Late last year, Argentinian mezzo Bernarda Fink brought out an outstanding Harmonia Mundi collection, Canciones Espanolas, featuring songs by Manuel de Falla, Joaquin Rodrigo and Enrique Granados.
Just months later, Spanish soprano Sylvia Schwartz makes her debut on Hyperion Records with an identically titled venture, but casting her musical net more generously to include lesser-known composers Jesus Guridi and Eduardo Toldra.
Schwartz is one of the most versatile voices around. She has worked under the batons of Harnoncourt and Boulez as well as playing Maria when The Sound of Music received a Parisian opera house production in 2009.
Check out YouTube for War of Sopranos! in which she clowns around with Annette Dasch and Daniela Fally, dressed as Carmen, Brunnhilde and Adele, while delivering a charming trio by Friedrich Curschmann.
Schwartz opens her Canciones Espanolas with Granados' well-known song to the nightingale from his opera, Goyescas - a lush welcoming against the impeccable piano of Malcolm Martineau, registering every flickering inflection of the song.