Lontano & Alison Wells - Fire Dressed In Black - Silvina Milstein: Chamber Works (CD)

Release Date: 04/14/09Exciting female composer - Argentine female composer with fiery music'... de la Martinez's compositional impulse is sure .. and ...secure even where she works in modest timeframes. Nowhere is this more clearly audible than in the two song sets, Canciones (1983), setting four early texts by Lorca, and Cantos de Amor (1985), using four poems by the less-well-known Gustavo Adolfo Becquer. In both, de la Martinez's skill as a word setter is very evident, wringing every nuance from the relatively short, straightforward poems in songs of direct appeal and communicability, with the accompaniments adding additional dimensions. In Cantos de Amor these are enhanced by the orchestral contribution with extended introductions that turn these into miniature tone poems. Olivia Robinson is in rapturous voice for the love songs but Marina Tafur is no less persuasive in the Lorca settings with their folk-like musics. Lontano provide excellent support to both as one would expect in