Various composers: Canciones Españolas, Bernarda Fink, mezzo-soprano

Mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink already has a wide repertoire under her belt, ranging from the Baroque to Slovenian art-song. Her latest disc, Canciones españolas, offers songs by de Falla, Granados and Rodrigo. As the accompanying notes explain, the disc “offers a significant overview of the Spanish canción lírica (art song) of the twentieth century, a genre akin to the French mélodie and the German lied.” Chronologically, Granados is the earliest of the composers presented here, his seven-movement song cycle Tonadillas en estilo antiguo makes the most of the relationship between voice and piano; listen to how both parts in El mirar de la maja start texturally so far apart before coming together and resolving at the end.

Manuel de Falla offers another sound world. Trois mélodies bring glimmers of Debussy, unsurprisingly, since the notes reveal that de Falla was guided in the song cycle by the French composer. In contrast, El pan de Ronda que sabe a verdad has a distinctly Spanish feel: the piano part, reminiscent of a Spanish guitar, sets the rhythmic tone while the slightly lower vocal part adds to the richness of the song. Rodrigo, the most contemporary of the three composers, brings yet another slant to Spanish song and, for this reviewer, offers the most emotive of the performances here. Cuatro canciones sefardíes sounds modal in places, particularly the chant-like Respóndenos. Bringing the disc to a close, Rodrigo’s Cuatro madrigales amatorios, based upon 16th-century Spanish melodies, offers a livelier and more optimistic side to the composer, similar to de Falla, Rodrigo often creates a guitar-like sound in the piano part.

Pianist Anthony Spiri has risen to the occasion throughout, giving a sensitive and balanced accompaniment to Fink’s velvety tones. This is Fink and Spiri’s third recording together, and hopefully not their last, together, they create a beautiful sound and a fascinating exploration of Spanish song.