This unusual record from Colombia presents contrasting works from that country's leading composers circa 1958 - Luis Antonio Escobar and Guillermo Uribe Holguín.
Uribe Holguín, born in 1880, was the senior composer by some 45 years, and was trained in the Schola Cantorum. While his music retained French influences over the years, he also became interested in folk forms. The Three Criollo Dances presented here are his interpretation of dance music from the Criollos - the social caste of native-born people of primarily Spanish ancestry. The composition dates from 1945.
Escobar's work, from just six years later, is in a much different idiom. He wrote it as a 26-year-old newly arrived in Germany to study with Boris Blacher. The soloist in this concertino for flute is Oscar Alvarez. In both works Olav Roots conducts the Sinfonica of Colombia.
In truth, neither the orchestral performances nor the recordings are especially refined, but the music is most attractive and very much worth your listening. This was the first in what may have been designed to be a series on Colombian composers.
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