Luis Salinas Musica Argentina (2003)

This is the mainstream recording debut of Luis Salinas, the young Argentinian guitarist/composer whose admirers include Chick Corea and the late, great Brazilian guitarist/composer Baden Powell. Salinas plays both electric and acoustic guitar on this set of his own compositions, fronting a quartet that includes the popular Sammy Figueroa on percussion. At first blush, given the continuous layer of synth violins, the sound seems to fit the familiar formula of "smooth" jazz. Yet while the music is largely relaxed, it's more varied and interesting than the usual "lite" fare - it has real drums and a clear sense of direction. Salinas offers a personalized mix of bossa nova, salsa, Argentinian folk music, bolero, and jazz; the percussive accents and expressive range of the guitar and piano keep the mix from blending too smooth. Most of the tunes are taken at mid-tempo; the distinctive high points are the ballads…

The works of Tomás Luis de Victoria are today an international paradigm of the Spanish Renaissance heritage. This master, born in Avila, rises like a standard-bearer from the huge spectrum of Spanish composers who carried the art of polyphony to its highest musical and liturgical significance.

Francisco Javier Vargas Pardo is a Spanish blues and rock guitarist, founder and leader of the Vargas Blues Band. Javier was born in Madrid shortly after his parents, immigrants in Argentina, returned from Buenos Aires. Nine years later, once again back in that country, they reside in the cities of Mendoza, San Luis, Buenos Aires and Mar del Plata. Passing through Avenida de Mayo in Buenos Aires, he meets Tanguito, composer of “La Balsa” and pioneer of National Rock. It is in Argentina where he awakens his passion for music and where Javier begins to play the guitar. There he experienced the National Rock movement that was conceived in Buenos Aires and spread thanks to magazines such as Pelo and Pin-up.

Victoria is probably the best known Spanish composer of the Renaissance. His intense, emotional music, is considered the peak of the Golden Age of Spanish polyphony and his works are sung by every and all vocal ensemble worldwide. The perfection of his style and the serene and austere beauty of his output have made of Victoria a favourite among the music lover, who will possibly find it very interesting to have this masterpiece available, intensely sung by a Spanish chamber choir.

Lovers of the Spanish Baroque may be surprised to see the subtitle "17th-century violin music in Spain" here, inasmuch as non-keyboard instrumental chamber music following Italian models has never surfaced before. Indeed, the booklet transmits statements by writers of the time bemoaning the lack of such violin music. What's happening here is that Spanish historical-instrument group La Real Cámara and its director-violinist Emilio Moreno have hypothesized that Spanish organ music might have been arranged for other instruments in the same way Italian music certainly was; Girolamo Frescobaldi specifically attested to this.

This recording features Vespers music of the type that was performed on high church holidays in 17th-century Rome. Carefully and knowledgeably compiled by Bernhard Pfammatter, the pieces on this world-première recording afford us an acoustical image of Vespers music, a form that was then strictly regulated by its liturgical function within the Vespers service.

A true spate of recordings in recent years has illuminated the best qualities of Georg Philipp Telemann's chamber music, which is instrumentally colorful, adept in its combination of styles, and often possessed of sheer imagination and a delightfully cheeky sense of humor. For a great example of the kind of thing Telemann does all the time that Bach would rarely if ever do, hear the Entrée from the Ouverture for oboe d'amore, two violins, viola, and continuo in E major, TWV 55:E2 (track 6), where the music unexpectedly shifts into triple meter and back again.