Germaine Montero: Folk Songs of Spain

Germaine Montero | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 24, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Vanguard Classics
• ASIN: B0000023FO
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #481,626 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Los Cuatro Muleros [The Four Mule Drivers]

2. Los Contrabandistas de Ronda

3. Nana

4. Paso Rio [I Pass a River]

5. No Hay Quien Pueda [There Are None to Compare]

6. Caracoles

7. Eres Alta y Delgadita

8. El Baile de Ávila [The Dance of Ávila]

9. Ya Se Van los Pastores [The Shepherds Are Already Leaving]

10. Jotas [Jota Dance]

11. Asturiana

12. Boda

13. Folia de San Vincente de la Barquera [Dance of San Vincente de LA Barq]

14. Corroclocio

15. Fandango

16. Gallegada [Galacian Dance]

17. Con las Abejas [With the Bees]

18. Jotas [Jota Dance]

19. Villancico [Christmas Song]

20. Nana

See all 33 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A haunting, emotionally honest, incomparable rendering., February 21, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Greencastle, IN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Germaine Montero: Folk Songs of Spain (Audio CD)

I first became familiar with Germaine Montero's incredible voice and emotional range in the 1960 LP recording of 16 of these folksongs and was hooked ("Spanish Folksongs, Vol, II," VRS-9067. The other 17 songs are from a 1959 Vanguard release, "Canciones de Espana, "VRS-9050. They have all been digitally remastered for this CD.) It is not nostalgia for the records of my youth that drives this glowing review. True, I was more moved the second time around. But perhaps having a life's experience informs the connections of these simple folksongs with universal human truths. These factors and the nuances Montero provides to the song's meanings are key to my emotional and critical response. It is the perfect mesh of the content of these songs with Montero's remarkable rendering that conveys the essence and vitality of Spanish character and the resilience of the human spirit. Their subject is often the difficulties and pain associated with youthful love yearning for fruition despite the tight restraints of an ever watchful traditional society. The narratives are distilled, everyday peasant encounters broadly sketched through telling details, yet weighted, and sometimes forbidden, by complex, social mores. The relationships often are complicated by the tensions between Christian and Moorish participants which the youths dismiss and society fuels. Most of the folksongs are from southern Spain and unmistakeably reveal their Moorish influence in subject matter and expressive vocal delivery by Montero. The poetry of the lyrics is disarmingly simple, yet goes to the heart of the matter. In "Los cuatro muleros" (from Andalucia), the girl reveals to her mother that she is more than in love with the rider of the gray mule. The mother expresses her ire by the hot coal burn in her eyes, yet the girl remains undaunted. The latter is conveyed by Montero's jaunting delivery. (One negative comment I have is directed not at the recording, but at the translation [albeit synopsis] of the lyrics--they are often off the mark and misleading.) My favorite cut is "Asturiana." The lyrics about an abandoned country road and Montero's delivery convey an unfathomable and heartbreaking mood of loss that goes beyond this particular scene of desolation and speaks to the tragic sense of life Spanish art has always conveyed. It is this quality of revealing larger truths through mundane episodes that contributes to the remarkable character of this collection. And Montero makes it happen: the lyrics alone could do it, but Montero's interpretation makes them memorble. She gives them substance and emotional depth. Her voice is unique in its quality as well as in its uninhibited (yet imperceptibly, artistically controlled) depth of feeling. She transfers the vitality and sincerity of her voice to the lyrics' meaning and gives them life and relevance. Another equally moving CD by Montero is "Lament on the Death of a Bullfighter and other poems and songs of Federico Garcia Lorca (Vanguard Classic OVC-8095). You will never hear a rendering of the "Llanto por Ignacio Sanchez Mejia" as that by Montero. Both CDs are outstanding.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars excellent music, average recording, January 28, 2001

By 

Mr. Ice (Windsor, CT United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Germaine Montero: Folk Songs of Spain (Audio CD)

I really can't add much to what the previous review said about the music, but I will say that the recording quality is typical for an old recording -- tinny and without a wide tonal range. The guitar solos are recorded well, however.