Javier Cqastillo

Eudora Records is thrilled to welcome Javier Laso to the label. As the great pianist Josep Colom states in the accompanying liner notes, “Javier Laso is inspired”, for “he connects directly with the music, a music which shows us a mysterious place which extends beyond the vicissitudes of life and only a performer who sees that place can reveal it to us.” The programme is a marvelous musical coupling: Schubert’s overwhelmingly moving last Piano Sonata D.960, written just a few weeks before his premature death, and Schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze op. 6, a Romantic and contrasting struggle between the two sides of the composer’s own musical and personal nature. Javier Laso’s rare and inspiring talent is in display in those passionate and insightful performances.

On his second Pentatone album Sogno, tenor Javier Camarena pays tribute to Francesco Paolo Tosti, together with pianist Ángel Rodríguez. Camarena and Rodríguez have curated a collection of Tosti’s songs that not only include some of his greatest hits but also highlight lesser-known works, including songs in French and English.

During his all-too-brief life, the Andalusian composer Manuel Blasco de Nebra (1750-1784) left behind a handful of keyboard works that evoke Scarlatti's concise forms and extraordinary powers of invention. Each of the sonatas consists of two movements: an adagio followed by a fast finale. The adagios are stark and full of gut-wrenching, slowly resolving dissonant moments, while unpredictable twists and turns characterize the almost Haydn-esque Allegros and Prestos, as well as the E minor Pastorela Minuet's discursive melodic trajectory. At times Blasco de Nebra foreshadows future soulmates; you might mistake the Op. 1 C minor sonata finale's persistent dotted rhythms for Schumann's. Javier Perianes understands what makes de Nebra tick, borne out by his varied articulations, wide dynamic spectrum, and shapely embellishments.

Star tenor Javier Camarena makes his Pentatone debut with Signor Gaetano, together with Gli Originali under the baton of Italian opera specialist Riccardo Frizza, presenting a carefully-curated exploration of Donizetti's greatest tenor arias. Besides famous excerpts from L'elisir d'amore, Don Pasquale and Roberto Devereux, this project focuses on hidden gems from rarely-recorded works such as Betly, Maria de Rudenz and Il giovedì grasso. Camarena and Frizza's exceptional sense of style is enhanced by the period instrument playing of Gli Originali.

As if in a mirror, this recording juxtaposes the original piano versions of two of Ravel's masterpieces ('Le Tombeau de Couperin' and 'Alborada del gracioso') with their respective orchestrations. The 'Concerto in G Major' combines the two facets, both when the piano is integrated into the overall sound and when it plays its role as a soloist. The subtle playing of Javier Perianes and the refined sonorities of the Orchestre de Paris, conducted by Josep Pons, also remind us that Spain was the most significant source of inspiration in Ravel's output.

Francisco Goya's paintings have left a powerful imprint on the European imagination. It was undoubtedly Granados who best translated into music, with nobility and humour, this colourful universe where majos and majas dance to love and death in the twilight glow of a dying Ancien Régime.

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi is arguably one of the best-known baroque composers. However, the rediscovery of the Prete Rosso in modern times took place quite recently. The history of this rediscovery might still offer us some surprises. This recording is aiming to be part of this history, featuring the most recently discovered Vivaldi sonatas for violin and continuo, including the latest discovered works by the Venetian composer (added to the RISM as RV 820 and RV 205/2), as identified by Javier Lupiáñez in 2015, and presenting the first recording of the RV 205/2.