GUASTAVINO Songs • Désirée Halac (mez); Dalton Baldwin (pn) • ALBANY TROY 1023 (77:42 Text and Translation)

Bonita rama de sauce. Pampamapa. La rosa y el sauce. Se equivocó la paloma. Mi viña de Chapanay. Hermano. Anhelo. Cita. Milonga de los dos hermanos. Pueblito, me pueblo. El sampedrino. Abismo de sed. Ordinario rosal. Préstame tu pañuelito. Prisonero. Por los campos verdes. Balada. Flores argentinas. Canciones de Cuna. Canciones argentinas

"I was unfamiliar with the music of Carlos Guastavino until Fanfare sent this disc to me, and I enjoyed his songs very much. Guastavino was a strongly conservative 20th-century composer (1912–2000), firmly rooted in tradition, tonalism, and melody. He quite forcefully rejected atonality and the more experimental threads of composition as “nastiness,” and stated his credo that music should be based on melody and harmony. He is quoted in the notes as saying, 'I love melody. I love to sing. I refuse to compose music only intended to be discovered and understood by future generations.'

That conservatism should not be taken to mean lack of imagination. Guastavino’s music has plenty of personality, a strong Argentine folk flavor, genuine melodic invention, and he displays a keen ear for harmonic development even if it is within a traditional framework. The 31 songs heard here cover a wide emotional range, and represent a real discovery."

FANFARE: Henry Fogel