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Alma Española

Isabel Leonard

Alma Española

Format: CD
Label: Bridge
UPC: 0090404949128
Catnr: BRIDG 9491
Release date: 08 September 2017
1 CD
 
Label
Bridge
UPC
0090404949128
Catalogue number
BRIDG 9491
Release date
08 September 2017
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN
DE

About the album

ALMA ESPAÑOLA presents GRAMMY Award-winning singer Isabel Leonard and GRAMMY Award-winning guitarist Sharon Isbin in an all-Spanish recording for voice and guitar, including twelve arrangements by Ms. Isbin in their premiere recordings. Duos by Federico García Lorca, Manuel de Falla, Xavier Montsalvatge, Agustín Lara and Joaquín Rodrigo, with guitar solos by Granados and Tárrega, are heard in performances that evoke the rich and magnificent tradition of Spain. The Philadelphia Inquirer described Leonard and Isbin's performance as “Feasts of beautifully sculpted phrases... glimpses of heaven", and The New York Times referred to the “Soulful depth" of their interpretations. The collaboration of Isabel Leonard and Sharon Isbin brings together one of today's brightest vocal stars, heard on the stages of the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera, and Paris Opera, with a guitar virtuoso acclaimed as “the pre-eminent guitarist of our time."
ALMA ESPAÑOLA präsentiert die GRAMMY - Sängerin Isabel Leonard und den GRAMMY- Gitarristin Sharon Isbin in einer spanischen Aufnahme für Stimme und Gitarre, darunter zwölf Arrangements von Sharon Isbin, die zu ihren Premierenaufnahmen zählen. Duos von Federico García Lorca, Manuel de Falla, Xavier Montsalvatge, Agustín Lara und Joaquín Rodrigo, Gitarrensoli von Granados und Tárrega, die die reiche und prächtige Tradition Spaniens deutlich machen sind zu hören. Der Philadelphia Inquirer beschrieb Leonard und Isbins Aufführung als "Fest von wunderschön geformten Phrasen ... Einblicke in den Himmel", und die New York Times verwies auf die "gefühlvolle Tiefe" ihrer Interpretationen.

Artist(s)

Isabel Leonard (soprano)

Highly acclaimed for her “passionate intensity and remarkable vocal beauty,” the Grammy Award winning Isabel Leonard continues to thrill audiences both in the opera house and on the concert stage.  In repertoire that spans from Vivaldi to Mozart to Thomas Ades, she has graced the stages of the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera, Paris Opera, Salzburg Festival, Bavarian State Opera, Glyndebourne Festival, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Angelina in La Cenerentola, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte, Blanche de la Force in Dialogues des Carmélites, the title roles in Griselda, La Périchole, and Der Rosenkavalier, as well as Sesto in both Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito and Handel’s Giulio Cesare. She has appeared with some of the foremost...
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Highly acclaimed for her “passionate intensity and remarkable vocal beauty,” the Grammy Award winning Isabel Leonard continues to thrill audiences both in the opera house and on the concert stage. In repertoire that spans from Vivaldi to Mozart to Thomas Ades, she has graced the stages of the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera, Paris Opera, Salzburg Festival, Bavarian State Opera, Glyndebourne Festival, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Angelina in La Cenerentola, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte, Blanche de la Force in Dialogues des Carmélites, the title roles in Griselda, La Périchole, and Der Rosenkavalier, as well as Sesto in both Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito and Handel’s Giulio Cesare.

She has appeared with some of the foremost conductors of her time: James Levine, Valery Gergiev, Charles Dutoit, Gustavo Dudamel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Franz Welser-Möst, Edo de Waart, James Conlon, Andris Nelsons, and Harry Bicket with the Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and Vienna Philharmonic, among others.

Ms. Leonard is in constant demand as a recitalist and is on the Board of Trustees at Carnegie Hall. She is a recent Grammy Award winner for Thomas Ades’ The Tempest (Best Opera Recording) and the recipient of the 2013 Richard Tucker Award. She recently joined the supporters of the Prostate Cancer Foundation to lend her voice in honor of her father who died from the disease when she was in college.


