Customer Reviews

Misa Criolla

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

 

 

Ramirez' Misa Criolla is the epitomy of music that lets you know the minute you hear it that you are in South America. Additional Latin American folk songs combine to make this disk rich in a variety of moods and textures.

"Counterpoint" sing with clean precision creating a sound that feels more like a single instrument than the twelve or so singers who make up the group. Their virtuosity grows with every CD they produce. Add to this restrained but evocative instrumentation that makes the music sparkle and you find yourself enjoying the music as much as the performers clearly do.

This is Latin American music at its best. Unfortunately, track #15 "Por el Camino" is being listed as a Colombian song and in Amazon's track list the composer as JUAN Reyna. Wrong in both counts: JOSE Reyna is a Venezuelan composer born in Caracas in 1908, and his song is a very popular tonada/joropo that everybody in Venezuela is familiar with. Already got in touch with Albany Records to have this error corrected and give due credit to this wonderful and prolific Venezuelan composer.

I love this music, and found this CD to have lyrical interpretations of the variety of Latin American music represented by it. However, I was a wee bit disappointed in one thing. I had a previous tape (lost it) of much of the same music, and the performers were less professional, meaning that the music gained in earthiness which I felt to be a plus. As this recording was done by professionals, it is lyric, musical, and lovely, but lacks that unsophisticated touch which I had liked. Still a very enjoyable recording, though.

I have been looking for a good rendition of this beautiful mass for years, having first run across it in the 1960s, shortly after it was composed. This version is perfect! Lots of feeling, beautiful rhythms, just wonderful.