Balada: Piano Concerto No. 3, Concierto Magico

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Here's a disc of contemporary works written between 1997 and 2000 that are bound to satisfy listeners who value modernism, as well as those who seek tuneful accessibility. For Spanish composer Leonardo Balada, who made his reputation with such uncompromising abstract works as the Steel Symphony, convincingly blends folk music and avant-garde compositional techniques. His Piano Concerto is rooted in the pasadoble of the bullfight arena, the sinuous music of North Africa, and the Aragonese dance the jota. It succeeds because Balada seamlessly manages the transitions from folk to contemporary sonorities and techniques. His orchestrations are wonderfully imaginative. At times in the Concierto Mágico, he transforms the orchestra into a giant guitar. At other times, the orchestra simulates the rhythmic handclapping of gypsies at a flamenco bash. Soloists are all outstanding, and Serebrier conducts with evident sympathy and enjoyment. Naxos has a real winner here. --Dan Davis

Tracks:

Con, No.3: I - Rosa Torres-Pardo
Con, No.3: II - Rosa Torres-Pardo
Con, No.3: III - Rosa Torres-Pardo
Con Magico: I. Sol - Eliot Fisk
Con Magico: II. Luna - Eliot Fisk
Con Magico: III. Duende - Eliot Fisk
Music: I - Magdelina Martinez
Music: II - Magdelina Martinez

Amazon.com's Best of 2001

Here's a disc of contemporary works written between 1997 and 2000 that are bound to satisfy listeners who value modernism, as well as those who seek tuneful accessibility. For Spanish composer Leonardo Balada, who made his reputation with such uncompromising abstract works as the Steel Symphony, convincingly blends folk music and avant-garde compositional techniques. His Piano Concerto is rooted in the pasadoble of the bullfight arena, the sinuous music of North Africa, and the Aragonese dance the jota. It succeeds because Balada seamlessly manages the transitions from folk to contemporary sonorities and techniques. His orchestrations are wonderfully imaginative. At times in the Concierto Mágico, he transforms the orchestra into a giant guitar. At other times, the orchestra simulates the rhythmic handclapping of gypsies at a flamenco bash. Soloists are all outstanding, and Serebrier conducts with evident sympathy and enjoyment. Naxos has a real winner here. --Dan Davis

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic!.......2005-01-02

Correctly applied--"Genius"- the Beethoven of our time- Leonardo Balada's Piano COncerto #3 is bold and fresh. The orchestra is a paintbrush in the hand of this master. The piano writing is unique-- there will be no mistaking this Piano Concerto for any other.
Fantastico!

too shtickey.......2002-07-02

Sorry, just kind of fluffy and puffy, with no real soul.

You too can be modern if you use a Debussian scale.

Something different, you gotta listen to this one.......2002-01-03

If you like the works and technicalities of Ligeti, or
like me, you prefer tonality, and melody, then
we are in for something very special. Mr. Balada,
a composer whose name became familiar to me last
year(2001) when I first saw here at amazon.com
the recording of his first Violin Concerto;is
a composer of a very special and utmost original
style. He blends folk music of his native Spain,
with the most innovative, and inventive technical
musical theorical procedures. In his music one
can hear tone clusters at times, and yet still
hears the shoe stumping of flamenco dancers, as
in the first movement of his Concierto Magico for
guitar and orchestra. In the Piano Concerto, he
not only goes to Spain but he goes back to the
Spanish past by making reference to music of
Arab Andalusia (Andalusi) in the second movement
of the concerto. The Music for Flute and Orchestra
is his most recent recent work, it dates from
the year 2000. Mr. Balada in this works shows
that tradition and history can be perfectly blended
to produce the most beautiful and
rewarding melodies, Mr. Balada, well done!!!!

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