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Sharon Isbin (guitar)

Acclaimed for her extraordinary lyricism, technique and versatility, multiple GRAMMY Award winner Sharon Isbin has been hailed as “the pre-eminent guitarist of our time”. She is the winner of Guitar Player magazine’s “Best Classical Guitarist” award, and the Toronto and Madrid Queen Sofia competitions, and was the first guitarist ever to win the Munich Competition. She has appeared as soloist with over 170 orchestras and has given sold-out performances in the world’s finest halls, including New York’s Carnegie and Avery Fisher Halls, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center, London’s Barbican and Wigmore Halls, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Paris’ Châtelet, Vienna’s Musikverein, Munich’s Herkulessaal, Madrid’s Teatro Real and many others. She has served as Artistic Director/Soloist of festivals she created for Carnegie Hall, the...
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Acclaimed for her extraordinary lyricism, technique and versatility, multiple GRAMMY Award winner Sharon Isbin has been hailed as “the pre-eminent guitarist of our time”. She is the winner of Guitar Player magazine’s “Best Classical Guitarist” award, and the Toronto and Madrid Queen Sofia competitions, and was the first guitarist ever to win the Munich Competition. She has appeared as soloist with over 170 orchestras and has given sold-out performances in the world’s finest halls, including New York’s Carnegie and Avery Fisher Halls, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center, London’s Barbican and Wigmore Halls, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Paris’ Châtelet, Vienna’s Musikverein, Munich’s Herkulessaal, Madrid’s Teatro Real and many others. She has served as Artistic Director/Soloist of festivals she created for Carnegie Hall, the Ordway Music Theatre (St. Paul), New York’s 92nd Street Y, and the acclaimed national radio series Guitarjam. A frequent guest on NPR’s All Things Considered and Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, she has been profiled on television throughout the world, including CBS Sunday Morning and A&E. She was a featured guest on Showtime Television’s hit series The L Word, and a soloist on the GRAMMY nominated soundtrack of Martin Scorsese’s Academy Award-winning The Departed. On September 11, 2002, Ms. Isbin performed at Ground Zero for the internationally televised memorial. Among other career highlights, she performed in concert at the White House for President and Mrs. Obama in November 2009, and was the only classical artist to perform in the 2010 GRAMMY Awards. She has been profiled in periodicals from People to Elle, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, as well as appearing on the covers of over 45 magazines. Her 2015 national television performances on PBS include the Billy Joel Gershwin Prize, Tavis Smiley, and American Public Television’s presentation of the acclaimed one-hour documentary on her life and work produced by Susan Dangel titled Sharon Isbin: Troubadour, seen by millions on nearly 200 PBS stations across the US, and the winner of the 2015 ASCAP Television Broadcast Award. The film was released with bonus performances on DVD/Blu-ray by Video Artists International. Watch the trailer at:www.sharonisbintroubadour.com Ms. Isbin’s catalogue of over 25 recordings—from Baroque, Spanish/Latin and 20th Century to crossover and jazz-fusion—reflects remarkable versatility. Her latest releases, Sharon Isbin: 5 Classic Albums (Warner) and Sharon Isbin & Friends: Guitar Passions(Sony) with rock/jazz guests Steve Vai, Steve Morse, Heart’s Nancy Wilson, Stanley Jordan and Romero Lubambo, have been #1 bestsellers on Amazon.com. Her 2010 GRAMMY Award-winning CD Journey to the New World with guests Joan Baez and Mark O’Connor,was a #1 bestselling classical CD on Amazon.com and iTunes, and spent 63 consecutive weeks on the top Billboard charts. Her Dreams of a World soared onto top classical Billboard charts, edging out The 3 Tenors, and earned her a GRAMMY for “Best Instrumental Soloist Performance”, making her the first classical guitarist to receive a GRAMMY in 28 years. Her world premiere recording of concerti written for her byChristopher Rouse and Tan Dun received a GRAMMY, as well as Germany’s prestigious Echo Klassik Award. She received a Latin GRAMMY nomination for “Best Classical Album” and a GLAAD Media Award nomination for “Outstanding Music Artist” (alongside Melissa Etheridge) for her Billboard Top 10 Classical disc with the New York Philharmonic of Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez and concerti by Ponce and Villa-Lobos. This marked the Philharmonic’s first and only recording with a guitar soloist, and followed their Avery Fisher Hall performances with Ms. Isbin as their first guitar soloist in 26 years. Baroque Favorites for Guitar with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra remained on the Billboard Top 10 for 16 weeks, and her Journey to the Amazon with Brazilian percussionistThiago de Mello and saxophonist Paul Winter, a bestseller in the U.S. and the U.K., received a GRAMMY nomination. She is also featured on Howard Shore’s GRAMMY nominated soundtrack for The Departed.
