Nuria Rial - The Spanish Album (2011)

The last decade or so has seen the blossoming of a new generation of vocal talents from Spain, many of whom have been expressing their art through early music. A leading figure in this artistic array has been the soprano Nuria Rial, a singer blessed with an unaffected declamatory style, sweet and yet intimate in its emotional charm. In recent years the career of Rial has seen her tackle with success music by Bach, Handel, Mozart, Haydn, as well as Pergolesi and much Italian seicento repertoire. This newly-prepared Glossa album turns the clock back to collect together recordings made by the fresh voice of the Catalonian soprano in the years immediately following her studies at the Musik-Akademie in Basel.
Joining the ensemble Orphénica Lyra of José Miguel Moreno Rial participated in a number of recordings demonstrating not just the radiant beauty of her voice but also all the understanding and nuances which that master of a variety of plucked-stringed instruments, Moreno, has been able to bring to Spanish music of the Renaissance and Baroque over the years. Over two attractively-priced CDs Nuria Rial expresses, with skill and pleasure, her instinctive understanding of the emotional temperature of pieces by the likes of Mudarra, Pisador, Fuenllana and Daça. Rial also make a joyously sympathetic contribution to a selection of Spanish works written by the underrated Piacenza-born composer Francisco Corselli with accompaniment from another Glossa stalwart Emilio Moreno and his El Concierto Español. A compelling reminder of the richness of Spanish music from earlier centuries (admirably captured in the fullness of the Glossa style) and deliciously rendered by the sensual musical intelligence of Nuria Rial.