Spanish Masters - The Swingle Singers

Concerto de Aranjuez (Adagio)

Spanish Masters
The Swingle Singers
Arranged by Ward Swingle
Philips PHS 200-261
1968

From the back cover: In this recording the Swingle Singers depart the Baroque road they've been traveling since 1963 to enter new territory, the compelling land of Spain. Seven albums ago, with the release of their "Grammy Award" winning "Bach's Greatest Hits," the octet set the musical world on its ear with their exciting modern phrasing of 17th and 18th century music. This album, however, is really less a departure than an arrival... for over the past four years the Swingle Singers have been steadily working their way forward through musical time, giving serious vocal interpretations of the progressive history of instrumental sound.

There was a strong tendency toward nationalism in the post-romantic last half of the 19th century. Even in Spain, composers such as Albania and Granados, to a great extent reacting against Germanic music which held center stage through much of the century, deliberately used their country's folk songs and native rhythms to express a growing national pride.

In the melancholy Concierto de Aranjuez, written for the guitar by the blind Valenciano, Joaquin Rodrigo, the adagio first movement expresses the warm mediterranean spirit and moorish grace of Andalusia. In this album, Ward Swingle, the leader of the group, performs for the first time as a soloist. In the slowly paced Rondalla Aragonesa of Grandos he vocalizes the romance and vigor of the rhythmic Spanish dances.

Swingle and soprano Christine LeGrand combine their talents to render the familiar Romance Espangnole, a piece derived from Spanish folklore. Many will recognize it as the theme used in the French film, "Jeux Interdicts," (Forbidden Games).

One cannot too highly praise the powerful bass of Guy Pederson. Sometimes adding warm depth to the voices by running parallel overtones, at other times providing a well-balanced counterpoint, the bass, to a great degree, accentuates the upbeat jazz tempo so characteristic of the gourd. The interplay is especially effective in Albania Granada.

That the sonata in D major by Padre Soler is the only selection reminiscent of the traditional Swingle sound is explained fully when one realizes that Soler, a contemporary of Bach, was a Spanish composer of the baroque era.

Two new vocalists join the group with this recording. Joseph Noves, an accomplished violinist who played many years with the Toulouse Symphony Orchestra, as well as a fine tenor, replaces Claude Germanine. Helen Devos, the youngest of the set, came from the Double Six to replace Alice Herald. – Leonard Aronson

Romanza Andaluza
Concerto de Aranjuez (Adagio)
Rondalla Aragonesa
Tango In D Major
Granda (Suite Espangnole)
Sevilla
Spanish Romance
Tango In A Minor
Sonata In D Major
Andaluza (Spanish Dance No. 5)