"el Jueves" 2000

The first disc from El Concierto Español, the orchestra founded by the violinist Emilio Moreno (who is both a founding member of Frans Brüggen’s Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and a great champion of Spanish music) is dedicated to one of the most important composers of the 18th century in Spain, Francisco Corselli. Of Italian origin, Corselli spent a considerable part of his career working for the Spanish court, to which he brought the opera seria which was enjoying so much success elsewhere in Europe at the time.

Al Ayre Español is a vocal and instrumental ensemble formed in 1988 by the conductor Eduardo López Banzo. The ensemble plays period instruments and has brought back to life Spanish Baroque Music music, renewing the interest of contemporary audiences. The name of the band ('ayre' is an ancient word for 'aire') makes reference to playing music 'the Spanish way' ('con aire español').

Alameda is a band that has to be placed into the fascinating realm of andalusian rock movement (some would call it "prog-andaluz"). Their debut is from 1979 and they follow the wake of more famous bands such as the pioneer Triana or the contemporary Medina AzahAra. Unilkely to the said bands, their debut is closer to pop, romantic and slow for the most part, with massive use of piano (both classical and electric) and synth's flights, with hints of jazz here and there (in "Matices", for example). There's excellent flamenco guitar here and there, as in "Ojos de Triste Llanto"; "Aires de la Alameda" is particularly noteworthy also for the sweet melody and typical morish climate (even if not too original); palmas (handclapping) are even added in some tracks as in "La Pila del Pato".
The result is very good: elegant music with low rock quotient.

The last decade or so has seen the blossoming of a new generation of vocal talents from Spain, many of whom have been expressing their art through early music. A leading figure in this artistic array has been the soprano Nuria Rial, a singer blessed with an unaffected declamatory style, sweet and yet intimate in its emotional charm. In recent years the career of Rial has seen her tackle with success music by Bach, Handel, Mozart, Haydn, as well as Pergolesi and much Italian seicento repertoire. This newly-prepared Glossa album turns the clock back to collect together recordings made by the fresh voice of the Catalonian soprano in the years immediately following her studies at the Musik-Akademie in Basel.

This isn't so much a new album by long-running Spanish pop/rock act La Oreja de Van Gogh as it is a demonstration of their confidence in new vocalist Leire Martínez, who joined in 2008. She had big shoes to fill, replacing original singer Amaia Montero, who'd been the face and voice of their first four albums. So after discovering Martínez on the Spanish reality show Factor X, the group released its fifth album, A las Cinco en el Astoria, with her.

Here is a 2-CD by Spanish progrock band Alameda featuring all the tracks from their four studio-albums, released between 1979 and 1983. If you are up to Spanish progressive rock, don't miss this excellent compilation, what an exciting encounter between progressive rock and flamenco, the ethnic music from Andalusia (the southern part of Spain). The 32 elaborate compositions sound very pleasant, melodic, harmonic and varied, from romantic and dreamy to bombastic symphonic rock or swinging jazzrock. The Spanish vocals are outstanding: powerful, emotional and that typical flamenco undertone (without the usual wailing expression), this man gives many tracks an extra dimension! Alameda plays very professional: a splendid, very fluent rhythm-section, tasteful keyboards…