University of York Music Press

For Liam Cagney from Gramophone, 'anyone who has spent time on the Algarve knows how rich and varied its maritime life is. In expanding upon his guiding metaphor for this collection of recent orchestral music, the Portuguese composer Luís Tinoco notes the orchestra’s allowance for field depth: the way in which, as in the sea, a surface instrumental gesture can lead to fathoms-deep expansion.' Further, in Richard Hanlon MusicWeb International article, it is noted in the opening that ‘the works on The Blue Voice of the Water are colourful, memorable and tautly written – I am especially impressed with Tinoco’s disciplined approach to his art – his melodic and rhythmic invention never seems to flag while he certainly knows how to move a piece forward without extravagant repetition.'

For the title piece, The Blue Voice of the Water, Uwe Krusch from pizzicato accounts how here, Tinoco ‘traces the blue accent of the water.’ Concerning the opening, Cagney describes how this section 'deftly melds the sounds of piano cluster, clarinet, cymbal and strings; the resultant orchestral aggregate recalls Ligeti without the atonal harshness and gives the impression of light glimpsed from far underwater.' Hanlon further writes that ‘ultimately it’s a marine tone poem built upon wave-like patterns and shapes. Tinoco builds motifs that rise and fall, connected by telling use of brass and percussion which is delicately handled in the main but can be forceful when required. The writing for timpani in particular is superbly assured, quite devoid of cliché and is thrillingly caught in this recording. Tinoco projects the timelessness and monumentality of the ocean most convincingly. He creates dynamic contrasts between fast, propulsive music and more elegiac string-led passages, occasionally and discreetly coloured by tiny, microtonal inflections.’ 

For Tinoco’s Cello Concerto, Ricardo Vilares from Expressing music narrates how ‘the initial chords of the concerto, in slow motion and in pianissimo, draw a magical sound world, in the sphere of the dream, that will go through all the work, although sometimes it is interrupted, by dynamic peaks, then return to its calm origins, as in the first course, or threatening chords, in the second.'

Hanlon further describes Frisland as ‘an unashamedly clever piece’ where ‘the spirit of jazz haunts the phantom island of this piece in the guise of the regular muted trumpet textures, the bluesy minimalism of its central section, and in its rather mellow sensibility.’ These phantasmal descriptions are emulated within Vilares’ review as he writes how this work ‘begins with a cello solo, which seems to evoke the haze in the middle of the sea where a ghost island is glimpsed, idea musically suggested by the ethereal sonorities that mark the initial measures of the play.’ Ultimately, Cagney accounts how this work 'pursues a triadic chaconne-like figure in extended tonality; trumpet adds jazzy effects and the layering of sound strata achieves a dreamlike, monumental effect.'

For Krusch, ‘with Before Spring he honors another composer, Igor Straninsky. The quotes in both works are hardly literal, but rather take on characters of the musical language.’ This work’s ‘undeniably exciting elements to the orchestration’ are also highlighted by Hanlon. 

Ultimately, for Hanlon ‘The Blue Voice of the Water is a compelling, convincing and coherent overview of Tinoco’s recent orchestral music. For Krusch these works ‘clearly feel a musical depth that goes beyond an entertaining character,’ and for Juan Martin Koch from nmz neue musikzeitung, the pieces possess,a ‘finely orchestrated musical language’ which create a ‘wide stylistic horizon’. takt1 accounts that this album is ‘facinatingly dramatic,’ as ‘the music constantly fluctuates between harmonious, sweet sounds and hard dissonances, but never becomes arbitrary.’ Finally, for Vilares, these works show ‘their affinity with the fine arts, the way they shape the musical material, build the form, work the light, the color and the textures with layers.'

To hear these works for yourselves, we at UYMP urge you to buy this CD here.