Guacamaya. Songs & Chamber Music from Mexico

Guacamaya. Songs & Chamber Music from Mexico

DCD34286 (Delphian Records, CD)

FIRST RELEASE (17 June 2023)

Playing time: 74'56"
Tracks: 19
Booklet pages: 24
℗ 2023 Delphian Records Ltd
© 2023 Delphian Records Ltd
Main country of recording: United Kingdom
Reviewer: Paul Sarcich
Review of Guacamaya. Songs & Chamber Music from Mexico published on 13 June 2023

Mr McFall's Chamber
Jamie MacDougall tenor (tracks 1, 3, 5, 10, 12 and 19)

María Grever (1885-1951):

1 Cuando vuelva a tu lado

Javier Álvarez (born 1956):

2 Metro Chabacano

María Grever:

3 Júrame

Joaquín Gutiérrez Heras (1927-2012):

4 Canción en el puerto for cello and piano

Agustín Lara (circa 1897/1900-1970):

5 Arráncame la vida

Manuel Ponce (1882–1948):

Cuatro danzas mexicanas (Four Mexican Dances) for piano
6 Vivo – Meno mosso, espressivo
7 Vivo – Più lento
8 Vivo – Meno mosso
9 Vivo – Poco meno

10 Por ti mi corazón

Arturo Márquez (born 1950):

11 Homenaje a Gismonti for string quintet

Agustín Lara:

12 Granada

Pablo Moncayo (1912-1958):

Sonata for Viola and Piano
13 Allegro moderato
14 Lento
15 Allegro

Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1940):

Tres piezas (Three Pieces) for violin and piano
16 Allegro
17 Lentamente
18 Allegro – Allegro vivace

Manuel Ponce:

19 Estrellita

Confessing to a thirty-year love affair with the music of Mexico, Scottish tenor Jamie MacDougall enthusiastically joins forces with Delphian regulars Mr McFall's Chamber, whose involvement in Latin American music goes back nearly as far. The resulting album of songs and chamber music covers the whole of the twentieth century, charting a journey through nationalist, modernist, folk and Aztec influences to the work of Arturo Márquez and Javier Álvarez, two of the most prominent and successful composers in Mexico today. At the heart of the programme are the classic songs whose writers grew up in the drawing-room culture as well as the bars and brothels of turn-of-the-century Mexico, a repertoire MacDougall reckons the equal of the American Songbook, that should be much better known and more widely heard.

Recorded 27-29 April 2022 in the Parish Church of St Cuthbert, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.