Mario Videla - Musica Antigua para Tecla de España y el Nuevo Mundo (2010)

The best thing about this CD of keyboard works from Spain and Central and South America is the warm, close sound, not what is normally heard from a harpsichord recording. It is as warm as the instrument's red and gold paintwork. The worst thing about the recording is the impression that there is little variation in tempo from work to work. The mix of pieces covers a wide period of time, stretching from the late Renaissance to the early Classical period. And the works are actually a mixture of tempo markings. What gives the impression of little difference, however, is Mario Videla's relatively strict, sometimes plodding, playing. There isn't enough of a difference between his Allegros and his Largos, and he seems to use ritards only at the very end of pieces, rarely using any kind of rubato to create interest within phrases. Pieces such as the anonymous Giga and Alemanda seem faster because of their melismatic right-hand passages, which Videla plays very cleanly. Really, the music is more interesting than it seems. The works range from the regal -- Ensalada on the 8th Tone by Heredia, and Del Principe attributed to Domenico Zipoli -- to the anonymous sonatas clearly influenced by Bach and Scarlatti. The Tocata pastoril by Salvi Arnavat is much slower than one expects a toccata to be (regardless of Videla's playing), and the final sonata by Soler has elements of Spanish dance in it. It's the music and sound that do more to recommend this album than the performance. (The packaging also leaves something to be desired. It's basically a liner note booklet with a pocket inside the back cover that the disc keeps falling out of.)