Songs Without Words With A Latin Lilt

The disk Asturiana by the duo of violist Kim Kashkashian and pianist Robert Levin is subtitled Songs from Spain and Argentina. As the players make clear, these songs become songs without words in that long and honourable tradition and Kashkashian in particular strives to make the viola emulate the human voice as well as she possibly can. Transcriptions have been made by Kashkashian and Levin of songs by Manuel de Falla, Enrique Granados, Carlos Guastavino, Alberto Ginastera, Xavier Montsalvatge and Carlos Lopez Buchardo. The most overtly Spanish sounding, defining Spanish as thought of in the popular imagination, are the seven folk and dance settings by de Falla, while those of Guastavino refer obliquely to popular latin dance forms. Some of the other pieces are more generally melancholy without any specific regional characteristics. The playing is ardent and characterful throughout, Kashkashian's viola letting loose to wear its heart on its sleeve on several occasions and Levin's piano underpinning sensitively and taking advantage too of the opportunities it gets to take the limelight. This makes a tuneful, colourful, imaginative and atmospheric disk that is well worth hearing.