Norman Menzales – Panoramas (Para Recordings, 2025)
Norman Menzales’ Panoramas (Para Recordings, 2025) presents a nuanced exploration of his Filipino heritage through a series of Western classical chamber collaborations. At the album’s heart is Nicanor Abelardo’s Panoramas, an evocative mix of Filipino folk melodies and post-Romantic textures. Equally profound is Nilo Alcala’s Dabda, which translates the five stages of grief into a deeply moving musical journey.
The album features works by Menzales’s contemporaries, each offering unique perspectives. AJ Villanueva’s Dala-dalangin (Bringing Prayers) employs vivid flute timbres and extended techniques to convey anxieties about the future, while Sungmin Shin’s contribution examines the many facets of love, such as romantic, familial, and parental.
Joed Balsamo’s Sonata for Flute and Piano, CB. 29 (MMXXIII) draws on the Philippine kumintang, a historical precursor to the kundiman, weaving its rhythmic and harmonic elements into a modern framework.
Buy Panoramas.
Author: Tyler Bennet
