Eva León, Jordi Masó - Turina: Violin Sonatas Nos. 1 & 2; El poema de una sanluqueña (2009)

The Naxos label's Spanish Classics series has gravitated heavily toward the comparatively neglected Joaquín Turina, whose musical language, though conservative compared with the likes of Falla, drew on the same mixture of Spanish folk traditions and French impressionism that animated the work of his more famous colleagues. In a way, his subtle fusions are all the more attractive for their conservative idiom: Turina has to work harder to work it all in. That said, the violin-and-piano combination heard here doesn't show him at its best; the melodies of the two violin sonatas are for the most part sentimental and safe. Perhaps the most interesting work is the four-movement El poema de una sanluqueña (Fantasía para violin y piano), Op. 28, of 1923, whose programmatic qualities are of the kind that best exploit the tension in Turina's work. The title means The Poem of a Sanlúcar Girl, a poem about her rather than by her. Sanlúcar, a town in Spain's southern Cádiz province, was a favored vacation spot for the composer. The painting on the cover, however, depicts Seville, not Sanlúcar. Turina himself maintained that the work was not specifically descriptive, but treated the state of mind evoked by a local saying: "Sanlúcar girls don't get married, and Sanlúcar boys marry outsiders." The music, however, clearly follows the imagined protagonist from in front of her mirror, through an episode of fantasy and into a church. It's a rare work that could fit any number of recital programs. Canary Islands-born violinist Eva León and pianist Jordi Masó give performances that are both accurate and charismatic, and the auditorium sound is clear and unfussy. Of most interest to Turina fans, but with one nice find for any lover of Spanish music.