Ernesto Halffter - Sinfonietta; 2 Esquisses Symphoniques; etc. (Adrian Leaper)

Information

Composer: Ernesto Halffter

• Habanera
• Cavatina
• 'Al Amanecer' for violin and orchestra
• 2 Esquisses Symphoniques
• Sinfonietta in D

Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria

Adrian Leaper, conductor

Date: 2000

Label: ASV

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Review

Ernesto Halifter was a Spanish composer, born in 1905. He was encouraged by Manuel de Falla for whom he had an exaggerated admiration. Like Falla, his music lacks a vital ingredient, the ability to say something completely new. Halffter's music is attractive, tonal and easy-going. Occasionally,it has the sparkle of Ravel but his orchestration varies in quality. More often than not, it is somewhat watery and when he does become adventurous, as in the bubbling horn writing in Al Amancer, it can be very exciting. His music is in the Romantic-Impressionistic style and, surprisingly, somewhat short on nationalistic features. It is pleasant music but offers nothing of any real purport to remember.

The Habanera of 1931 is not strong enough rhythmically and I am unable to say whether this is inherent in the music or the performance. One expects, perhaps wrongly, more drive. There is also a lack of colour. The most colourful orchestration comes in the second of the two Esquisses Symphoniques.

It may surprise us further that his first large-scale orchestral work is called Sinfonietta although it lasts for about 35 minutes. But one soon discovers why. It is very lightweight, a kind of a divertimento and, quite frankly, some of the music is banal and embarrassingly trivial. And yet, there are rare moments of heightened expectation. The end of the second movement is quite impressive but the Minuetto is so bad that one hangs one's head in shame. Thinking that I may be being a little severe, I asked some of my professional colleagues about this work and they voiced the same reservations and in bolder terms. One did say that there was a better recording of the Sinfonietta available but I have no desire to track it down.

Adrian Leaper is a good conductor and I do not want to say anything to question this. Perhaps he is not fully in sympathy with Spanish music. The recorded sound is good.

— David Wright

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Ernesto Halffter (16 January 1905 – 5 July 1989) was a Spanish composer and conductor, brother of Rodolfo Halffter and a protégé of Manuel de Falla. After early studies in Madrid, he met Ravel in Paris in 1924 and later travelled widely before settling in Seville, where he directed the new Conservatory, followed by a decade in Lisbon. Halffter wrote ballets, incidental music and film scores, and was commissioned to complete Falla's unfinished Atlántida. His output includes orchestral works such as Dos bocetos sinfónicos, the acclaimed Sinfonietta, a Guitar Concerto, as well as chamber and piano pieces.

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Adrian Leaper (born 1953) is an English conductor. Leaper studied horn and conducting at the Royal Academy of Music and for eight year was co-principal horn of the Philharmonia Orchestra. He was Principal Conductor of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria (1994-2001) the RTVE Symphony Orchestra in Madrid (2001-2010). He has made many recordings for the Naxos Records label. He has conducted for all four major London orchestras, the Moscow, Vienna and Prague Symphony Orchestras, in addition to many other radio, philharmonic, and symphony orchestras around the world.

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