Mikhail Glinka, "Jota aragonesa"

"The Spaniards are sincere and direct when speaking, they do not have a language affected and full of ceremony like the French". Thus wrote the Russian composer Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka to his mother in the summer of 1845, from Valladolid, where he had arrived after a nine-month stay in Paris. Nonetheless, despite his disenchantment with the Parisians, his colleague Hector Berlioz had conducted excerpts of his works in Paris and published a praiseworthy article about him. But he did not like the French and that is why he had left for Spain.

Valladolid
The composer was about 41 years old and three years ago one of his works in which he had put all his efforts, his second opera, Russlan and Ludmilla, had received a cold reception in St. Petersburg. In 1845, still shocked by the rejection, he decided to leave Russia and embark on a concert tour of some European cities to become acquainted with and nourished by the musical traditions, mainly French and Spanish. Thus, that summer, he was in Valladolid, enthusiastic and delighted to meet the local people.

Mikhail Glinka (1804 - 1857)

An Aragonese jota
In that cozy atmosphere, he got to know a local merchant, Félix Castilla, who was also an excellent guitarist. One afternoon, Castilla played for him a traditional folk dance, a jota aragonesa. It was what Glinka was looking for. The melody became the basis for one of his most popular works. Entitled Capricho brillante sobre la jota aragonesa, he began writing it in Madrid where he moved later and where he finished it at the end of 1845.

Capricho brillante sobre la jota aragonesa - Obertura Española No. 1
Despite Glinka's interest that audiences in Spain would appreciate his attempt to integrate the Spanish sound into the Western musical tradition, the work was not premiered in Spain but in Warsaw three years later, in 1848.
Also known as Spanish Overture No. 1 (No. 2 being the somewhat less celebrated Noche de verano en Madrid, from 1851), it is presented here in two versions.
The first, a choreographed reduced version, danced by the Igor Moiseyev Ballet of Moscow, on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of the great Russian choreographer and dancer Igor Moiseyev (1906 - 2007).

Complete original version. Glinka's orchestration is remarkable here for its extensive use of multiple orchestral colors. With several instrumental combinations, he is able to produce a lush, full sound. And when required, he resorts to harp and pizzicato strings to imitate the sound of the guitar.

The edition is by the Zhukovsky Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Vladislav Ivanovskyi.