El Discreto

Although she's making a major name for herself on the world's opera stages, Armenian/Canadian soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian has chosen her solo-recital repertoire for her two CBC recordings from decidedly non-opera material. The first, Joyous Light (type Q4974 in Search Reviews), featured contemporary arrangements of traditional Armenian liturgical music; now this one focuses on songs from Spain, Brazil, and Argentina. ..
… –David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

It is generally accepted that Victoria de Los Angeles possessed one of the most beautiful soprano voices of the 20th Century. Her musicality was supported by a vocal timbre suffused with the bright warmth of an Iberian summer. Her appearances in the concert hall and opera house, and her first recordings, drew the highest accolades from the musical establishment, critics and public. Her personality, excellent technique and dedicated approach would have secured her place as a great singer in any age.

May 23rd: centenary of the great pianist Alicia de Larrocha. Here is a live recording made in New York’s Hunter College in November 1971 with Larrocha’s close friend and the other great figure of Spanish classical music of 20th-century, Victoria de los Ángeles. A perfect communion between two artists at the height of their powers in a beautiful program including songs by Falla, Granados, and excerpts of zarzuelas.

These soulful Spanish and Argentinean songs arranged by violist Kim Kashkashian and pianist Robert Levin are well suited to their expressive and expansive playing. Most of the songs, ranging from works by Granados, de Falla, and Montsalvatge to early Ginastera, are written in a late romantic to early modern idiom, and many incorporate a strong folk element. The selections include rowdy, rhythmically charged dance-like songs, tender lullabies, and many flavors of love songs, from the exultant to the despairing. In addition to the better-known composers, Argentineans Carlos Guastavino and Carlos López-Buchardo make extraordinarily fine contributions. The choices of repertoire are excellent; each one of these songs is a jewel, and the ordering of the selections artful, including the surprisingly effective repetition of two songs at different points in the program. The transcriptions are inventive and imaginative, with the vocal lines idiomatically adapted for the viola's expressive capabilities.

Yang has won numerous prizes in music competitions including the Stotsenberg International Classical Guitar Competition, the San Francisco International Guitar Competition and the Young Concert Artist International competition in the United States, and the Darwin International Guitar Competition in Australia. She was awarded first prize in the Ivor Mairants Guitar Award by the City of London's Worshipful Company of Musicians, and won the Dorothy Grinstead Prize for a recital at Fairfield Hall, Croydon.