Pianophilia

Mehr von Richard Burg:

(nms)

Wonderful, Alfred, to have more pieces in this collection. To my great delight, the Poème Pastoral was not one piece, but a whole series of six. I especially like the third one, Nuages from this set.

Thanks for this, Alfred. Castillo is turning out to be more substantial than I expected.

From pre-Fidelian times:

(1852-1911)
(nms)
tonight:
granum aurum[/i][/color]

Thank you Alfred, for introducing us to yet another unknown.

So here we have this Cuban composer writing a Polish mazurka--this kind of thing we're getting used to seeing here at Pianophilia--this penchant for foreign composers writing mazurkas. Guess Chopin really started a trend.

A Spanish salon paraphrase (quite effective, if you happen to like the genre!!):

nms (alfor-edited)

Alfred, the Gonzales paraphrase seems a lot more like a concert encore than a salon piece to my ears. It really is quite a brilliant showpiece and the cadenza is very well written.

I see Gonzales has written quite a few other pieces that might be worth exploring with much devotion to transcriptions/paraphrases of popular tunes of the day.

By the way, did anyone happen to notice the the name Gonzales does not appear anywhere in the score? Instead, we see the name "Anselmo G. Del Valle" as the composer. Anyway I found that González del Valle, Anselmo lived from 1852-1911. Evidently there are some people at these libraries who really know what they're doing and filed him correctly.

Much appreciated, Alfred.

Dear fleubis, you are welcome, as ever!!

More Anselmo...or Gonzalez...or (del) Valle...

No. 3 of five rapsodias

nms (alfor-edited)

Very nice, Alfred, this 3rd Rhapsody of Gonzales. Here was have Gonzales on the colour cover....likely where it was on the other piece as well. These kinds of pieces are lots of fun to play. From the standpoint of harmony, Gonzales is not very interesting, but has a lot else going for him in capturing the feel of the popular music of the day.

Lots of fun, Alfred. Thanks!

You are welcome, dear fleubis!!

A suite of twenty-one Asturian melodies:

(nms, alfor-edited)

Lovely, Afred! This first rhapsody of Gonzalez has a lovely selection of melodies which the composer has reworked. Alas the poetry attached to these little pieces is beyond my ability to translate (I did notice that testy umlaut appearing in them!), but am taking great enjoyment playing them for what they are -- charming character pieces. While the final dance , "La Tarara" is a rousing finisher to the set, I much prefer the more delicately nuanced pieces, such as "Añada" #16.