Salvador Bacarisse: Conciertos

Description

The concerto for violoncello and orchestra, never before released or recorded, dates from 1935. The hypnotic arpeggios with which the work is opened refer, in their bareness and insistence, to a certain Stravinsky, but they are quickly replaced by a flute, bass clarinet and viola fugato. The cantabile shows Bacarisse´s ability to write expressive, almost post-romantic melodies, and in the violoncello soloist´s magnificent line in the second movement, Bacarisse creates with a single instrument a polyphonic texture similar to that of Bach in his suites for this instrument and in the violin partitas. There is no shortage of examples of more conventional virtuosity (another of the pillars of the concerto in its most classical form), especially in the third movement. With the other two works included on the CD, we move to crucial years of Bacarisse´s career in exile. The juxtaposition of styles in an episodic way is less evident in the fourth concerto for piano, and is now replaced by a more systematic use of virtuosity and lyrical themes. However, it represents no obstacle in the concerto work of Bacarisse being one of the most original and extensive not only of exile, but of all Spanish music of the twentieth century. Contrary to what has been thought, Bacarisse does not waiver with exile, but revisits some of his old ways and retains others in order to continue telling us what music should be and what its transformative potential in Spanish society is.