Albany Records Releases Charlotte’s David Russell’s New Album “Andalusian Legacy”
On August 8, Albany Records releases “Andalusian Legacy,” a new album by Anne R. Belk Distinguished Professor of Violin David Russell. In music for violin and piano by such composers as Manuel de Falla, Pablo de Sarasate and Joaquín Turina, Albany’s catalog states, Russell “conjures the elemental force of Andalusian folk tradition — red-blooded, dusky, frank in its passions yet animated by unspoken sorrow.”
Recently returned from Granada, Russell described his relationship and fascination with southern Spain, his decade-long masterclass project there, and the development of “Andalusian Legacy.”
When and how did you first become captivated by the Andalusian region and its history and music?
I met an Andalusian friend, Paco Montalvo, when I taught his son, Paquito, at the Meadowmount School of Music in 2007. After that summer, Paco, a violin teacher at the Conservatorio Superior de Musica ‘Rafael Orosco’ in Córdoba, Spain, invited me to Córdoba to give masterclasses and recitals there for several very enjoyable weeks each May. During those early masterclass and recital trips, I developed an admiration for the Andalusian culture. By 2015, I decided to experiment with forming my own masterclass in Spain, independent of the local Conservatorio.
The trial program was called Masterclass Andalusia, and it was an enormous success. I had invited eminent violinist Andrés Cárdenes to teach with me. I had also invited 10 select students from all over the world to participate.
During that 2015 masterclass, I sincerely believe we were graced by a spiritual force the Spanish Gypsies call “El Duende,” something once described by Goethe as “a mysterious force that everyone feels and no philosopher has explained,” and of which the great Andalusian flamenco artist Manuel Torre said, “All that has dark sounds has duende.” It drew us all deeply into the heart of the Andalusian culture, seemingly at a personal level.
All that has followed in the years since has been due to the desire to express the very essence of Andalusia as it has revealed itself to me, from the Roman and Visigothic eras through the more recent (711-1492) Kingdom of Al-Andalus, the flamenco culture, and into the present day.