear? What happens to the horns at the climaxes? Why are the trumpets so flat in the concluding Malambo of Estancia? Even the percussion playing lacks snap. If you want the complete Estancia (I find the spoken narration annoying and prefer the suite) look to Gisèle Ben-Dor with the London Symphony on Naxos. Even the Chandos sonics lack punch. Look, there was a time when a disc like this would have been novel, and I would have welcomed it accordingly, reservations be damned. But we live in a different world. There’s nothing new here, and nothing special. Life is too short.


Recording Details:

Reference Recording: Estancia (complete): Ben-Dor (Naxos); Pampeana No. 3: Mata (Sono Luminus)

  • Record Label: Chandos - 10884
  • Medium: CD

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