Folk Songs Nora Gubisch (mezzo soprano), Alain Altinoglu (piano), Gérard Caussé (viola), et al

Folk Songs
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Artist: Nora Gubisch, Alain Altinoglu, Gérard Caussé, Manuel de Falla, Fernando Obradors, Enrique Granados, Luciano Berio, Johannes Brahms
Genre: Classical
Label: Naïve

Folksong has nourished composers for centuries. And Luciano Berio's landmark Folk Songs, 50 years old this year, showed that the mid-20th-century avant-garde could successfully embrace the popular touch of that tradition. Berio, of course, trawled across continents for stylistic variety, with the chameleon-like vocal adaptability of his then wife, Cathy Berberian, in mind. The other composers here – Brahms (his songs with viola and the Lullaby), Granados (in his Colección de tonadillas), Falla (the Popular Spanish Songs) and Obradors (in his Canciones clásicas españolas) didn't travel as far. But they still take listeners on journeys that are soulful, raw, jaunty, fiery, consolatory, moods that French mezzo Nora Gubisch charts with appreciative ripeness. url.ie/8fjv

Michael Dervan

Michael Dervan

Michael Dervan is a music critic and Irish Times contributor