Josu Gallastegui has issued "Measure for Measure," accompaniment for intermediate and advanced ballet class -- a seventy-seven minute, twenty-four-piece collection for barre and center with repeated tracks for left and right performance and long passages for diagonal combinations.
Gallastegui, accompanist for some of the best-known teachers in Europe and the U.S., produces a bright, clear, crisp sound, never more stimulating and supportive than on this recording. Technically, he has a brilliant concert-level capacity, full of phrasing and dynamics, and strong rhythms suitable to the movements. And he often makes witty choices -- a slower, then faster, version of Bizet's "Gypsy Song" for frappes.
Music lovers might find it maddening trying to determine if a Gallastegui transcription is originally from a violin or cello concerto, but it doesn't matter. No composition is defiled and no theme distorted. Overall, the collection romantically caresses Spanish music while occasionally becoming rhapsodic, but it never overwhelms the purpose, which is to provide intelligent, rich, and varied accompaniment.
