Brilliant Artistic Director Steven Blier and Associate Artistic Director Michael Barrett, cofounders of the New York Festival of Song (NYFOS), with members of Caramoor’s 2011 Vocal Rising Stars, a most promising quartet from the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, in Katonah, New York, for which Barrett serves as Chief Executive and General Director, took us on a grand musical tour of diverse forms of Spanish song, from classic bel canto to regional Castilian, Galician, Basque and Catalonian melodies, with a pause for Sephardic songs, music of the Spanish Jews, and on to sweeping zarzuela, Spanish operetta. With Blier and Barrett at the Steinway pianos, and soprano Corinne Winters, mezzo-soprano Wallis Giunta, tenor—and guitarist—Andrew Owens, and baritone Carlton Ford, “Spanish Gold: Songs of the Iberian Peninsula” was slated for March 13 at Caramoor and 15 and 17 at Merkin Concert Hall and the hearing on the 15th is the one discussed here.

The evening begin, naturally enough, with the oldest music considered, in classic 18th and early 19th century styles, with Blier at the keyboard. Harmonizing in José Melchor Gomis’ beautiful and romantic “Si la mar fuera de tinta” (if the sea were made of ink), arranged by Blier, with Owens on guitar, Winters and Giunta put us in mind of Mozart and Italian bel canto opera. Singing resonantly, Ford, with guitarist Owens, proffered in “Sevillanas del siglo XVIII” (“¡Viva Sevilla!”), arranged by gay poet and also composer Federico García Lorca—who was martyred during the Spanish Civil War—a lusty paean to Seville. Putting aside his guitar, Owens sang Fernando Sor’s “Mis descuidados ojos” (my careless eyes), akin to a florid Rossini-Bellini-Donizetti romanza, fluently and sensitively.

Kicking off a quintet of Castilian art songs, Giunta and Wallis, assisted by Blier, portrayed young ladies proudly promenading or, as it were, strutting their stuff, in composer Enrique Granados and lyricist Fernando Periquet’s upbeat “Las currutacas modestas” (the modest beauties), from “Tonadillas.” With Barrett at the piano, Winters and Owens probed the dramatic flourishes of Joaquín Turina’s settings of Lope de Vega poetry, “Si con mis deseos” (if with my desires) and “Al val de Fuente Ovejuna” (down into the valley of Fuente Ovejuna), respectively, the tenor punctuating the latter with ringing high notes. Blier was back at the Steinway for Ford’s “El majo olvidado,” Granados and Periquet’s song of unrequited love, encompassing both pained and sentimental passages, and Giunta’s spirited “Paño murciano” (a dance of Murcia), arranged by Joaquín Nin.

Barrett presided over three exotic Basque songs, the first in Galician, the others in the Basque language, Giunta and Winters’ intense “Adiós, meu homiño” (goodbye, my darling) and “Nik baditut” (I have flocks of sheep), respectively, followed by the quartet’s “Aldapeko Mariya” (Maria from the mountains), written by Felix Lavilla for his spouse, mezzo-soprano Teresa Berganza, and played here as a comic battle of the sexes.

Turning to the Catalan group, with Blier, Giunta delivered a dulcet “Maig” (May), an ode to spring, replete with Nature imagery, by composer Eduardo Toldrá and poet Trinitat Catasús, and Winters, a sweet and pungent “Paisatge del Montseny” (the landscape of Montseny), a portrait of Catalonia, by composer Xavier Montsalvatge and poet Pere Ribot, and with Barrett, Ford’s earthy “Canto negro” (black song), Montsalvatge and Nicolás Guillén’s Cuban-style dance, from “Cinco cancionas negras,” and Owen’s delicate expression of the bereaved lover, in Frederic Mompou’s “Damunt de tu només les flors” (above you only flowers), from “Combat del somni” (war dreams), to Josep Janés’ poetry. Barrett remained at the piano for the pair of Sephardic songs in Ladino, Giunta’s “Tres hijas tiene el buey rey” (three daughters had the good king), the tale of a king’s incestuous attraction for his youngest child, by Alberto Hemsi, the lines capped with sinuous Eastern-sounding Hebraic melismas, and Ford’s sadly reproachful “Adió querida” (farewell, beloved), arranged by Manuel García Morante and addressed to an estranged love.

From the zarzuelas, with Blier presiding, came Owens’ expansive “Paxarín tú que vuelas” (little bird, you who fly), from Pablo Luna and librettists P. Monteverde, E.F. Galván, T. del Álamo, A. Asenjo, and P. Campos’ “La picara molinera” (the miller’s sly daughter), treating love, wariness, and obsession, and crowned with a triumphant top D-flat; Giunta and Winters’ gently romantic “Todas las mañanitas” (every morning), song of a duchess and her lady-in-waiting, from Manuel Penella’s “Don Gil de Alcalà;” Ford’s ominous-sounding “Despierta, negro” (wake up, black man), a sea song and serenade-cum-dire warning, from Pablo Sorozábal and librettists Federico Romero and Guillermo Fernández Shaw’s verismo “La tabernera del puerto” (the barmaid of the port), with the others playing his fellow sailors; and Winters and Owens’ seductive “Caballero del alto plumero” (gentleman with the plumed hat), from Torroba’s “Luisa Fernanda,” with text by Romero and Fernández Shaw, fraught with double entendres, his plume and her basil bush and rose bush all euphemisms. The seductive mood continued through Giunta and Ford’s “El arreglito” (the little arrangement), Sebastián de Yradier’s habanera, from which Georges Bizet’s Carmen’s entrance aria was taken, with Winters and Owens contributing coloratura runs to its final stretta section, and through the company’s ebullient Cuban encore, Moisés Simons’ “La negra Quirina,” limning a lusty feast.

NYFOS’ gala benefit evening of Jerome Kern songs, “A Fine Romance,” with Kelli O’Hara, Joseph Kaiser, and Blier and Barrett, follows on April 4, with 7 p.m. performance at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and dinner at 8:30 at “21”—visit www.nyfos.org or telephone 646/230-8380 for further details. Attendees are instructed that the dress required is: “Lovely.”

NYFOS performances next season at Merkin, at 129 West 67th Street, will take place on October 25 and 27, November 17 and 29 and December 1, 2011, and February 14 and 16 and March 13, 2012, so save the dates!