The booklet notes
by pianist Daniel Ligorio, brief as they are, proudly announce
that this disc marks the “first recording to be issued of Falla’s
complete piano music, including juvenilia and all of his piano
transcriptions”. This is an area that has been somewhat overlooked.
The first volume of well selected pieces covers a wide variety
of works. These here fall into three types: that is early pieces
which are of much charm but little originality, secondly a longer
and very fine and very Spanish work, and thirdly a transcription.
Starting with the
first category comes the Nocturnal, Serenata and
the Serenata andaluza. These fall into the salon market
category. Albeniz is not too far away, and as you might guess
from the title neither is Chopin. Anyway one feels Falla finding
his musical feet. The Serenata andaluza is more of a
picture postcard of Spain with its swirling dotted rhythms and
slightly ornamented melody oscillating between major and minor.
The more typical
and mature Falla is represented by the short pieces in honour
of Debussy and Dukas. The Homenaje was written two years
after the French composer’s death. Sobre la tumba de Paul
Dukas dates from the year of Dukas’s death. There was always
French quality about Falla and it comes out here. The Dukas
work is especially fine with its pounding opening octaves. The
Homenaje pays tribute to the Debussy who loved and indeed
was so often inspired by Spain as in the piano ‘Préludes’. It
got me thinking however as to why Spanish music by Spanish composers
should sound Spanish at all. If Debussy could imitate Spain
why not Falla imitate France or even England - sadly that never
happened. Why expect Falla always to be so exotic?
This thought continued
whilst pondering the Allegro de Concierto, a curious
work in many ways. With its opening bounding rhythm and its
passionate but repetitive second theme it does not sound like
the Falla we know and love. However its predominant minor key
has a gypsy flavour to it. A later theme in the major key is
almost Schumannesque. This piece and the two Hommages mentioned
above seem to me to be brought off best of all by Ligorio.
The ‘Cuatro piezas
españolas’ are effectively dance pieces although they each
refer to a region of Spain or places of Spanish influence: Aragonese,
Cubana, Montanesa and Andaluza. The notes quite rightly mention
that they are a “blend of Spanish nationalism with the sensuality
of French Impressionism” which I mentioned above. The outer
movements have more folkloric elements; the inner ones are sensuous
and romantic.
In the last category
come the four movements which make up the piano transcription
of ‘Love the Magician’, a quintessential Spanish score
if ever there was one. This is very challenging for any pianist
and I do feel that Ligorio does not make enough of the power
and virtuosity inherent in the music. That coupled with too
much rhythmic freedom throughout much of the CD makes it all
rather a disappointment. He is not helped by a rather boxy recording,
one with no air around it. The bass of the instrument suffers
particularly.
I cannot as yet
be overly enthusiastic. Perhaps in the remaining volumes these
problems may be ironed out. It’s probably best to look elsewhere
at present for other collections of Falla’s piano music.
Gary Higginson
Daniel Ligorio (piano)
