CANCIONES ESPAÑOLAS • Teresa Berganza (mez); Narciso Yepes (gtr) • DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 477 6611 (46:46)

ALFONSO X Rosa das rosas. Santa Maria. FUENLLANA Perdida de antequera. ANON Dindirindin. Nuevas te traygo, Carillo. Los hombres con gran plazer. MUDARRA Triste estaua el rey David. Si me llaman a mi. Claros y fescos ríos. Isabel, perdiste la tu faxa. TORRE Dime, triste corazón. VALDERRÁBANO De dónde, venís, amore. MILAN Toda mi vida hos amé. Aquel caballero, madre. TRIANA Dínos, madre del donsel. ENCINA Romerico. VAZQUEZ/FUENLLANA Vos me matastes. NARVAÉZ Con qué la lavaré. VASQUEZ/PISADOR En la fuente del rosel

Teresa Berganza made her concert debut in 1955, and toured soon after that. Surprisingly, given the popularity of these recitals, her first solo album didn’t appear until years after numerous operatic LPs, in 1974. She was a seasoned performer by then, with a broad range of repertoire and a noted specialist in the music of her homeland. This is a reissue of that recording, devoted to Spanish songs “from the Middle Ages and Renaissance.” The oldest material is from the 13th-century collection of Alfonso X, “el Sabio” of Castille and León, whose actual degree of involvement in the cantigas attributed to him remains unknown. Nearly everything else is from the 16th century.

Berganza’s delivery was always chaste, typical of one school of Spanish taste that favors clear enunciation, smooth production, vocal agility, and an elegantly inflected line. As a result, she’s a good fit to this music that calls upon just these qualities. Whether it’s a declaimed love lament such as Francisco de la Torre’s Dime, triste corazón, the lengthy, suspended phrases of Luy de Narváez’s contrapuntal vilancico, Con qué la lavaré, or Juan Vasquez’s folk-like En la fuente del rosel, Berganza’s voice and manner are always appropriate. There has been some very Spanish singing of this and similar repertoire committed to disc since the appearance of “Canciones Españoles,” but none that have surpassed what is achieved, here.

Yepes, who accompanies throughout, is (as usual) clear in texture, technically immaculate, and sure-footed in phrasing. He never pushes Berganza, but establishes a clear and complementary sense of identity in numerous selections where the guitar is more than just a background repository for chords and rhythms.

FANFARE: Barry Brenesal