Andalusian Fantasy

“If you enjoy Spanish and Latin American music, you’ll find a lot to love in Andalusian Fantasy, a collection of pieces written and performed by pianist Lionel Sainsbury. The compositions embrace the darker, more romantic side of traditional Latin music. Imagine if tango, Debussy, and Gershwin all met in one album, and you’ll get a sense for Sainsbury’s music.”

 “The musical traditions of Spain and Latin America are rich and vital. English composer Lionel Sainsbury has long been taken with it all. On his album Andalusian Fantasy we get to hear how his fascination and love for such music becomes a creative force in his own music. Is he the Boccherini of today? To the extent that he immerses himself in the music and gives back creatively in kind, perhaps yes. Otherwise, such comparisons are not all that illuminating, for Sainsbury has the modern present in him as well as the Latin-Spanish influences, so you hear the presence of jazz precedents (Gershwin and Ellington, perhaps) and a post-impressionist glow as well. The Spanish-Latin rhythms of dance and the melodic-harmonic particularities are readily heard in the works presented in this collection. All are performed by the composer himself with a flair and liveliness in keeping with his dynamic style. There are moments of relative repose and introspection to be heard as well. And the jazz-oriented element can be heard directly or indirectly depending on the work or movement. It is not always the jazz of today or tomorrow so much as a recapturing of jazz-oriented compositional ways of pre-mid-20th century masters. But even then it is not a direct imitation as much as a personal rechanneling. Through it all the music personality of Sainsbury shines forth. He is not merely showing how the Spanish and Latin traditions have entered his musical thought, he transforms those elements into a music that has originality and a modern-classical thrust that remains his, while channeling some of the pianistic traditions from the French and Spanish impressionists and post-impressionists. Recommended!”

This is a DISCOVERY and I urge you to hear this CD! The Preludes are a peppery mix of Gershwin, Rachmaninov and de Falla. The Iberian vein is a strong one - brilliant sunshine, dense black shadows, clangorous, pealing ‘wrong-notes’ and a Moorish turn to the melodies. The grandeur of Sainsbury’s writing is extremely impressive - try the opening and closing preludes. The final prelude is ultra-romantic, insistent, memorable and vibrant with an intense energy. I had to play that track time and again. It has something of the drastic dark pulsing energy of Rachmaninov’s Etudes-Tableaux.

richly varied… one senses something Scriabinesque…

… a work of contrasts, from the slow and gentle Canção, with its wonderfully laid-back tempo, to the energetic Recuerdos de España with its shifting moods, and from the rich and mysterious Escuridão to the final Bacchanale.

… a pot-pourri of dance rhythms, opening with a genial Promenade whose melody lingers long in the mind. Saudade and Rumba have a melancholy air, but are followed by a love song and a thoroughly virtuosic evocation of Spain… brilliant florid decoration… with the orgiastic Bacchanale which concludes, this set is colourful enough to win many friends.

Compositore e pianista, l’inglese Lionel Sainsbury riversa tutta la sua conoscenza e il suo amore per lo strumento in questi brani (penso soprattutto alle Fantasie andaluse e cubane) che di primo acchito aggrediscono l’ascoltatore con cascate di note ad alto tasso di virtuosismo, che insieme raccolgono – trascinandoli in un flusso continuo dal profilo apparentemente spontaneo, ora convulso e potente, ora delicato e sfumato – matrici colte (il lirismo di un Chopin o di un Barber, il pianismo di un Rachmaninov o di uno Scriabin) e influenze tematiche, ritmiche e armoniche provenienti dalla Spagna, dal Sud-America, dal jazz e dal blues afro-americani: mondi per cui l’Autore rivela una profonda attrazione, e che donano ai brani stessi quel misto di gioia e malinconia che, variamente, li contraddistinguono. Ma Sainsbury è capace anche di sintesi, com’è evidente dalla Suite sudamericana, dal bellissimo Notturno e soprattutto dai dodici Preludi. Qui la scrittura si fa più tersa, l’espressività concentrata; gli incisi melodici e ritmici lasciano il segno, imprimono un carattere definito al brano, sempre oscillando tra gli estremi, mai veramente opposti, dell’allegria e della nostalgia. Mai rinuncia, il Nostro, alla cantabilità, neppure nelle fasi più concitate e intense; né all’esaltazione del puro piacere di lasciarsi guidare, senza preconcetti limitanti, da un’ispirazione musicale che mai sembra abbandonarlo.