Manuel de Falla - Piano Music (Alicia de Larrocha)

Information

Composer: Manuel de Falla

• Cuatro piezas españolas
• Fantasia Baetica
• El sombrero de tres picos - Suite
• El amor brujo - Suite

Alicia de Larrocha, piano

Date: 1973

Label: Decca / Newton

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Review

The diminutive Spanish pianist (four feet nine inches) died at the age of 86 in September 2009. Her repertoire extended from Bach to Rachmaninov but it is with Mozart and Spanish music that she is most fondly associated. Of Mozart’s last four piano concertos presented here, K503 and K595 were recorded in 1977 in the much-missed Kingsway Hall. This is their first international CD release. K491 and K537 (a concerto Larrocha first played aged 11) were recorded in Henry Wood Hall eight years later but never released. The reason, producer Michael Haas reveals, was “due to misgivings [by both artists] about the acoustics of the studio”. Twenty-five years later this issue has been addressed and if there are any infelicities as a result of using only an initial edit, they have escaped my ears. In fact the acoustics of both venues (have been made to?) sound remarkably similar.

As to the more important issue of the music-making, it would be a strange person indeed who did not submit to such warm-hearted, unmannered Mozart. Nothing is driven, there are no “misplaced ‘Beethovenian’ heroics” (Jeremy Siepmann in his notes) or distracting idiosyncrasies. Larrocha’s pearly toned, lightly pedalled touch and the way she can taper a phrase ending to resemble musical speech (try the opening of K491) make these accounts ones to live with.

The Falla programme is a reissue of the pianist’s 1973 Decca recording (Kingsway Hall again) rather than her harsh-sounding selection for Hispavox/EMI made in the late 1950s. Larrocha does not play the music as much as inhabit it. The Cuatro Piezas españolas, inspired by Albéniz’s Ibéria, are given peerless performances. It’s a wonder they are not better known. The fourth of them, “Andaluza”, aptly prefaces the Fantasia Baetica (“Baetica” being the Roman name for Andalusia). Composed for Arthur Rubinstein, who gave the premiere and then abandoned it, it is not the most gratefully written piece for two hands but its vibrant colours, astringent harmonies and piquant, ever-changing rhythms make it one of the most evocative of showpieces. The suites derived from Falla’s two ballet scores, ending with the “Ritual Fire Dance”, round off this shortish but exceptional disc.

— Jeremy Nicholas

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Manuel de Falla (23 November 1876 – 14 November 1946) was a leading Spanish composer of the early 20th century. After relocating to Paris in 1907, he came under the influence of Debussy, Dukas and Ravel. Upon his return to Madrid in 1914, he produced major works including El amor brujo, El sombrero de tres picos, and Noches en los jardines de España, solidifying his international reputation. In later years in Granada, he composed El retablo de Maese Pedro and a Harpsichord Concerto, reflecting his shift toward a neoclassical style. Falla spent his final years in Mallorca and subsequently in Argentina.

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Alicia de Larrocha (23 May 1923 – 25 September 2009) was a Spanish pianist, considered as one of the 20th century's greatest piano legends. Born in Barcelona, she began piano studies at age three with Frank Marshall. She debuted at six at the 1929 Seville World's Fair and performed with an orchestra by eleven. By the 1940s, she was a major concert attraction in Spain and soon toured internationally, including North America and Southern Africa. Famed for her interpretations of Spanish composers such as Albéniz, Granados, de Falla and Mompou, she received multiple awards for her extensive recordings.

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