The genius of Spanish nationalism in the early twentieth century was that it seemed to mesh with modern ideals, primarily French ones, rather than standing at an opposite pole. The impulses thus generated have lasted for a century now, and they're tweaked but not altered fundamentally in this pair of works by contemporary Spanish composer Lorenzo Palomo. He has found success in the U.S. and the rest of continental Europe, as well as in Spain, and from this pair of works it's easy to see why. Especially effective is the ...
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The genius of Spanish nationalism in the early twentieth century was that it seemed to mesh with modern ideals, primarily French ones, rather than standing at an opposite pole. The impulses thus generated have lasted for a century now, and they're tweaked but not altered fundamentally in this pair of works by contemporary Spanish composer Lorenzo Palomo. He has found success in the U.S. and the rest of continental Europe, as well as in Spain, and from this pair of works it's easy to see why. Especially effective is the Sinfonía a Granada for soprano, guitar, and orchestra (there is also a narrator), composed in 2007 in response to a commission from the Regional Government of Granada specifying that the work should help "to establish bonds of union and brotherhood between the people of the different territories of our province." Whether an orchestral composition can do this is debatable; Palomo appears to have met this requirement with texts by poet Luís García Montero (who is also the narrator)...
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