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Evocación. The Music of Spain
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A few words
The earliest forms of guitar were common to many European countries but it is only in Spain that the instrument has played a continuous part in the national musical culture. It is natural that the Sound of the guitar and of the musical textures that suit it welI should have been in the subconscious ‘inner ear’ of the composers represented in this programme. Much of their other instrumental music might even be described as ‘transcribed guitar music’. Thus the many extant arrangements of some of their works for one or more guitars would probably receive the blessing of their composers (were they alive to hear them); indeed, Albéniz expressed his warm approvai of Francisco Tàrrega’s arrangements of some of his piano pieces for solo guitar. To this we may add Chopin’s statement, that: “Nothing is more beautiful than a guitar, except for two guitars.” After the deaths of Granados and Albéniz, their piano music fell largely into disuse; interest in it was kept alive by guitarists. Even today, there are more recordings of many of their pieces by guitarists than by pianists! So no apology is required or offered for presenting this music on two guitars.
From early times, ltalian tastes and practices dominated Spanish music. A Spanish composer who asserted an individuality without reference to ltalian models was indeed a prophet without honor in his own land. The I9th century brought little change (though it did witness the birth of the zarzuela, a form of light operetta), until the intervention of Felipe Pedrell (1841-1922), a pianist/composer who campaigned for the development of a genre of Spanish contemporary music that would draw upon folk-musical inheritance for its individuality and inspiration. This came at a time when pursuit ot musical nationalism’ was widely in vogue. Falla and Granados studied with Pedrell, who encouraged them to distance themselves from ltalian influence by studying further in northern Europe. Falla went to Paris, where he befriended Debussy, Dukas and Ravel; Granados did Iikewise, studying with de Beriot. Riding with the tide, Albéniz studied with Brassin and Gevaert in Brussels, and Liszt and Reinecke in Leipzig. Thus was born the prolific school of Spanish Romanticism (tinged with lmpressionism), ot which Joaquín Rodrigo is the last living representative.
Manuel de Falla did not play the guitar, but in 1921 he wrote a brief but beautiful piece for it, Homenaje, pour le tombeau de Debussy. He was a slow and painstaking composer; his scenic cantata Atlántida was, for instance, begun in 1927 but it was left to his friend Emesto Halffter to finish it after his (Falla’s) death. lt Is thus remarkable, that he wrote the Homenaje in a few weeks, with the aid of a borrowed guitar from which he leamed how the instrument worked! The lyric drama La Vida Breve (Life is Short) was written between 1904-05 and revised for its premiere in Paris in 1913, where it established his reputation. The music is unmistakably Andalusian Spanish, not least the energetic Danza Española no.1 , the first of two. EI Sombrero de Tres Picos (the three-comered hat) is the headgear of the Corregidor (Lord Mayor), who dances a stately and old-fashioned minuet in an unsuccessful and finally disastrous attempt to seduce the millers wife!
Enrique Granados, the son of an army officer, spent his entire working life in Spain (apart from his period of study in Paris, where ill-health prevented him from attending the Conservatoire). He was a fastidious craftsman who presented musical Spain through the senses of a cultured and sensitive observer of an idealized past, eschewing primitivism and naked sensuality. Call him an escapist if you like, but theres nothing intrinsically wrong in using music to focus the mind on the more beautiful aspects of life - as another famous Spaniard, Andrés Segovia, also did!
Only five of the 12 Danzas Españolas bear the titles orginally bestowed on them by Granados; Oriental and Rondalia Aragonesa are among them. The titles of the others were later appended by publishers, whose vivid imaginations were matched only by their desire for financial profit. Oriental pays gentle tribute to Spains Moorish legacy, whilst the accelerando in the Rondalla Aragonesa evokes visions of stamping feet, clicking castanets and high spirits - in a civilized and decorous way!
lronically, Granados’ only overseas journey resulted in his death: The boat on which he was retuming home after attending the first production ot his opera Goyescas (from which the Intermezzo comes) in New York, was torpedoed by a German submarine; both he and his wife drowned.
lsaac Albéniz had an adventure-packed life that would probably be impossible in our own time. He first played in public at the the age of four, and by the time he was 14 he had been refused admission to the Paris Conservatoire (too young), run away from the Madrid Conservatory (too rigid and stifling), given concerts throughout Spain, sailed to Puerto Rico as a stowaway, toured from Cuba to San Francisco, returned to Europe (concertizing in London and Liverpool en route), studied for a year in Leipzig, and retumed to Spain with empty pockets. A royal grant enabled him to resume his studies in Leipzig and Brussels, after which he again toured in Cuba, Mexico and Argentina, before retuming to Spain to conduct a small zarzuela company and to continue to work as a solo pianist until he was 30, when he went to Paris to study with Dukas and d’Indy.