Other CDs include Artist Profile, Wayfaring Stranger with mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer, Greatest Hits (EMI), and Aaron Jay Kernis’ Double Concerto with violinist Cho-Liang Lin and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra which received a 2000 GRAMMY nomination. Her eight best-selling titles for EMI include J.S. Bach Complete Lute Suitesand concerti by Joaquin Rodrigo which the composer praised as “magnificent”. She is also featured on the GRAMMY Foundation’s Smart Symphonies™ CD distributed to over five million families. Her recordings have received many other awards, including “Critic’s Choice Recording of the Year” in Gramophone and CD Review, “Recording of the Month” in Stereo Review, and “Album of the Year” in Guitar Player.
Sharon Isbin has been acclaimed for expanding the guitar repertoire with some of the finest new works of the century. She has commissioned and premiered more concerti than any other guitarist, as well as numerous solo and chamber works. Her American Landscapes is the first-ever recording of American guitar concerti and features works written for her by John Corigliano, Joseph Schwantner and Lukas Foss. In November 1995, it was launched in the space shuttle Atlantis and presented to Russian cosmonauts during a rendezvous with Mir. In January 2000, she premiered the ninth concerto written for her: Concert de Gaudí by Christopher Rouse with Christoph Eschenbach and the NDR Symphony, followed by the US premiere with the Dallas Symphony. Other composers who have written for her include Joan Tower, David Diamond, Aaron Jay Kernis, Leo Brouwer, Howard Shore, Steve Vai, Ned Rorem and Ami Maayani. In 2003 she premiered John Duarte’s Joan Baez Suite, and in 2005 she premiered a duo by rock guitarist Steve Vai in their joint concert in Paris’ Théâtre du Châtelet. Her world premieres in 2015 include Affinity: Concerto for Guitar & Orchestra composed for her by Chris Brubeck, and a song cycle by Richard Danielpour commissioned for her and mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard by Carnegie Hall for their 125th anniversary and by Chicago’s Harris Theater.
Other recent highlights include tours with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Austria’s Tonkünstler Orchestra and Belgium’s Philharmonique de Liege, recitals and concerti in Carnegie Hall and Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center, a week of performances at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Filarmonica Toscanini in Milan, MIDEM Classical Awards in Cannes, a 20-city Guitar Passions tour with Stanley Jordan and Romero Lubambo in 2014, and a sold-out performance in Carnegie Hall with Sting, Katy Perry and Jerry Seinfeld in 2015 to benefit the David Lynch Foundation. Ms. Isbin has toured Europe annually since she was seventeen, and appears as soloist with orchestras throughout the world, including the New York Philharmonic, National Symphony, Baltimore, Detroit, Houston, Dallas, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, St. Louis, Nashville, New Jersey, Louisville, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Buffalo and Utah Symphonies; Saint Paul, Los Angeles, Zurich, Scottish and Lausanne Chamber Orchestras; the London Symphony and Orchestre National de France; and BBC Scottish, Lisbon Gulbenkian, Prague, Milan Verdi, Belgrade, Mexico City, Jerusalem and Tokyo Symphonies. Her festival appearances include Mostly Mozart, Aspen, Ravinia, Grant Park, Interlochen, Santa Fe, Mexico City, Bermuda, Hong Kong, Montreux, Strasbourg, Paris, Athens, Istanbul, Ravenna, Prague and Budapest International Festivals.
As a chamber musician, Ms. Isbin has performed with the Emerson String Quartet, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, a “Guitar Summit” tour with jazz greats Herb Ellis, Stanley Jordan and Michael Hedges, trio recordings with Larry Coryell and Laurindo Almeida, and duo recordings with Carlos Barbosa-Lima. She collaborated with Antonio Carlos Jobim, and has shared the stage with luminaries from Sting to Aretha Franklin.
Born in Minneapolis, Sharon Isbin began her guitar studies at age nine in Italy, and later studied with Andrès Segovia and Oscar Ghiglia. A former student of Rosalyn Tureck, Ms. Isbin collaborated with the noted keyboardist in publishing and recording landmark first performance editions of the Bach lute suites for guitar (Warner Classics/G. Schirmer). She received a B.A. cum laude from Yale University and a Master of Music from the Yale School of Music. She is the author of the Classical Guitar Answer Book, and is Director of guitar departments at the Aspen Music Festival, and The Juilliard School, which she created in l989 becoming the first and only guitar instructor in the institution’s 100-year history.
In her spare time, Ms. Isbin enjoys trekking in the jungles of Latin America, cross-country skiing, snorkeling and mountain hiking.

