It’s a time-honoured
subject: is music from a certain country
so typically nationalistic that it needs
native interpreters who, so to speak,
have the idiom in their genes. Maybe
this was once the case, but today, when
international musicians travel widely,
when recorded performances of core repertoire
are available en masse and when
interpretations tend to be cast in the
same mould, there is probably no truth
in this – at least when we talk about
the central European tradition. Perhaps
there is something in it when it comes
to the periphery: Eastern Europe, Scandinavia,
Spain and Britain. British music tends
to be best performed by British musicians,
mainly because it is mostly played in
Britain, and the same could be said
about the Nordic music. Mravinsky’s
recordings with the then Leningrad Philharmonic
of the Tchaikovsky symphonies are regarded
as the most authentic – on the other
hand the Austrian von Karajan with his
German BPO or the Italian Sinopoli with
the (British) Philharmonia Orchestra
have made benchmark recordings of the
Pathétique. Finally, coming to
the heart of the matter, my benchmark
recording of de Falla’s El Amor Brujo,
is an RCA disc more than forty years
old with Hungarian-born Fritz Reiner
at the helm of the Chicago Symphony,
This catches all the authentic atmosphere
of Spain: the brilliance, the jealousy,
the mystery, the heat, the colours.
I made the mistake of putting on that
old record again, to refresh my memory
before I started review-listening to
this new disc. I intended dipping into
a few places but had to listen from
beginning to end, completely enthralled.
When the old wizard Reiner grabs you
by the throat, which he does from the
first bar, he never lets go. All through
the 25 minutes of this short ballet
the tension is of the kind that has
you sitting on the edge of the chair,
hardly daring to breathe. This is one
of the most intense orchestral recordings
I know, down to Leontyne Price’s vocals,
raw, primitive, sometimes over-the-top,
animal and hardly Spanish – but so intense.
"Excuse me", I can
hear some reader muttering, "but aren’t
you reviewing the wrong disc?" Well,
reviewing often includes making comparisons
and anyone who also loves the old Reiner
disc must by now have suspected that
Maximiano Valdés’ version is
not in the same league. But that is
not the whole truth, for this new disc,
recorded more than three years ago,
has much to commend it. Technically
it is up to the current high standards
we have come to expect from Naxos with
the timpani rolls impressively caught
and the solo instruments standing out
well without undue highlighting. Valdés
also finds the right blend and balance
to make the felicities of de Falla’s
masterly instrumentation heard in all
their glory. The Asturias Symphony Orchestra
is obviously a fine band, as can be
heard right from the short Introduction
(track 1), marked Allegro furioso
ma non troppo vivo. It is indeed
fast and furious with that threatening
timpani roll. Then the night music,
marked Tranquillo e misterioso
(track 2) is mysteriously atmospheric
with its Andalusian melody played by
the oboe. In the Song of a Broken
Heart (track 3), a kind of flamenco,
Alicia Nafé is more recessed
than Price on the Reiner recording,
giving an improved natural impression.
Stylistically this is far more authentic
than Price’s larger-than-life singing.
Nafé has the right chesty notes
and she sounds just as well in the other
three vocal contributions (tracks 10,
12, 13). The Danza del terror
(track 5) is suitably agitated and the
famous Ritual Fire Dance (track
8) is relentlessly forward-moving, Valdés
sculpturing the ebb and flow of the
music.
Even finer is, to my
mind, Valdés’ handling of the
longer ballet The Three-Cornered
Hat. It is a light-hearted piece
about everyday life in a little Andalusian
town, full of comic elements, graphically
depicted by the orchestra. My comparison
recording is a Philips disc from the
1980s with Previn and the Pittsburgh
Symphony, but I must say that Valdés
is just as good. Both make the most
of the lively introduction (track 14)
with drums and trumpets, clattering
castanets, clapping hands and a rhythmically
incisive "male chorus" (the members
of the orchestra, no doubt). Previn
is a few seconds quicker here but otherwise
they very often choose the same tempos,
give or take a second or two; overall
both are very valid performances. The
picturesque descriptions of The Corregidor’s
antics are well taken care of in this
new recording. Although born in Santiago,
Chile, Maximiano Valdés is of
Asturian ancestry and has championed
Spanish music and served as conductor
for several leading Spanish orchestras.
No wonder then, that the dances are
given the right rhythmic lilt. The Dance
of the Miller’s Wife (track 16),
a fandango, is irresistible, and so
is the Final dance (track 21),
a jota. There are two short vocal contributions
in this ballet also, first in the Introduction
and then in the Miller’s dance (track
19), sung here by María José
Martos, who is a bright lyric soprano,
although the back-cover calls her a
mezzo-soprano. She sounds perfectly
authentic, less sophisticated than Frederica
von Stade on the Previn disc.
I would think that
these two ballets are among the most-played
Spanish orchestral works and anyone
who has not yet found his/her way to
these marvellous scores should not hesitate
to buy them in these excellent performances.
The booklet has very good synopses by
Graham Wade, which make it easy to follow
the action, and the sung texts, with
English translations, are printed. Naxos
are exemplary in this respect. For good
measure we also get a bonus track, the
Danza from the opera La vida
breve. It might have been culled
from the complete recording of the opera
with these same artists.
Recommended.
Göran Forsling
see also review
by Rob Barnett
María José Martos (soprano)**,
Alicia Nafé (mezzo-soprano)*, 
