Manuel Blancafort (1897-1987)
          Solo Piano Works

Seven Peces de joventut/Youthful pieces (1915-17) [12:20]
Nine Cancons de muntanya/Mountain Songs (1916-18) [15:18]
Eight Notes d'antany/Notes from Years Gone By (1915-19) [14:57]
Twelve Cancons/Songs (1916-19) [18:53]
Miquel Villalba, piano
Recorded L'Auditorium, Jafre, Spain, November 2002
Released August 2003
Naxos/Spanish Classics 8.557332 [Volume 1 - 61:28]

Six peces breus/short pieces (1918-19) [9:59]
Six Jocs i danses al camp/Country Games and Dances (1918-20) [15:23]
Eight Cants intims I/Intimate Songs I (1918-20) [18:13]
Eight Peces per a piano (1920-21) [17:54]
Miquel Villalba, piano
Recorded L'Auditorium, Jafre, Spain, January 2003
Released May 2004
Naxos/Spanish Classics 8.557333 [Volume 2 - 61:29]

Composer: Manuel Blancafort was a Catalan composer who used the culture
and folk-music of his homeland as a guide for his compositions.  As you
might have noticed in the program listing above, all the music on these
two Naxos discs is early Blancafort.  At this young stage of his musical
career, he was concentrating on perfecting his craft in the area of
miniatures.  He later would go on to compose larger-scale music.

The Music: Blancafort was a melancholy guy, and most of the pieces on
the two discs are quite sad.  Actually, just about all the remaining
pieces have at least a tinge of melancholy as well.  So we have sad music
that is slow to moderate in tempo, introspective, light of touch, gorgeous,
mysterious, and permeated with the whiff of sensuality.

Volume 1 vs. Volume 2: At first blush it might seem that both discs are
clones of one another.  However, there are significant differences.  The
pieces in Volume 2 are of greater duration than in Volume 1, allowing
Blancafort to convey some healthy thematic development and contrast; the
Volume 1 pieces tend to merely state the theme and repeat it.  As a
result, there is a 'sameness' to Volume 1 not found in its successor.

There is also greater variety in Volume 2, thanks largely to the "Country
Games and Dances" where the composer eschews his glum personality and
gets exuberant.  Further, harmonic adventure really shows in the "Eight
Pieces for Piano" which are quite illuminating of a composer making
advances in his art.

Best of all are the "Intimate Songs I" that find Blancafort at his most
melancholy *and* inventive level.  The titles of these pieces reveal
much about Blancafort: "I still found withered flowers", "I went to the
beach to relax and the sky above was gray", "I'm alone and unhappy",
"Bitterly bemoaning my lot", "Nothing can console me", and "I have
forgiven you".  I imagine that Blancafort would not have made a good
entertainment director on a cruise ship, but this music is captivating
and filled with harmonic surprise.

Performances and Sound: I don't have any alternatives to compare him
with, but Miquel Villalba clearly has the pulse of this sad and luxurious
music.  The soundstage is excellent, allowing Blancafort's rich fabric
to fully bloom.

Don's Conclusions: A mild recommendation for Volume 1 and a strong
recommendation for Volume 2.  I don't exactly feel great about the 'mild'
recommendation, because there is a three-minute piece named "La lluna
brilla" from "Notes from Years Gone By" that I find to be a little
masterpiece of melancholy and perhaps the best piece on either disc.
The price is low, so get both discs.

Don Satz
[log in to unmask]