Estrella Morente, Javier Perianes Encuentro review: Native Spanish songs

Manuel de Falla had harmonised some Greek folk songs before applying his techniques to his native Spanish music in his Siete canciones populares españolas. These arrangements were made for an opera singer, and it was with an operatic soprano, Maria Barrientos, that he later recorded them. Federico García Lorca refused to write down the much simpler arrangements of his Canciones españolas antiguas. They were transcribed from his 1931 recording with La Argentin- ita, a flamenco singer who has inspired Estrella Morente – the singing voice of Penelope Cruz in Pedro Almodóvar's film Volver – to bring her breathy fluidity to both Lorca and Falla. The not always light-finger pianist Javier Perianes adds the El Amor Brujo Suite. url.ie/55ay