Balada: Torquemada and Other Works

Leonardo Balada

This is a wonderful disc. A provocative cross-section of the creative output of Carnegie Mellon University composer-in-residence Leonardo Balada. The featured work is "Torquemada," a 25-minute cantata (premiered in 1980)that places the cruelties imposed by the infamous Spanish inquistor in the context of barbarities being perpetrated in our own time. No less interesting is Balada's piano music-a striking concerto for piano, winds and percussion (with the solo part brilliantly executed by Pittsburgher Harry Franklin)- and "Transparencies [read: transformation] of Chopin's First Ballade," with Anthony Di Bonaventura the virtuoso soloist. The Carnegie Mellon Choir and Contemporary Ensemble do yeomen's work in "Torquemada," while an enemble conducted by Anthony Korf fills out the disc with a vital rendition of Balada's Sonata for 10 Winds.

Balada: Torquemada and Other Works Album: