Fernando Palatin

"Auch kleine Dinge können uns entzücken.

Auch kleine Dinge können teuer sein."

Italienisches Liederbuch (Hugo Wolf)

For my coming birthday, a kind friend sent me a CD of violin and piano pieces by Fernando Palatin. Palatin -- of whom I had never heard in my entire life -- was born in Seville in 1852, and died in 1927. He was a touring virtuoso whose music is of the same genre as that of his compatriot, Pablo de Sarasate, and of Fritz Kreisler. Of the 14 pieces for violin & piano, most are not overtly "Spanish", nor overtly virtuosic, and will appeal to lovers of the short violin pieces by Kreisler and Sarasate, though the style is further west than Kreisler's Austro-German accent. The CD was recorded in 2020 by Rafael Munoz-Torrero (violin) and Julio Moguer (piano). The violinist, like Palatin, is from Seville. I had never heard of Munoz-Torrero either, but he plays elegantly and has an enchanting manner with the music. Franco-Spanish in playing style, rather than German or Russian.

Since everyone concerned (apart from Georges Bizet) is from Seville, we get a Carmen Fantasia. Palatin's is at least as good as Sarasate's, and infinitely better than that of showy Franz Waxman in Hollywood. Those with the facility, may want to use "shuffle play" to avoid always playing the fourteen pieces in the same order. I love especially the first piece: Adios al Alcázar. The piano parts are intelligent and interesting, and the recording well-balanced. This is a CD to listen to, sit back, and enjoy. Why have we never met composer nor violinist before?