The exiles of Life Victoria

And we already have another season inaugurated. In this case, that of the Life Victoria, which this year will be centered on exile. The choice of the theme fits like a glove with the program that opens this new cycle, with pieces by Falla, García Lorca, Montsalvatge, Gardel, Lara and Ramírez. And who better than the American Isabel Leonard, with Argentine origins, to carry it out. The New York mezzo-soprano has a privileged timbre and the voice flowed throughout the two parts of a recital that also featured a communicative outpouring from the singer that sometimes seemed out of place, although it did not take her much effort to put the audience in her pocket.

However, something was missing in the first part, especially in the more spirited blocks of the Siete canciones populares españolas by Falla or in the harmonizations by García Lorca of pieces such as Anda jaleo, El café de chinitas and La tarara. A lack of that duende so typical of Andalusian culture which, on the contrary, gave way to the excellence of the sinuosities of some of those pieces. The Scotsman Malcolm Martineau did not seem to help much, who, despite being a benchmark of liederistic pianism, did not have his best night.

Undoubtedly, the most relevant part of the evening was the Cinco canciones negras by Montsalvatge, with a sensual interpretation, always masked with naivety, mischief, and transparency, amidst the timbral velvets of a simply beautiful voice. It was here, also, that Malcolm Martineau at the piano stood out, after a very irregular first part in terms of the keyboard.

It was a pity that Leonard dispensed with Damunt de tu només les flors —he announced that he knows it in Spanish but that it would not be very pleasing to the Catalan public— and that we were left without the wonderful Mompou of the most famous of the songs from the cycle Combat del somni. Leonard replaced the piece with Clavelitos by Valverde, a song that Victòria dels Àngels lavished in her recitals.

El día que me quieras by Gardel, Granada by Lara and a dramatic version of Alfonsina y el mar by Ariel Ramírez put an end to a recital that featured as a prologue the sensitivity and confidence of the soprano Maria Patak alongside the pianist Isaac Grau.