Notes and Editorial Reviews
DOS CONTINENTES
•
Leticia Gomez-Tagle (pn)
•
URTEXT 184 (60:59)
CHOPIN
4 Scherzos.
GINASTERA
Danzas Argentinas.
PIAZZOLLA
Invierno Porteño.
GADE
Celos.
NAZARETH
Odeón.
LOYOLA
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class="ARIAL12bi">El Tecolote.
OTEY
Arabesque.
GOMEZ-TAGLE
No me dejes jamás
This is a hard disc to categorize; as so often these days, its title,
Dos Continentes,
is fairly meaningless. Its main musical substance, the four Chopin scherzos, enter a very crowded field indeed. But it’s the remainder of the disc, most of it with no competition whatsoever, that will be chief attraction for many.
The young (-ish) Mexican pianist Leticia Gomez-Tagle’s technical fluency is immediately apparent in her fearless assault on Chopin’s First Scherzo. However her challengingly fast tempo leaves little breathing room; Abbey Simon (Vox), Pollini (DG), and Pletnev (live at Carnegie Hall/DG)—to choose three fairly recent versions—all adopt a slightly slower pace, enabling a subtlety of voicing and plasticity of phrase shaping that elude Gomez-Tagle. The B-Major Polish Christmas-carol Trio is effective in its plainspoken way, but without the kind of artful varying that Pletnev, for one, brings to its many repetitions. (The close-up recording, while excitingly vivid, is also partly to blame for ironing out much of the dynamic contrast she’s putting into her playing.) The Third Scherzo similarly suffers from a tempo slightly too fast for comfort (with a few more missed notes than one expects from a modern studio recording), and the D?-Major Trio’s chorale, with its “waterfall” figuration, ideally needs more variegated coloring—Katsaris (Warner Apex), at a slightly more leisurely pace, has all the time in the world for the kind of richly kaleidoscopic nuances of voicing that make all the difference. Still, at their best Gomez-Tagle’s performances have real fire, a volatile nervous energy that is very exciting in its way: all of the Second Scherzo, and the coda of the Third. The Fourth is also impressive, with a nice rhythmic spring to the crisp high-speed passagework, even if her Trio can’t quite equal the best versions in conjuring, through its long melodic lines and harmonic shifts, the sense of vast distances or depths (again, Katsaris excels here).
No such reservations apply to the Latin-American part of the program (with a Danish tango by Gade thrown in for good measure). The music is all quite delightful, the playing clean, zesty, and possessed of a native-born idiomatic command. The only comparison I have at hand is Barbara Nissman in Ginastera’s dances (Newport). Gomez-Tagle is snappier, tangier, Nissman weightier, more romantic in expression; both are very effective. I hope we’ll get more such fare from Gomez-Tagle in the future. Where does this leave us? Not a first choice for the Chopin, but overall an attractive disc I can certainly recommend to the adventurous.
FANFARE: Boyd Pomeroy
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Works on This Recording
1.
Scherzo for Piano no 1 in B minor, B 65/Op. 20 by Frédéric Chopin
Performer:
Leticia Gomez-Tagle (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1831-1832; Poland
Venue: Auditorio Blas Galindo del CNA
Length: 9 Minutes 7 Secs.
2.
Scherzo for Piano no 2 in B flat minor/D flat major, B 111/Op. 31 by Frédéric Chopin
Performer:
Leticia Gomez-Tagle (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1837; Paris, France
Venue: Auditorio Blas Galindo del CNA
Length: 9 Minutes 7 Secs.
3.
Scherzo for Piano no 3 in C sharp minor, B 125/Op. 39 by Frédéric Chopin
Performer:
Leticia Gomez-Tagle (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1839; Mallorca (Majorca),
Venue: Auditorio Blas Galindo del CNA
Length: 6 Minutes 48 Secs.
4.
Scherzo for Piano no 4 in E major, B 148/Op. 54 by Frédéric Chopin
Performer:
Leticia Gomez-Tagle (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1842; Paris, France
Venue: Auditorio Blas Galindo del CNA
Length: 11 Minutes 0 Secs.
5.
Danzas argentinas (3), Op. 2 by Alberto Ginastera
Performer:
Leticia Gomez-Tagle (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1937; Argentina
Venue: Auditorio Blas Galindo del CNA
Length: 7 Minutes 47 Secs.
6.
Las estaciones porteñas (4): Invierno porteño by Astor Piazzolla
Performer:
Leticia Gomez-Tagle (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1970; Argentina
Venue: Auditorio Blas Galindo del CNA
Length: 2 Minutes 43 Secs.
7.
Celos, for piano by Jakob Gade
Performer:
Leticia Gomez-Tagle (Piano)
Venue: Auditorio Blas Galindo del CNA
Length: 3 Minutes 2 Secs.
8.
Odeon by Ernesto Nazareth
Performer:
Leticia Gomez-Tagle (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1910; Brazil
Venue: Auditorio Blas Galindo del CNA
Length: 2 Minutes 54 Secs.
9.
El Tecolote, for piano by Angel E. Loyola
Performer:
Leticia Gomez-Tagle (Piano)
Venue: Auditorio Blas Galindo del CNA
Length: 3 Minutes 16 Secs.
10.
No me dejes jamás, for piano by Hugo G. T. Y. D. Valle
Performer:
Leticia Gomez-Tagle (Piano)
Written: 1952
Venue: Auditorio Blas Galindo del CNA
Length: 1 Minutes 54 Secs.
11.
Arabesque, for piano [1941] by Orlando Otey
Performer:
Leticia Gomez-Tagle (Piano)
Period: Modern
Written: 1941
Venue: Auditorio Blas Galindo del CNA
Length: 3 Minutes 15 Secs.
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