Search - Rosa Barbany, Emilio Pujol :: Spanish Songs

Pathetically bad!

live2b | Deadwood, SD USA | 11/07/2003

(1 out of 5 stars)

"If the notion of historical recordings demands ill-tuned instruments and poor engineering, then this album exemplifies the genre. Rosa Barbany sings well enough although in a typically reserved manner. I would have liked to have heard a bit more modulation of the intensity and intonation reflected in the various songs presented here, but this contemporary style can be appreciated in its own right. Rosa alone gets a passing grade.While the singing style may be period 1950s for this material, it is the guitarist and recording engineers (apparently it takes two here) which wreck this vehicle. During most of the first third or so of the 30 tracks, the microphone is manhandled and bumped for as long as 20 seconds at a time. I cannot imagine that the microphone was that uncooperative so it must have beckoned the engineers to tamper with it or else they were just wrestling with one another to pass the time.The guitar starts out almost in tune but wanders off throughout the 30 tracks such that later solos are painfully endured. Also, the fingering is labored, late, and extremely amateurish. There is even the wrong note plucked to show that it could be worse. Perhaps a few more hours of practice would have helped, but methinks the struggling Emilio Pujol requires much more experience than that and perhaps to pursue another line of work entirely.Although I like a variety of recorded examples for works that I admire, this abominable effort will immediately be resold as a used item on eBay. I tried to listen to it again months after the first hearing, but could not even finish it as it annoyed a house guest to the point of protest.I cannot imagine ever being so disappointed again, so the positive aspect is that every album I buy will exceed this one is overall quality.Astonished and dismayed,Brad Baucom"