Until recent times, the profession of film composer was excluded and little or anything valued. Has had to pass time so the work of authors as Max Steiner, Alfred Newman, Miklós Rózsa or Bernard Herrmann, created for the big Hollywood studios, have been valued in their true measure. Deluxe editions of their works have helped to its deserved diffusion and to create an entire legion of fans and admirers that day by day it grows and multiplies, ending up in some cases to be true experts in the matter. Unfortunately, the Spanish composers have not still known that recognition; ignored by the media, their work has always been in the dark room. But all that ignorance will change thanks to the work and zeal of José Nieto, the most famous Spanish film composer nowadays, which has searched for Juan Quintero's forgotten manuscripts, author to whom is devoted this first volume, and who had his time of splendor in the time of the CIFESA studio, providing us a true jewel of the gender. Without changing a single note from the original, and in suites, Nieto has intertwined four titles from this master, possibly the more representative of a cardboard stone and patriotic cinema that met its best times fifty years ago. Juan Quintero's style is suspicious, but wisely similar to that of a Max Steiner in his more dramatic moments; themes as the main one of Locura de Amor (1947), makes us imagine what may had happened with this little spanish man if, as with the europeans mentioned before, had migrate to Hollywood, and his spectacular orchestration together with the patriotic choirs gave us a beutiful work of strongly dramatic and lyric nature. With Pequeñeces (1949) he created a juvenile cheerful melody, with a beautiful waltz worthy of the own Steiner, and for Mare Nostrum (1948) it recaptures his dramatic airs without the choirs for the only time in the CD. The disk concludes with Alba de America (1951), where a strong epic sense takes the reins of a score that oozes greatness in spite of that patriotic air that characterized the spanish productions of the time. In definitive, we are in front of a very valuable sample of the work of one of the most important and fertile spanish film composers whose filmography comes perfectly pointed out chronologically in the CD booklet. Quintero died in 1980 without having seen recognized his work as artist, and today has been made justice with this luxurious edition. Let us hope that the fan, who has the last word, will support this perfunctory and therefore necessary work of rescue, and that we may continue enjoying successive volumes, something similar to what in the seventies made Charles Gerhardt with the Hollywood classics. Congratulations! R.M.M.

LOCURA DE AMOR (1947) - 16:15
MARE NOSTRUM (1948) - 9:16
PEQUEÑECES (1949) - 15:31
ALBA DE AMERICA (1951) - 14:11
Bratislava Radio Symphony Orchestra - Conductor: José Nieto
/ DECCA 460574-2 / 56'

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