His music portrays places in Spain and the musicial Iife in them. His ear was dose to the soil and, though he did not share Granados’ inhibitions, his earlier piano works (which embrace most of the items in this recording) are typical of Albéniz at his most charming and uncomplicated, direct and with depth of feeling and economy of means. The two Tangos are separate items, not paris of suites or collections. Whilst in Paris he was appointed to the Schola Cantorum and, perhaps overly sensitive to the stature of other composers in his vicinity, became preoccupied with complexities of harmony and counterpoint. This trend culminated in Iberia, amongst the 12 items of which the Evocación is one of the few that is not overladen with a sheer weight of notes, and extravagant dynamic markings. Some others push pianistic virtuousity to its limits, and it is said that when Albéniz got into difficulties in concert he improvised his way out of them! In the end, his music fully matched his nature and Iife-style.
From early times, ltalian tastes and practices dominated Spanish music. A Spanish composer who asserted an individuality without reference to ltalian models was indeed a prophet without honor in his own land. The I9th century brought little change (though it did witness the birth of the zarzuela, a form of light operetta), until the intervention of Felipe Pedrell (1841-1922), a pianist/composer who campaigned for the development of a genre of Spanish contemporary music that would draw upon folk-musical inheritance for its individuality and inspiration. This came at a time when pursuit ot musical nationalism’ was widely in vogue. Falla and Granados studied with Pedrell, who encouraged them to distance themselves from ltalian influence by studying further in northern Europe. Falla went to Paris, where he befriended Debussy, Dukas and Ravel; Granados did Iikewise, studying with de Beriot. Riding with the tide, Albéniz studied with Brassin and Gevaert in Brussels, and Liszt and Reinecke in Leipzig. Thus was born the prolific school of Spanish Romanticism (tinged with lmpressionism), ot which Joaquín Rodrigo is the last living representative.
Manuel de Falla did not play the guitar, but in 1921 he wrote a brief but beautiful piece for it, Homenaje, pour le tombeau de Debussy. He was a slow and painstaking composer; his scenic cantata Atlántida was, for instance, begun in 1927 but it was left to his friend Emesto Halffter to finish it after his (Falla’s) death. lt Is thus remarkable, that he wrote the Homenaje in a few weeks, with the aid of a borrowed guitar from which he leamed how the instrument worked! The lyric drama La Vida Breve (Life is Short) was written between 1904-05 and revised for its premiere in Paris in 1913, where it established his reputation. The music is unmistakably Andalusian Spanish, not least the energetic Danza Española no.1 , the first of two. EI Sombrero de Tres Picos (the three-comered hat) is the headgear of the Corregidor (Lord Mayor), who dances a stately and old-fashioned minuet in an unsuccessful and finally disastrous attempt to seduce the millers wife!
Enrique Granados, the son of an army officer, spent his entire working life in Spain (apart from his period of study in Paris, where ill-health prevented him from attending the Conservatoire). He was a fastidious craftsman who presented musical Spain through the senses of a cultured and sensitive observer of an idealized past, eschewing primitivism and naked sensuality. Call him an escapist if you like, but theres nothing intrinsically wrong in using music to focus the mind on the more beautiful aspects of life - as another famous Spaniard, Andrés Segovia, also did!
Only five of the 12 Danzas Españolas bear the titles orginally bestowed on them by Granados; Oriental and Rondalia Aragonesa are among them. The titles of the others were later appended by publishers, whose vivid imaginations were matched only by their desire for financial profit. Oriental pays gentle tribute to Spains Moorish legacy, whilst the accelerando in the Rondalla Aragonesa evokes visions of stamping feet, clicking castanets and high spirits - in a civilized and decorous way!
lronically, Granados’ only overseas journey resulted in his death: The boat on which he was retuming home after attending the first production ot his opera Goyescas (from which the Intermezzo comes) in New York, was torpedoed by a German submarine; both he and his wife drowned.
lsaac Albéniz had an adventure-packed life that would probably be impossible in our own time. He first played in public at the the age of four, and by the time he was 14 he had been refused admission to the Paris Conservatoire (too young), run away from the Madrid Conservatory (too rigid and stifling), given concerts throughout Spain, sailed to Puerto Rico as a stowaway, toured from Cuba to San Francisco, returned to Europe (concertizing in London and Liverpool en route), studied for a year in Leipzig, and retumed to Spain with empty pockets. A royal grant enabled him to resume his studies in Leipzig and Brussels, after which he again toured in Cuba, Mexico and Argentina, before retuming to Spain to conduct a small zarzuela company and to continue to work as a solo pianist until he was 30, when he went to Paris to study with Dukas and d’Indy.
His music portrays places in Spain and the musicial Iife in them. His ear was dose to the soil and, though he did not share Granados’ inhibitions, his earlier piano works (which embrace most of the items in this recording) are typical of Albéniz at his most charming and uncomplicated, direct and with depth of feeling and economy of means. The two Tangos are separate items, not paris of suites or collections. Whilst in Paris he was appointed to the Schola Cantorum and, perhaps overly sensitive to the stature of other composers in his vicinity, became preoccupied with complexities of harmony and counterpoint. This trend culminated in Iberia, amongst the 12 items of which the Evocación is one of the few that is not overladen with a sheer weight of notes, and extravagant dynamic markings. Some others push pianistic virtuousity to its limits, and it is said that when Albéniz got into difficulties in concert he improvised his way out of them! In the end, his music fully matched his nature and Iife-style.