Manuel de Falla
Part Impressionist and part neo-Classicist, Manuel de Falla is difficult to peg, but he is widely regarded as the most distinguished Spanish composer of the early 20th century. His output is small but choice and revolves largely around music for the stage. Falla's reputation is based primarily on two lavishly Iberian ballet scores: El amor brujo ("Love, the Magician"), from which is drawn the Ritual Fire Dance (a pops favorite, often heard in piano or guitar transcriptions), and the splashy El sombrero de tres picos ("The Three-Cornered Hat"). He also gained a permanent place in the concert repertory with his evocative piano concerto Nights in the Gardens of Spain.
Born in 1876, Falla first took piano lessons from his mother in Cádiz, and later moved to Madrid to continue the piano and to study composition with Felipe Pedrell, the musical scholar who had earlier pointed Isaac Albéniz toward Spanish folk music as a source for his compositions. Pedrell interested Falla in Renaissance Spanish church music, folk music, and native opera. The latter two influences are strongly felt in La Vida breve ("Life Is Short"), an opera (a sort of Spanish Cavalleria rusticana) for which Falla won a prize in 1905, although the work was not premiered until 1913. A second significant aesthetic influence resulted from his 1907 move to Paris, where he met and fell under the Impressionist spell of Claude Debussy, Paul Dukas, and Maurice Ravel. It was in Paris that Falla published his first piano pieces and songs. In 1914 he was back in Madrid, working on the application of a quasi-Impressionistic idiom to intensely Spanish subjects; El amor brujo drew on Andalusian folk music. Falla wrote another ballet in 1917, El Corregidor y la molinera ("The Magistrate and the Miller Girl"). Diaghilev persuaded him to expand the score for a ballet by Léonide Massine to be called El sombrero de tres picos, and excerpts from the full score have become a staple of the concert repertory. In between the two ballets came Nights in the Gardens of Spain, a suite of three richly scored impressions for piano and orchestra, again evoking Andalusia.
In the 1920s, Falla altered his stylistic direction, coming under the influence of Stravinsky's neo-Classicism. Works from this period include the puppet opera El retablo de Maese Pedro ("The Altarpiece of Maese Pedro"), based on an episode from Don Quixtote, and a harpsichord concerto, with the folk inspiration now Castilian rather than Andalusian. After 1926 he essentially retired, living first in Mallorca and, from 1939, in Argentina. He was generally apolitical, but the rise of fascism in Spain contributed to his decision to remain in Latin America after traveling there for a conducting engagement. He spent his final years in the Argentine desert, at work on a giant cantata, Atlántida, which remained unfinished at his death in 1946.
© James Reel /TiVo
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Manuel De Falla: The Complete Works For Solo Piano
Classical - Released by Claves Records on 1 Jan 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Manuel de Falla - Great Recordings
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 14 Nov 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
NSO Principals Series: Cantabile Violin & Guitar
李宜錦, 蘇孟風, Niccolò Paganini, Manuel de Falla, Béla Bartók, Manuel Ponce
Classical - Released by Jingo on 12 Oct 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Obras Completas (Remastered)
Miscellaneous - Released by Master Tape Records on 6 Sep 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Le Tricorne - 7 Chansons Populaires
Teresa Berganza, Jesús López-Cobos, Juan Antonio Alvarez Parejo
Classical - Released by Claves Records on 12 Mar 1984
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Grandi Pianisti Alicia de Larrocha
Alicia de Larrocha, Isaac Albéniz, Manuel de Falla
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 14 May 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Virtuosi of the Camerata Lysy Gstaad
Classical - Released by Claves Records on 1 Jan 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Le Tricorne - Le Feu Follet
Classical - Released by Claves Records on 1 Sep 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
De Falla - The Three-Cornered Hat Suite - El Amor Brujo
Manuel de Falla, Jean Madeira, Vienna Symphonic Orchestra, Eduord Van Remoortel
Classical - Released by Denon on 1 Jan 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Benjamin Britten: Nocturnal, Op. 70
Classical - Released by David González on 9 Apr 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
De Falla: The Three Cornered Hat (Complete Ballet)
London Symphony Orchestra, Barbara Howitt
Ballets - Released by Everest Records on 24 Sep 1965
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Naumburg Recordings, 1986 First Prize Cello Competition - Andrés Díaz
Chamber Music - Released by Musical Heritage Society on 16 Sep 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Música de España. Spanish Classical Music Vol.2
Classical - Released by Meta - Monreal on 1 Nov 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
With a Little Help from My Friends
Classical - Released by Mats Bergstrom Musik on 1 Jan 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Clásicos Inolvidables Vol. 26, Perfumes de la Noche
Classical - Released by ADAGIO on 1 Aug 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Manuel de Falla: El Sombrero de Tres Picos / El Amor Brujo
Concertos - Released by AV360 Music on 26 Apr 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Nocturnal Shadows
Classical - Released by Naxos Sweden - dB on 22 Jan 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Full Frequency Range
Classical - Released by Dutton Epoch on 19 Aug 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tesoros de la Música Clásica, Vol. II
Classical - Released by ADAGIO on 15 Apr 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Danza Española No. 1: La Vida Breve
Classical - Released by Sonata Islands on 2 Jul 2021
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
De Falla: Der Liebeszauber (Digitally Remastered)
Oliver Colbentson, Erich Appel
Classical - Released by EMG Classical on 9 Jul 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo