Turina’s music is so beautiful and so enjoyable that I wish I could welcome this disc with more enthusiasm. It has some rarities in the form of the vocal works: Poema en forma de canciones, Saeta en forma de salve a la Virgen de la Esperanza, and the Farruca from Triptico. All of these are well worth hearing, even if they only add up to about 16 minutes’ worth of music, and they are sympathetically sung by Clara Mouriz, who has a pleasant mezzo-soprano voice marred only by some minor pitch issues.
The major works, though, have all been played better by others, notably Antonio de Almeida with the Bamberg Symphony, currently available inexpensively on Newton Classics. It’s not that Juanjo Mena doesn’t know how this music goes, although the concluding Orgía of the Danzas fantásticas could have more drive, but the playing of the BBC Philharmonic–typically–is so characterless. You never get the sense that these players offer anything more than mere professionalism.
This music requires a sharpness of accent and vivaciousness of rhythm that these performances never quite capture. The festive finale of the Sinfonía Sevillana sounds mushy, while the quicker sections of Ritmos lack the necessary edge. The sonics too, while comfortably well-balanced, lack impact and that tactile sense of color that the music requires. In sum, this is pleasant, but it should be more than that.
