Carlos Surinach: Melorhythmic Dramas; Symphonic Variations; Feria Magica Overture; Sinfonietta Flamenca

Thanks to First edition for salvaging these fine performances of some exciting music. The earliest work here is the infectiously joyous Sinfonietta Flamenca (1950), a memorable, buoyant and rhythmically driven piece. The short Feria Magica Overture (1956) would make a glorious concert-opener, inventive and full of life. The Symphonic Variations (1962) and the Melorhythmic Dramas (1966) are more substantial works. The variations are well-constructed and display Surinach's penchant for driving, almost motoric rhythms, to the full without, perhaps, attaining that last level of distinction that would make them really memorable The somewhat abstract but surprisingly cogently structured sequence of evocative mood pictures that constitutes the Melorhythmic dramas are brilliant and instantly attractive without compromising artistic integrity the least. Overall, this is tuneful, at times grim, evocative, motoric, often triumphal and ecstatic music, and I enjoyed every moment of it. The two earliest scores are in mono sound, but the transfers are good. The later recordings also show their age, but not at all to any objectionable degree. The Lousiville orchestra provides committed playing, a little scruffy at times, perhaps, but this is music for which forward momentum and spirit matters far more, a requirement that does not find them wanting. This is in short an eminently enjoyable release. Strongly recommended.

Carlos Surinach was born in Barcelona in 1915 and was trained, first in Spain then in Germany, both as a conductor and a composer, holding various conducting positions in Spain and France. In 1951, after a 4-year stay in Paris, he emigrated to the US and became a successful composer for Ballet companies. This disc collates four World Premiere recordings, including two Louisville commissions (the Sinfonietta Flamenca from 1950 and the 1956 Feria Magica Overture), all representing the "non-Dance" part of his orchestral output. The two other compositions, the Symphonic Variations and the "Melorhythmic Dramas", are later pieces, dating respectively from 1962 and 1966.Surinach's musical language is mildly 20th-Century modern, that is, the modernism of Honegger, Martinu etc, rather than of Schoenberg. The orchestration is colorful, there is drama and lyricism, but it is not particularly distinctive. Any composition of Martinu, Hindemith or Stravinsky is immediately recognizable, but I wouldn't say as much of Surinach's.It is in the two early pieces that Surinach's Spanish roots are most in evidence. The "Sinfonietta Flamenca" is an homage to the Flamenco style "with its terrifying intensity and deep meditation" to quote the composer, adding that "Spanish composers [had] not delved into very much", giving preference to academic rules over "flamenco flamboyance" and expressing the goal that "this Sinfonietta Flamenca should have a maximum of flamenco style and a minimum of conventionalism". One wonders what Spanish composers he was thinking of it. The Sinfonietta is a piece in the style and wake of the most famous of all Spanish composers, Falla, and the same is true with the Overture to a Magic Fair, inspired by the Easter fairs of Seville. It is a dramatic and colorful orchestral showpiece in Spanish style.The two late compositions are more mature and "abstract" pieces, less festal, more dramatic. The Variations are dramatic, dark and colorfully orchestrated. Unlike First Edition's habit in other releases, each variation is, commendably individually cued. If you wonder what a "Melorhythmic drama" is, the notes by Surinach won't give much of an answer. "Drama" in that the music involves "intense conflict or force"; "Melorhythmic" because, apparently, that drama is expressed through melody and rhythm: a theatre of pure music, so to speak. But isn't that an all-encompassing definition that could be applied to most music ever composed, other than Feldman's or some of Cage's ? Oh well. Again the orchestration is colorful, the music dramatic, the language mildly modern (The fourth, "tragic", with its ominous deep brass calls, sounds strikingly like the beginning of Mussorgsky's Great Gates of Kiev), making the pieces sound like the kind of ballet music that might have been composed anywhere between 1930 and 1950 by any composer of that ilk. Pleasant listening but hardly imperishable.The recordings come from various dates. The two later pieces are in good stereo from the mid-1960s, and the Sinfonietta is more distant 1954 mono. The overture was recorded in 1956, in mono again, but it more spacious sound, but here, unlike the rest (and First Editions' wont) it has been remastered not from the master tapes, but, inexplicably (but presumably the original tape was lost or too badly deteriorated) directly from the LP disc, surface noise and all.TT is an acceptable 55:43.

I was at the premiere of the Melorhythmic Dramas at the Meadowbrook Festival (Detroit's summer venue) in 1966, as Sixten Ehrling conducted the Detroit Symphony. Words can't describe the effect this music had on the audience, who were expecting something rather more, er, cerebral. The end of the piece (it's a suite) is very noisy and could not be successfully captured in the grooves of an LP (I heard the Louisville recording when it first came out). I assume the CD has more success. Point is, don't by any means think that Ms. Gerber's assessment above means the work is in any way hard to get to. It is not, and you will be moved by it (possibly physically if your sound system is turned up).Also, we can update the status of the Piano Concerto recording. It is now out on CD, right now as an import, but judging from its sales popularity, it may be released in the USA any time.Do yourself a big favor and get to know this composer!