Customer Reviews

Balada: Piano Concerto No. 3, Concierto Magico

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you like the works and technicalities of Ligeti, or
like me, you prefer tonality, and melody, then
we are in for something very special. Mr. Balada,
a composer whose name became familiar to me last
year(2001) when I first saw here at amazon.com
the recording of his first Violin Concerto;is
a composer of a very special and utmost original
style. He blends folk music of his native Spain,
with the most innovative, and inventive technical
musical theorical procedures. In his music one
can hear tone clusters at times, and yet still
hears the shoe stumping of flamenco dancers, as
in the first movement of his Concierto Magico for
guitar and orchestra. In the Piano Concerto, he
not only goes to Spain but he goes back to the
Spanish past by making reference to music of
Arab Andalusia (Andalusi) in the second movement
of the concerto. The Music for Flute and Orchestra
is his most recent recent work, it dates from
the year 2000. Mr. Balada in this works shows
that tradition and history can be perfectly blended
to produce the most beautiful and
rewarding melodies, Mr. Balada, well done!!!!

Well, I have to admit that my assessment of this disc is more lukewarm than most critics'. I knew Balada's music from before only through his impressive, massive "Steel" symphony (recorded by Lorin Maazel) and did approach this release with some expectations. The music of Leonardo Balada (b.1933) is accessible, despite his deployment of avant-garde techniques, and I suppose a possible if abstract point of comparison would be with surrealist paintings that employ familiar elements in unfamiliar settings. Balada uses elements of Catalan folk music, snippets of tunes and familiar rhythmic patterns to create often glittering, shimmering and harmonically rather radical textures, but apart from some immediately appealing effects I had a hard time finding much here that I would wish to revisit. At least the performances seem excellent and the recorded sound is superb, so these factors do presumably not contribute to my reluctance.

The third piano concerto (1997) strike me primarily as being a sequence of effects by which a sense of unity is achieved through immediately recognizable stylistic traits rather than anything resembling real development. At least it contains several fascinating elements, and it manages to retain the listener's interest throughout its three quirky, kaleidoscopic movements. The Concierto Mágico, Balada's fourth concerto for guitar and orchestra, has less to offer. As one expects from guitar concertos, it sets typically Spanish elements in an essentially classical framework. There are plenty of orchestral effects, of course, and plenty of busy, quarreling discussions between soloist and orchestra, but nothing adds up to anything.

The Music for Flute and Orchestra gives us more of the same; moderately intriguing orchestral effects, juxtapositions of busy passages and stretches of stasis, but little in terms of cumulative impact. The performances are, as mentioned, pretty excellent; Magdalena Martínez provides a lively rendition of the solo part in the Music for Flute & Orchestra, Eliot Fisk is an assured, resourceful soloist in the guitar concerto, and Rosa Torres-Pardo dispatches the solo part in the piano concerto with bravura, spirit, and seeming effortlessness. The Orquestra Simfonica de Barcelona I Nacional de Catalunya under José Serebrier impresses as well, with a broad palette of colors and generally vigorous (though refined) playing. Still, I am not sure they are able to convince me that this music in any way stands out from the crowd.

Correctly applied--"Genius"- the Beethoven of our time- Leonardo Balada's Piano COncerto #3 is bold and fresh. The orchestra is a paintbrush in the hand of this master. The piano writing is unique-- there will be no mistaking this Piano Concerto for any other.
Fantastico!

Sorry, just kind of fluffy and puffy, with no real soul.

You too can be modern if you use a Debussian scale.