The eye-catching cover art that graces this splendid new release, Mexican painter Inovcencio Jiménez Chino’s “Recolección de cosecha” (“Gathering the Harvest”), gives an excellent idea of what to expect from the music: bright colors, scintillating rhythms, but also a certain pastoral grace and lyricism that gives Manuel Ponce’s piano music an instant attractiveness and memorability. Pianist Jorge Federico Osorio has made a very careful and intelligent selection of the composer’s large output of piano miniatures, and the result is an ideal disc for playing either complete as a recital, or for casual dipping when you have a few free moments. Radio stations also should use this material freely, as such pieces as Canciones mexicanas, Trozos romanticos, and the three movements of the Suite cubana would make perfect little fillers and interludes among larger programming items.
Although all of these works are brief, Ponce’s range was in fact broader than you might expect. The eight mazurkas included here, six of which are in minor keys, are unusually moody and expressive despite the music’s humble dance origins. The single-movement Legende, the longest piece on the disc, has plenty of contrast and a wealth of appealing ideas. In the “etude” category, Osorio offers five: three Estudios de concierto, the second of which (“La vida sonrie”) is especially lovely, and two charming etudes dedicated to Arthur Rubinstein. It almost goes without saying that Osorio plays all of these pieces masterfully, with virtuosity to spare and a natural expressiveness that never compromises the music’s freshness and spontaneity. If I had to choose one highlight, it would probably be the Suite cubana, a marvelous exploration of Latino musical folklore cast as a triptych in the manner of Debussy’s Images. But then, there are no dead spots, musically or interpretively, and the engineering offers the last word in sonic realism. In short, this is an absolutely wonderful disc by any measure. [11/11/2005]