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Composer(s)

Enrique Granados

Enrique Granados Campiña was born in Lleida, Spain, the son of Calixto Granados, a Spanish army captain, and Enriqueta Campiña. As a young man he studied piano in Barcelona, where his teachers included Francisco Jurnetand and Joan Baptista Pujol. In 1887, he went to Paris to study. He was unable to become a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but he was able to take private lessons with a conservatoire professor, Charles-Wilfrid de Bériot, whose mother, the soprano Maria Malibran, was of Spanish ancestry. Bériot insisted on extreme refinement in tone production, which strongly influenced Granados’s own teaching of pedal technique. He also fostered Granados's abilities in improvisation. Just as important were his studies with Felip Pedrell. He returned to Barcelona in 1889. His first successes were at the...
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Enrique Granados Campiña was born in Lleida, Spain, the son of Calixto Granados, a Spanish army captain, and Enriqueta Campiña. As a young man he studied piano in Barcelona, where his teachers included Francisco Jurnetand and Joan Baptista Pujol. In 1887, he went to Paris to study. He was unable to become a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but he was able to take private lessons with a conservatoire professor, Charles-Wilfrid de Bériot, whose mother, the soprano Maria Malibran, was of Spanish ancestry. Bériot insisted on extreme refinement in tone production, which strongly influenced Granados’s own teaching of pedal technique. He also fostered Granados's abilities in improvisation. Just as important were his studies with Felip Pedrell. He returned to Barcelona in 1889. His first successes were at the end of the 1890s, with the zarzuela Maria del Carmen, which attracted the attention of KingAlfonso XIII.
In 1911 Granados premiered his suite for piano Goyescas, which became his most famous work. It is a set of six pieces based on paintings of Francisco Goya. Such was the success of this work that he was encouraged to expand it. He wrote an opera based on the subject in 1914, but the outbreak of World War I forced the European premiere to be canceled. It was performed for the first time in New York City on 28 January 1916, and was very well received. Shortly afterwards, he was invited to perform a piano recital for President Woodrow Wilson. Prior to leaving New York, Granados also made live-recorded player piano music rolls for the New-York-based Aeolian Company's "Duo-Art" system, all of which survive today and can be heard – his very last recordings.
The delay incurred by accepting the recital invitation caused him to miss his boat back to Spain. Instead, he took a ship to England, where he boarded the passenger ferry SS Sussex for Dieppe, France. On the way across the English Channel, the Sussex was torpedoed by a German U-boat, as part of the German World War I policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. In a failed attempt to save his wife Amparo, whom he saw flailing about in the water some distance away, Granados jumped out of his lifeboat and drowned. However, the ship broke in two parts and only one sank (along with 80 passengers). Ironically, the part of the ship that contained his cabin did not sink and was towed to port, with most of the passengers, except for Granados and his wife, on board. Granados and his wife left six children: Eduard (a musician), Solita, Enrique (a swimming champion), Víctor, Natàlia, and Francisco.

