Ismir Munoz

"Visca l’amor" features tenor Isaí Jess Muñoz and pianist Oksana Glouchko. The album focuses on the fascinating music and poetry of Catalunya - an area of northeastern Spain and southeastern France, whose language was long censored by the Franco dictatorship.

Selbst wenn Musik relativ genau notiert ist, wie in der Musik, muss ein Interpret viele Entscheidungen treffen, da die Notation nicht alle Elemente der Musik genau angibt. Der Prozess der Entscheidung darüber, wie Musik, die zuvor komponiert und notiert wurde, aufgeführt werden soll, wird als "Interpretation" bezeichnet. Die Interpretationen ein und desselben Musikstücks durch verschiedene Interpreten können in Bezug auf die gewählten Tempi, den Spiel- oder Gesangsstil oder die Phrasierung der Melodien sehr unterschiedlich sein.

Palatín belonged to a musical line that dates back to the 18th century and among whose members we find, for example, the creator of the first Spanish musical dictionary. He was born in 1852 in Seville (Spain). From a young age he showed great musical talent and mastery of the violin, so it was considered when he was only 12 years old, that he should continue his studies in what was then the best place to study violin, The Imperial Conservatory of Paris. There, he would study with Jose White and with Jean-Delphin Alard, Pablo Sarasate´s teacher. This would be possible thanks to a scholarship granted by the Excelentísima Diputación de Seville after having won the relevant competition. His compositions include 29 pieces for violin and piano, a concerto for violin and orchestra which is only the second Spanish Romantic concerto for violin as well as works for orchestra, choir, chamber music or solo piano adding up to a total of 89 works.

The works that are featured on the present recording were all written during an extremely fertile period in the history of the mandolin. Complex and varied, the Baroque age set out to explore new means of expression and, first and foremost, novel timbres. The inventive inquisitiveness of Baroque musicians took them in the direction of the subtlest of sonorities, and no sound was more subtle than that of the mandolin. This was a time when aesthetic concerns were dominated by research into tone colour and into achieving greater and greater refinement.

In a thought-provoking concept of intertwining a short story by Uruguayan writer Horacio Quiroga, with a personal near-death experience set to music, drummer/composer Luis Munoz offers The Dead Man, as a lesson in living life in the present moment, for that is all there is.

"Follow Me" compliments legendary jazz pianist Carli Muñoz fluid, joyous playing with a layer of world beats, soaring vocals, soulful blues, crisp production, seasoned playing, and a global conscience.