Spanish and Portuguese Keyboard Music

Felicja Blumental – Piano

This recording of 18th century keyboard music by Spanish and Portuguese composers is one of around thirty CDs by Polish pianist Felicja Blumental available on the Brana Records label. Brana is a legacy label featuring a catalogue of recordings by the virtuoso pianist and her soprano daughter Annette Celine – and with cover artwork from paintings by Markus Mizne, Blumental’s husband, this is quite a family affair.

Felicja Blumental specialised in performing and recording relatively unfamiliar repertoire, and that certainly holds true for the programme on this CD. The disk features short movements from keyboard works by seven different composers, mostly unknown to me and in some cases with very little information known about the composer at all, although most were primarily church composers and organists who also wrote for keyboard.

All the featured composers were strongly influenced by the music of Scarlatti, some with one foot in the Baroque and one stepping forward into the early Classical era. The Scarlatti influence is particularly evident in the work of the Spanish composers Soler and Cantallos, the first of whom studied with Scarlatti, and Seixas, a Portuguese composer who held the position of vice chapel master to Scarlatti’s chapel master at Lisbon Cathedral.

This recording is something of a showcase for Seixas, whose compositions make up about half of the CD. His Sonata in A minor generates a feeling of urgency building through repeated phrases in the Allegro, followed by two decorated and carefree Minuets. His Toccata in E minor displays the beginnings of Classical music, with a very short Adagio middle movement that left me wanting more!

Two Sonata movements by Soler reveal his genre stepping position in history, showing the heavy influence of his teacher Scarlatti in the first, and early Classical elements in the Clementi-like second. A lovely D minor Aria by the Spanish composer Angles was a surprise discovery. Carvalho’s Toccata in G minor is melodic, with changing harmonies under a simple repeating phrase. There are also pieces by M. Albéniz and Cantallos from Spain, and Jacinto from Portugal.

I was as unfamiliar with Felicja Blumental as I was with the repertoire, and her playing was a similar pleasant discovery. In the Angles Aria, Blumental’s slow, deliberate pacing, beauty of phrasing and gentle touch makes a moving account of a simple melody. Elsewhere she exhibits powerful and dextrous playing in the exuberant, virtuoso Sonata in Bb major by Seixas, and clear articulation in the pianistic Carvalho Toccata.

The CD as a whole was an enjoyable listening experience, with concise, tuneful works well executed. I would recommend this to anyone with an interest in Baroque music and/or keyboard music, and anyone wanting to expand their music knowledge with the discovery of new repertoire. If you enjoy this, there’s a second volume of Spanish and Portuguese music to be released on the same label.

Alison Owen-Morley