David Russell: Andalusian Legacy
Albany Records

Before his current position as Anne R. Belk Distinguished Professor of Violin at The University of North Carolina, David Russell was a violin faculty member at The Cleveland Institute of Music for twenty-four years and a visiting violin faculty member at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. As impressive as those positions are, they're but two of many he's held during his distinguished career. Of more immediate relevance to this new recording is that he's one of three American violinists leading the internationally renowned Masterclass Al-Andalus in Granada, Spain. The ten-day event challenges violinists hoping to embark on careers as performing artists whilst also exposing them to the richness of ancient Andalusian culture.

With Andalusian Legacy, Russell performs material representative of the Andalusian folk tradition and brings its fiery passion to life with engaging treatments of compositions by Manuel De Falla, Fritz Kreisler, Pablo De Sarasate, and Joaquín Turina. In these he's joined by partners who share his fervent enthusiasm for the material, pianists Pedro Gavilán and Zaiba Sheikh, flamenco guitarist Fabio Bosch Friere, and Estefanía Brao on castanets. Russell is also credited as the composer of a three-part vocal work featuring tenor Johnathan White, the only setting on which violin's absent. As refined as these performances collectively are, they're intensely emotional too as they range between sorrow and joy.

Coupling with Gavilán and Brao, Russell delivers a wholly captivating reading of the De Falla-Kreisler opener La Vida Breve - Dansa Espagnole No. 1. Expertly riding the music's infectious dance waves, the violinist's in top form but so too is the pianist, and the inclusion of castanets brings this jubilant performance even more to life. The same trio remains in place for de Sarasate's Playera, Op. 23, no.1, the music darker in tone than the opener and with castanets appearing as a softer ripple alongside Russell's sorrowful emoting and Gavilán's dramatic commentary. Piano's exchanged for flamenco guitar on the traditional Andalusian setting El Vito, with Friere joining Russell and, for the last time, Brao. The guitarist's dazzling playing sets the stage for Russell and Brao, with the violinist giving affecting voice to the song's forceful and forlorn melodies. The trio's performance is so commanding, it's a shame the three only appear together once on the release.

Russell's Three Songs in Andalusian Style on Poems of Lorca, op. 1 was written in 2020 when the pandemic prevented the violinist from making his annual trip to Andalusia for the masterclass. With the songs set to poems by Federico Garcia Lorca, the three incorporate elements of Andalusian culture such as flamenco meters and harmonies. Sheikh is White's partner for the performance, which begins with “Arbolé, Arbolé” and its alternately pleading and defiant portrayal of a pretty young girl picking olives from a tree and ignoring entreaties from different men—four horse riders, three bullfighters, and young man with roses—to come away with them. The anguish love can engender is expressed in the tension and romantic desperation of “Llagas de Amor,” after which “Canción del Jinete” concludes the trio with a tension-filled song about a rider, alone and fearful of death, making his his way to Córdoba on a moonlit night.

Written in 1924, Turina's El Poema de Una Sanluqueña ends Andalusian Legacy with the violinist joined by Sheikh, the four-part work the album's longest at nearly twenty-one minutes. Emotion is pushed to a fever pitch in the opening “Ante el Espejo” (“Before the Mirror”) with Russell issuing one impassioned statement after another. With only two instruments involved, the performances of both players grow all the more conspicuous, and aware intensifies of the violinist's capacity for conveying emotion, be it tenderness or anguish. Brighter and livelier by comparison is the scherzo-like “La Canción del Lunar” (“The Song of the Moon”) while “Alucinaciones” (“Hallucinations”) hints at some degree of disorientation in its melodic trajectory. “El Rosario en la Iglesia” (“The Rosary in the Church”) advances from solemnity to outpourings of passion and romance, such expressions wholly in keeping with the character of the release.

October 2025