CARLOS GUASTAVINO (1912-2000): 10 Cantilenas Argentinas, 10 Cantos Populares, El Sampedrino, Bailecito.
Catalogue Number: 12W044
Label: Piano Classics
Reference: PCL10203
Format: CD
Price: $18.98
Description: Guastavino finds ever-ingenious ways to celebrate life in all its richness, and perhaps this positive outlook in his music has helped it to travel far beyond his native land. He explores the sounds of his vast nation – the folksongs, the streets and the forests are all here – without undue reliance on picture-postcard naturalism. The repertoire ranges from the early and well-known Bailecito (1940), to El Sampedrino (1992), from his final decade, via two ten-piece cycles: the Cantilenas, composed in the 1950s, and Cantos Populares, written in 1974 – all works that reveal Guastavino’s sheer love of melody. Although his writing is never facile in terms of structure or harmony, these technical aspects are always placed in the service of a cantabile upper line that is always distinctive, catchy and clearly influenced by folk song. Marcos Madrigal (piano).