Nights in the Gardens of Spain

Manuel de Falla (1876-1946) seems a kind of “workmanlike” composer. Born in the ancient city of Cadíz in southern Spain, Falla’s early interest in music betrayed no prodigious ability, and it was not until his late teens that he felt called to a career in music. He then enrolled at the Conservatory of Madrid to study piano and composition. While absorbing the influence of leading voices like Albéniz and Granados (at home), as well as Dukas and Debussy (from abroad), Falla also devoted himself to infusing native Andalusian traits into his works. Such pieces, including the lush Nights in the Gardens of Spain, remain his most distinctive creations. Given his primary influences and upbringing, one would not expect Falla to have written a harpsichord concerto. Granted, the concerto (composed 1923-26) bears little resemblance to Baroque works in that genre.

A great deal of the work’s novelty derives from the scoring, which backs the harpsichord soloist with a lean quintet of players: flute, oboe, clarinet, violin, and cello. But Falla’s work also helps release the harpsichord from its conventional moorings in the past, bringing it convincingly into the modern era. Indeed, he was the first composer to place the harpsichord into a symphonic setting (in a 1923 puppet-opera score) and also the first to compose a harpsichord concerto in the 20th century. Falla admitted that his inspiration came from Wanda Landowska, the Polish musician who restored the harpsichord to the world’s concert stages. His Concerto is cast in three movements. The first and last, dominated by frequent meter changes, are motoric and punctuated by sharp dissonance. There are moments when two different keys grind against each other simultaneously. The central movement, which fixates on an arch-like motive in the high winds, offers rather static contrast to the surrounding freneticism.

(c) Jason Stell