CD REVIEW -
FALLA
Orchestral Works
ULSTER ORCHESTRA JAC VAN STEEN
SOMM SOMMCD 0694
[74:43]
Like the MacDowell album reviewed at the
end of last year, this is an
interesting listen I have been
enjoying – a kindly sent
review copy arriving some weeks
before its release.
Born in Cádiz,
Manuel de Falla (1876-1946) is
credited as the central figure in
the renaissance of his country's
music that happened during the
first decades of the 20th
century. The three works on this
disc encapsulate the very spirit
of Spain. Olé!
Occupying almost
half the disc, his 'The
Three-Cornered Hat', with
its exciting opening, magnificent
set-piece dances and rumbustious
finale, is ballet music first
performed in London in 1919,
which had choreography by Massine
and sets by Picasso. It is the
tale of a young miller's
unfounded jealousy for his
beautiful wife and the repulsive
local magistrate, whose badge of
office is the hat in the title.
'Nights in the
Garden of Spain' was first
heard in Madrid three years
earlier. It was written to evoke
the atmosphere of Moorish
Andalusia (the Moors ruled from
711 until 1492). Although it does
not match the brilliance of the
later work, Diaghilev had wanted
it for his aforementioned Ballet
Russes ballet but was dissuaded
by Falla who suggested he used
what we now hear. Soloist for the
work's first London performance
in 1921 was the composer himself;
and I am sure he would have
approved of the pianist here: the
internationally much-admired
Brazilian, Clélia Iruzun, who is
based in London.
The album is
completed by 12 minutes of 'Seven
Spanish Folk Songs' sung
– on her debut CD – by
the Irish mezzo-soprano Sarah
Richmond (also heard on the
opening track). They are based on
popular traditional pieces from
Murcia, Asturias, Aragon and
beautiful Andalusia: Falla's home
region, that range from a stain
on a fine cloth reducing its
saleable value to a pain in the
chest!
There is assured
orchestral playing throughout
from the Ulster Orchestra under
Netherlands-born Jac van Steen,
their principal guest conductor.
The label has
provided another quality issue,
recorded in Belfast's Ulster Hall
a year ago, although I accept
that some may overlook the
album's musical value and
consider it too
"heavy". On the other
hand, it would make an ideal
purchase in preparation for this
year's Spanish holiday!
©
Peter Burt, January 2025
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