In addition to the dark political past of their country (the civil war, the Franco years), contemporary Spanish composers have to deal with the strong heritage left by musicians of stellar stature, such as Albéniz, Granados, Falla, and the exile Roberto Gerhard. Although the situation is not easy, thanks to the constant support of state institutions and regional governments the Spanish new music scene has flourished beyond all expectations. Although, as former director of the Center for the Diffusion of Contemporary Music in Madrid Jesús Villa-Rojo was one of the main artisans of this resurrection, he has not yet achieved international recognition. His music displays a strange mix of modern devices, such as collage, atonality, and electronic music, along with references to the popular tradition, notably flamenco. Shaped in the classical three-movement mold, the Concierto 2 for cello and orchestra opens with a rhetorical gesture “à la Lutoslawski”, but instead of developing this high-profile material in a conventional way, the music becomes fragmented, playing with somber colors and textures, suspended chords, and repetitive rhythms. In the difficult solo part, Asier Polo proves a convincing interpreter.
Written in homage to the poet Federico García Lorca and the composer Luigi Nono, Passacaglia y Cante slowly builds up a giant crescendo before switching to the Cante, where vibrating flamenco voices on tape make a dramatic entrance, as if coming from far away. The Orquesta de Córdoba plays with enough enthusiasm to compensate for the poor intonation and sour tone of the strings. Written for mezzo-soprano and orchestra in a more directly tonal idiom, Cantar con Federico carries further the reverence to Lorca, with echoes of Mahlerian orchestral colors sustaining the flamenco-like melodic turns. Buenos Aires-born Alicia Cecotti sings well; unfortunately, her warm voice is slightly drowned by excessive hall resonance. The passionate beauty of popular music again permeates the ebullient Septeto, where layers of crushing rhythms and fierce melodies juxtapose in a continuous, fast-driven, intensely lyrical ride.
