Recordings
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Canciones amatorias
CDA67186
Archive Service Only
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Details
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No 1: Descúbrase el pensamiento
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No 2: Mañanica era
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No 3: Llorad, corazón, que tenéis razón
Lloraba la niña
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No 4: Mira que soy niña
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No 5: No lloréis, ojuelos
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No 6: Iban al pinar
Serranas de Cuenca
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No 7: Gracia mía
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In Mañanica era, the sound of bells on midsummer morning is conjured up in a lilting 3/8, its delicate counterpoint weaving in and about the voice part like the breezes and flowers among which Venus is pictured taking the air. Only at the end do music and words reveal the poem’s sad conclusion.
The fourth song Mira que soy niña introduces that well-known staple of song literature, the young girl surprised by love. Its turbulent piano interludes and constant refrain of ‘¡Ay, ay, ay, que me moriré!’ suggest something of the same erotic confusion as Hugo Wolf’s Mörike setting Erstes Liebeslied eines Mädchens, though without that song’s Germanic explosiveness. A similar pianistic undercurrent propels the melismatic energy of No lloréis, ojuelos. At about one minute the shortest song of the cycle, its showy manners are perhaps not quite in tune with the sentiment of the poem, unless Granados is trying to suggest the bravura of pained love. After all this amorous excitement, Iban al pinar, the second of the two Luis de Góngora poems, comes as a breath of fresh air. One can easily imagine the sway of the mountain girls’ skirts in its lilting rhythms and refrain of ‘unas por piñones, otras por bailar’. At first sight the triumphant ending of this song can seem to pose a problem for the interpreter, as it threatens to pre-empt the final song, Gracia mía. It may be for this reason that the Canciones are not always performed complete, and sometimes not in the printed order. However, if taken on the wing and carried off with sufficient élan, the join between the two songs is the reverse of anti-climactic, raising the tonality by a semitone while at the same time plunging into the first recognisably ‘Spanish’ rhythmic pattern of the cycle.
from notes by Roger Vignoles © 2002
