The back of the tray card bills this release as coming “from the producers of BBC Legends.” This is not an unqualified recommendation, for no label has released more garbage, unauthorized by the performers in question, in atrocious sound quality, than the folks at BBC Legends. They represent the smelly armpit of the classical music industry, where artistic quality is irrelevant and the sole justification for new releases is to satisfy the uncritical demands of small numbers of fans. For each gem that has been uncovered (and I do not dispute the value of that), there have been dozens of discs that disgrace the reputations of the performers in question, and if Medici Arts plans to follow the same path, it would be a terrible pity.
On evidence here, the prospects are not encouraging. Teresa Berganza has recorded El amor brujo and La vida breve in excellent stereo performances (on DG). Gonzalo Soriano has similarly done Nights in the Gardens of Spain (for EMI). Ataulfo Argenta also recorded El amor brujo for EMI. The Falla performances here are seldom more than adequate, unexceptional, a bit roughly played, and wretchedly preserved in boxy, dull, dynamically limited mono. The two excerpts from Tomas Bretón’s Escenas Andaluzas were captured in much more listenable stereo, though the anonymous orchestra is nothing to write home about. Argenta himself was, to put it kindly, not a major artist, though he might have become one had he not died tragically young. There are no insights of particular value here, and his legacy is best savored via the Decca box of his authorized recordings for that label. In short, this disc practically defines the word “waste”.
