Isabel Bayrakdarian, James Parker - Isabel Bayrakdarian ~ Azulão

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Music reviews of Isabel Bayrakdarian ~ Azulão

Music Review: Fascinating Program Beautifully Performed
Rating: 5 Stars

First, the program is well-constructed, alternating vocal/piano music with vocal/cello ensemble music, with cello ensemble music. Timbres are changed often enough that one's ear does not tire. Second, every bit of the program is superbly performed. Pride of place must be given to Miss Bayrakdarian, whose voice is crystalline and yet imbued with a womanly sensuality that well serves the alternately sultry and kittenish Spanish music present here. She sings Granados's delicious 'Four Tonadillas' with the kind of charm that I thought only a native Spaniard could bring to it. She negotiates the agréments and their subtle alterations of intonation so typical of Spanish singing with complete mastery. Late in the program she performs, with the cello ensemble, the ever-popular Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 as well as I've ever heard it. She also inhabits the sung version of Granados's 'La Maja y el Ruiseñor' ('The Maiden and the Nightingale') arranged for the opera he made from his piano suite 'Goyescas.'

The cello group plays Pablo Casals's arrangement of the Catalan Christmas carol, 'El Cant dels Ocells' ('The Song of the Birds'). And they lend a hand in Joaquin Rodrigo's 'Cuatro madrigales amatorios' ('Four Love Madrigals'), with cello ensemble accompaniment arranged (as in others here recorded) by Peter Tiefenbach. I particularly liked the interplay of teasing soprano and sporty cellos in 'Vos me matásteis' ('I die for love of you'), the second of this set, which is then followed by a bang-up performance of the familiar, catchy 'De los álamos vengo, madre' ('I've been down by the poplars, mother').

Fernando Obradors wrote wonderful songs that occasionally get sung by non-Spanish singers--I remember once being entranced by Elly Ameling singing the set recorded here by Bayrakdarian with superb assistance from pianist Parker, 'Canciones clásicas españolas' ('Classic Spanish Songs'). And I must say that at times I hear a hint of Ameling in Bayrakdarian's voice, something I call 'a smile in the voice.' This set is followed by an expert arrangmement, this time by Claude Kenneson, of Manuel de Falla's 'Suite populaire espagnole' that employs the cello ensemble (with some melting solo work by Epperson, their leader) playing three all-instrumental pieces and then accompanying Bayrakdarian in three of the six songs.

The CD is rounded out by Xavier Montsalatge's Lullaby from 'Cinco canciones negras,' the aforementioned Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5, and then the song that gives this album its title, Jayme Ovalle's 'Azulão' ('Bluebird'). The latter uses all the forces available here--soprano, pianist, cellists--in a haunting lament: 'Go bluebird, bluebird, companion of mine, go! Go see my faithless love.'

I cannot praise this issue highly enough. Ms Bayradkarian's voice is world-class and she sings with great musicality and feeling. Her accompanists are flawless. The recorded sound is quite good. The unattributed notes are very helpful. There are full translations of all the sung texts.

TT=76:14

Scott Morrison

Description of Isabel Bayrakdarian ~ Azulão

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