This one is rough.
In some cases roughness could be a boon, where scrappy ensembles give music gusto.
Yet this recording of Albéniz orchestrations are saddled with tuning issues, ensemble and balance issues, questionable tone quality, etc.
Enrique Bátiz led a lot of Spanish music for ASV, and many of them very good. This program comes with a little more competition, including from Bátiz himself with the RPO and LSO, so there is no need to be saddled with poor execution.
A review from 2024
This 1994 ASV recording features the orchestral music of Isaac Albéniz led by Enrique Bátiz and Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México. Truth be told, all of this music are arrangements of Albéniz’s piano music by Enrique Fernández Arbós and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Spanish conductors who arranged these works in the early to mid-20th Century.
Albéniz’s music is overtly Spanish. His melodies are always singing and full to the front and his rhythms are always snappy, syncopated, and of the dance-like, mixed-meter variety. Arbós’ orchestrations put Albéniz firmly into the colourful Impressionist category, interpolating his sound with a focus on harps and winds, and the occasional brass outburst (listen to those horns!). The percussion puts his music assuredly in Spain with frequent castanets and other percussive sounds. It does seem, however, that Arbós stays true to the register of the written solos and harmonies for piano, for Albéniz often switches melodies to the left hand and we get frequent cello and low winds alternated with the right-hand violins, flutes, and oboes.
Arbós chose five of the nine movements from Albéniz’s piano monument Iberia. The trouble is, these five movements are all mid-to-slow tempo settings that wear quickly in their similarities, although they do differ in mode and meter. De Burgos’ setting of Suite Española is much more listener friendly in its complete eight movements, although Albéniz frequently shifts gears within individual movements, creating some built-in variety. The singleton Navarra is a virtuoso three-minute showpiece that comes and goes quickly.
Mexican conductor Enrique Bátiz leads well here, with only the opening of Iberia a little slow (he times over a minute faster in another recording); otherwise Bátiz moves things along throughout this program. Unfortunately, there is only so much the State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra can do. This performance is littered with tuning issues, flubs, and rough timbres, although these issues are not pervasive; just noticeable from time to time. The now defunct ASV annoyingly puts the violins far to the left, but all of the other instruments speak well in their auditorium, with a fairly close perspective.
Unfortunately, both major works here have been bettered elsewhere since this ASV release came around in the mid-90’s. Jesús López Cobos gets sweep and grandeur from Cincinnati and dynamite sound on Telarc , along with the complete nine-movements of Iberia, as opposed to the five here. And another full Iberia can be found on Eloquence under Jean Morel, but in older sound. Also, Bátiz rerecorded this same Iberia Suite, but with the more facile London Symphony Orchestra found on Regis . As to the Suite Española, the arrangement by De Burgos is best found with De Burgos himself conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra, also on Eloquence ; depending on what you want from pairings, he can also be found on Decca as well. The new release on Chandos with Juanjo Mena conducting is incomplete and a slow, non-starter.
This recording gets my lightest of recommendations for colourful compositions and idiomatic playing, but with average sound and quality of player output. In the end, I would stick to the other recommendations for these colourfully-orchestrated, Andalusian-tinged Albéniz compositions.
Listen on YouTube
Works
Iberia (30.10)
Navarra (3.49)
Suite Española (41.32)
Performers
State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra
Enrique Bátiz, conductor
Label: ASV
Year: 1994
Total Timing: 76.45
I tossed mine long ago, and I suggest others look elsewhere before engaging with this one.
Too bad, for I think ASV was an enterprising Classical Music label, and these musicians are eager to please.
Find more Albéniz recordings HERE!
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