Eduardo Sainz de la Maza - Sonando Caminos: Guitar Works
Daniel Bolshoy
ATMA ACD2 2635
The latest CD from the outstanding Canadian guitarist Daniel Bolshoy features the music of Eduardo Sainz de la Maza (1903-82), one of two Spanish guitarist/composer brothers whose lives spanned most of the 20th century. Bolshoy has a direct link to the other brother, Regino Sainz de la Maza (1896-1981): one of Regino’s students was Ricardo Iznaola, with whom Bolshoy studied at the University of Denver.
Unlike his brother, Eduardo rarely composed in the traditional Spanish style, being more influenced by jazz, and particularly by the music of Ravel and Debussy. The works here are mostly from the 1960s and 1970s, and are beautifully crafted and immediately accessible. The eight-movement Suite Platero y Yo (Platero and I) is the centerpiece of the recital: it was inspired by Juan Ramón Jiménez’s 1956 Nobel Prize-winning prose-poetry about a writer and his donkey, and the short excerpts from the chosen poems that the composer included in his score are also included here in Bolshoy’s excellent booklet notes.
Eight shorter original pieces and three arrangements – La Paloma, the cowboy song Colorado Trail and Swanee River, complete a delightful and thoroughly enjoyable CD that runs for over 77 minutes.
Bolshoy has a full, warm tone, with virtually no fingerboard or string noise. Recorded at the beautifully resonant Salle Francoys-Bernier at Domaine Forget in Quebec, the sound is close and intimate.
