Programme
Manuel de Falla / El sombrero de tres picos
arr. J. Domingo (conductor Julio Domingo)
O. Navarro Legacy (oboe concerto)
Soloist Joey Bormans
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O. Respighi “Belkis, Regina di Saba´
(arr. Kimura)
J. Turina “Danzas fantástica” op.21
About the programme
Splendid Spanish Folk Music
When he attended a performance of Manuel de Falla’s El corregidor y la molinera (The Governor and the Miller’s Wife), Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929) immediately spotted its potential. Falla had written music for a pantomime based on a book of the same name by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón (1833-1891), which in turn was based on Spanish folk tales. Diaghilev, director of the Ballets Russes, a Russian ballet company based in Paris, was impressed by Falla's intense music. With fiery, rhythmic music full of percussive and guitar-like sounds, Falla showed himself to be a typical Spanish-nationalist composer, along with Albéniz and Granados. Diaghilev had a suggestion, however: the work should be more splendid, longer, more overwhelming. His idea of big, bigger, biggest had previously proved successful, e.g. with Le Sacre du Printemps (Stravinsky). Falla followed his advice and created an extensive ballet score. With costumes by Pablo Picasso and choreography by Leonid Massine, the ballet El sombrero de tres picos (The three-cornered hat), was a big success. The title refers to the hat of a deceitful governor. He attempts to abuse his power to seduce an attractive miller's wife. She remains faithful to her husband, however, and sets a trap for the governor. The ballet ends in a great victory for the honest people of Spain. Falla wrote two suites of this ballet music, the first of which is on the programme for this concert. In La danza de la molinera, the miller's wife dances a fandango. A short bassoon solo then introduces the governor, followed by another depiction of the miller's wife, now in the form of elegant string music. In the exuberant Las uvas (The grapes), the suite reaches a happy and triumphant conclusion for the Spanish people.
A Special Legacy
Nearly a century after Falla's music inspired Diaghilev, oboist Ramón Ortega was impressed when he heard Óscar Navarro's second clarinet concerto in 2013. He commissioned Navarro to compose an oboe concerto. Two years later, Ortega played the premiere of Legacy with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie. The title of this single-movement work by Navarro refers to the joint legacy composers have left to the oboe repertoire over the years. "With this concerto, I wish to leave my mark or legacy, looking to the present and the future," Navarro said about his own concerto. After a fairy-tale introduction, the oboe is given ample scope for a solo, with long lyrical notes and lots of delicate oriental ornamentation. Gradually, the decorative turns in the oboe part increase in number and speed, and the castanets lend a distinctive Spanish feel to the piece. This is followed by some more intimate passages, including a beautiful duet between the oboe and the accompanying harp. These moments of tranquillity are alternated with passages of great exuberance and virtuosity, with the concerto ultimately ending in intense ecstasy. With his Legacy , Navarro has managed to add an equally lyrical and spectacular concerto to the overall legacy referred to in the title.
A Spectacular Love Ballet
A musical legacy that is at least as spectacular was left to ballet music by Ottorino Respighi. He started Belkis, Regina di Saba (Belkis, Queen of Sheba), as an opera, but then changed his mind and turned it into ballet music. Had Sergei Diaghilev still been alive in 1931, he would have been impressed, because this was ballet music beyond compare: featuring a huge percussion section, wind machine, vocal soloists, a choir, an offstage brass section and an Indian sitar, its premiere in Italy was a true spectacle. Despite its favourable reviews, the project was too big to ever really become part of the ballet repertoire. It was a different story with the suite Respighi distilled from the ballet music. Its first movement, Solomon’s Dream, starts with a dark prelude, representing the desert and King Solomon's loneliness. Solomon then summons Queen Belkis to his palace in Jerusalem, because he had had a vision telling him that she was in love with him. In the second movement, The War Dance, a ceremony takes place in Solomon's palace. In The Dance of Belkis at Dawn Belkis dreams of Solomon in her palace on the Red Sea and dances in honour of the morning sun. In the ballet (not in the suite performed in this concert) she subsequently travels across the desert with a large caravan of camels, elephants and slaves, hoping to become one of Solomon's approximately three hundred wives. The concluding movement, Orgiastic Dance, celebrates the joyful union of Solomon and Belkis. It is uncertain whether Belkis ever existed, but she appears in Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition and inspired countless works of music, film and theatre. In this concert, you will hear the arrangement for wind orchestra by the Japanese composer Yoshihiro Kimura.
From Lyrical to Macho
Danzas Fantásticas, Joaquín Turina's most well-known work , is also full of dance music. Spanish dance music, in this case, the atmosphere of which is based on the novel La Orgía (The Orgy) by José Mas. Taking his inspiration from Spanish folklore, Turina was on exactly the same wavelength as his lifelong close friend Manuel de Falla. At the start of every dance, Turina illustrates the mood by quoting from La Orgía. The quotation with movement 1, Exaltación is: “It seemed as though the figures in that incomparable picture were moving inside the calyx of a flower.” A dark introduction is followed by a lively jota, a seductive dance in which the man and woman challenge each other. There are some surprising stops in the jota, and finally a mysterious ending. The second dance, Ensueño (Dream), is linked to the following quotation from La Orgía: “The guitar’s strings sounded the lament of a soul helpless under the weight of bitterness.” This is a zortziko, a dance in distinctive 5/8 time, difficult for dancing. This Basque dance is lyrical in nature and has also been used by others, including Maurice Ravel in his piano trio. The concluding third dance, Orgía, is an Andalusian farruca: a dance in flamenco style, giving the men the chance to show their inner macho. The dance is interrupted repeatedly, however, and after a wonderful lyrical phrase just before the end, the brass give one final cry.
