Five stars: A guitar recording well worth hearing.
CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO Platero y Yo  Niklas Johansen (gt)  OUR 8.226930-31 (2 CDs: 10:06)
Platero is a donkey. Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s suite consists of 27 short movements for solo guitar, each of which is based on a poem from the collection Platero y Yo (Platero and I) by the Spanish poet Juan Ramon Jiménez (1881–1958). The packaging of this double CD set is excellent. English translations of Jiménez’s poems are included, each with a Beardsley-esque sketch by Halfdan Pisket, and there are extensive notes besides. It may be odd to begin a review by talking about the packaging, but it is indicative of the high standard of every aspect of this recording.
The poems depict the poet, a kind of quixotic everyman, returning to the rustic Spanish town of his childhood in the company of his faithful donkey. In Jiménez’s case, the village in question was Moguer in the region of Andalusia. The poems’ titles include “Twilight Games”, “April Idyll”, “White Butterflies”, and one is even simply called “Nostalgia”. To be honest, many of them seem somewhat ‘cutesy’ in translation, despite comprising the poet’s masterwork. For our purposes, the main thing is how the composer recreates them musically. Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895–1968) is remembered primarily for his guitar music (particularly his Guitar Concerto), most of it written for his friend Andrés Segovia. In Platero y Yo his writing is simple, without being easy. He uses straightforward tunes and tonal harmonies, but these elements are presented in a sophisticated way, with polished surfaces and subtly balanced colors. The donkey is represented in some but not all of the pieces by the “hee haw” rhythmic motif we know from Mendelssohn’s Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream and “On the Trail” from Grofé’s Grand Canyon Suite, but the overwhelming feeling of the returning poet’s nostalgia is the primary aspect. It permeates the work, even in movements that depict activity. While evoking an identifiable Spanish sound world, rhythmically and melodically, there are rarely any flamenco effects. Only one movement employs percussive slapping and tremolo strumming: “The Gypsies”.
It is conceivable that a long work of this nature could wear out its welcome in the wrong hands. Fortunately, the right hands are at work here. Danish guitarist Niklas Johansen’s playing is unfailingly detailed, eloquent, and sensitive. He understands the specific moods of each movement. Through his dexterity, clarity of line, placement of chords, and variation of dynamics, Johansen creates those moods perfectly. Add to that the attractive sound quality: As a note with the discs explains, this performance was recorded in the Fredensborg Palace Chapel, due to its “exceptional acoustics, ideally suited for guitar”. King Frederick X gave his permission for the recording to take place in his chapel.
A recent complete recording by Catherine Iolios was given a good review by Walter Simmons in Fanfare 41:2. He described her as “a good guitarist technically” who “possesses a wonderful feeling of empathy for Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s music.” I have not heard that release, or any of the other recorded excerpts from Platero y Yo, but I cannot imagine any performer more adept than Johansen. A recording exists of ten excerpts by Segovia himself, which would be of historical interest at the very least. However, in every way, this is a recital well above the norm, in performance, sound, and, yes, packaging. Phillip Scott