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Manuel de Falla

From the end of 1890, de Falla studied piano at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid in Madrid under José Tragó and Felipe Pedrell. Under their influence, he got interested into the native Spanish music, especially the flamenco music of Andalusia and more specifically the cante jondo, of which he publiced a manuscript called El cante jondo. Influences of this can be found throughout his body of works. His first major work was an opera (zarzuela) in one act from 1905 La vida breve, which did not premier until 1913.  From 1907 to 1914 De Falla stayed in Paris, where he got inspired by composers such Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy and Paul Dukas. During this time, he wrote little music. Much of his much most...
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From the end of 1890, de Falla studied piano at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid in Madrid under José Tragó and Felipe Pedrell. Under their influence, he got interested into the native Spanish music, especially the flamenco music of Andalusia and more specifically the cante jondo, of which he publiced a manuscript called El cante jondo. Influences of this can be found throughout his body of works. His first major work was an opera (zarzuela) in one act from 1905 La vida breve, which did not premier until 1913. From 1907 to 1914 De Falla stayed in Paris, where he got inspired by composers such Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy and Paul Dukas. During this time, he wrote little music. Much of his much most famous works were composed upon arrival in Madrid at the start of the First World War, such as his Noches en los jardines de España, El amor brujo and El corregidor y la molinera, which after an adaption is now know as El sombrero de tres picos. From 1921 to 1939, he lived in Granada where composed his El retablo de maese Pedro. The harpsichord part was specifically written for Wanda Landowska. Slowly, the Spanish folk music influences decreased and he adopted a more neo-classicistic style.

In 1939 De Falla moved to Argentina, where he died in 1946.


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Press

Play album Play album
01.
El café de Chinitas
02:59
(Federico García Lorca) Isabel Leonard, Sharon Isbin
02.
Las morillas de Jaén
02:08
(Federico García Lorca) Isabel Leonard, Sharon Isbin
03.
Anda, jaleo
02:01
(Federico García Lorca) Isabel Leonard, Sharon Isbin
04.
Danza española No. 5 (Andaluza)
05:36
(Enrique Granados) Sharon Isbin
05.
Romance de Don Boyso
05:02
(Federico García Lorca) Isabel Leonard, Sharon Isbin
06.
Zorongo
01:11
(Federico García Lorca) Isabel Leonard, Sharon Isbin
07.
Nana de Sevilla
04:22
(Federico García Lorca) Isabel Leonard, Sharon Isbin
08.
La Tarara
00:57
(Federico García Lorca) Isabel Leonard, Sharon Isbin
09.
Los mozos de Monleón
06:18
(Federico García Lorca) Isabel Leonard, Sharon Isbin
10.
Sevillanas del siglo XVIII
02:45
(Federico García Lorca) Isabel Leonard, Sharon Isbin
11.
Aranjuez ma pensée
06:29
(Joaquín Rodrigo) Isabel Leonard, Sharon Isbin
12.
Granada
03:08
(Agustín Lara) Isabel Leonard, Sharon Isbin
13.
Capricho árabe
05:55
(Agustín Lara) Sharon Isbin
14.
Siete canciones populares españolas: El paño moruno
01:22
(Manuel de Falla) Isabel Leonard, Sharon Isbin
15.
Siete canciones populares españolas: Seguidilla murciana
01:22
(Manuel de Falla) Isabel Leonard, Sharon Isbin
16.
Siete canciones populares españolas: Asturiana
02:38
(Manuel de Falla) Isabel Leonard, Sharon Isbin
17.
Siete canciones populares españolas: Jota
03:19
(Manuel de Falla) Isabel Leonard, Sharon Isbin
18.
Siete canciones populares españolas: Nana
01:57
(Manuel de Falla) Isabel Leonard, Sharon Isbin
19.
Siete canciones populares españolas: Canción
01:04
(Manuel de Falla) Isabel Leonard, Sharon Isbin
20.
Siete canciones populares españolas: Polo
01:38
(Manuel de Falla) Isabel Leonard, Sharon Isbin
21.
Canto negro
01:17
(Xavier Montsalvatge) Isabel Leonard, Sharon Isbin
22.
Canción de cuna para dormir a un negrito
02:42
(Xavier Montsalvatge) Isabel Leonard, Sharon Isbin
show all tracks

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