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
Clásica - Editado por Claves Records el 1/01/1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Manuel de Falla - Great Recordings
Clásica - Editado por UME - Global Clearing House el 14/11/2020
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
Clásica - Editado por Jingo el 12/10/2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Obras Completas (Remastered)
Varios - Editado por Master Tape Records el 6/09/2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Le Tricorne - 7 Chansons Populaires
Teresa Berganza, Jesús López-Cobos, Juan Antonio Alvarez Parejo
Clásica - Editado por Claves Records el 12/03/1984
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Grandi Pianisti Alicia de Larrocha
Alicia de Larrocha, Isaac Albéniz, Manuel de Falla
Clásica - Editado por UME - Global Clearing House el 14/05/2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Virtuosi of the Camerata Lysy Gstaad
Clásica - Editado por Claves Records el 1/01/1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Le Tricorne - Le Feu Follet
Clásica - Editado por Claves Records el 1/09/2008
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
Clásica - Editado por Denon el 1/01/1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Benjamin Britten: Nocturnal, Op. 70
Clásica - Editado por David González el 9/04/2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
De Falla: The Three Cornered Hat (Complete Ballet)
London Symphony Orchestra, Barbara Howitt
Ballets - Editado por Everest Records el 24/09/1965
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Naumburg Recordings, 1986 First Prize Cello Competition - Andrés Díaz
Música de cámara - Editado por Musical Heritage Society el 16/09/2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Música de España. Spanish Classical Music Vol.2
Clásica - Editado por Meta - Monreal el 1/11/2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
With a Little Help from My Friends
Clásica - Editado por Mats Bergstrom Musik el 1/01/1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Clásicos Inolvidables Vol. 26, Perfumes de la Noche
Clásica - Editado por ADAGIO el 1/08/2015
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Manuel de Falla: El Sombrero de Tres Picos / El Amor Brujo
Música concertante - Editado por AV360 Music el 26/04/2023
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Nocturnal Shadows
Clásica - Editado por Naxos Sweden - dB el 22/01/2014
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Full Frequency Range
Clásica - Editado por Dutton Epoch el 19/08/2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tesoros de la Música Clásica, Vol. II
Clásica - Editado por ADAGIO el 15/04/2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Danza Española No. 1: La Vida Breve
Clásica - Editado por Sonata Islands el 2/07/2021
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
De Falla: Der Liebeszauber (Digitally Remastered)
Oliver Colbentson, Erich Appel
Clásica - Editado por EMG Classical el 9/07/2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo