Manuel de Falla: "Nights in Spanish Gardens"

Interestingly, to become the most successful and famous composer of Spanish music in the 20th century, Manuel de Falla had to leave Spain to study in Paris. After trying in vain to stage in Madrid his first opera, La vida breve, Falla took the opportunity a mime troupe offered him as an accompanying pianist to go on tour with them and visit some European cities, Paris included, of course. And Falla settled there, at the end of the tour. It was 1907, and the author was 31 years old.

Paris, before the war
The years before the First War were the last years of the Belle Époque, and Paris still allowed itself to enjoy an intense musical life. Isaac Albéniz was living there, working busily on his Iberia Suite. Debussy was doing the same with his triptych Images, and Ravel was busy composing the Spanish Rhapsody. Falla knew all of them, Paul Dukas included, who offered to guide him in his orchestration studies; a commendable attitude, although in private he called him le petit Espagnol tout noir, with all affection, we imagine.

On the way back

But financially, the little Spaniard dressed all in black had a hard time. He could barely survive a frugal existence based on lessons, various accompaniments, and translations. However, his stay in Paris prepared him for his transformation into the mature composer he was to become on his return to Madrid in 1914. He had under his arm the drafts of a set of "nocturnes" for solo piano, which he would finally complete as a work for piano and orchestra, as suggested by his fellow countryman, the pianist Ricardo Viñes, and which he would call Noches en los Jardines de España (Nights in the Gardens of Spain).

De Falla in Paris, 1910
(1876 - 1946)

The work

Conceived in 1909 as a nocturnal composition, the symphonic work was completed a year after his return to Madrid, in 1915. Dedicated to Ricardo Viñes, it was first performed at the Teatro Real in Madrid on April 9, 1916. The premiere was attended by the pianist Arthur Rubinstein, who later confessed to having fallen in love with the piece, which he soon incorporated into his repertoire, seduced by this nostalgic triptych for piano and orchestra, considered one of the composer's works closest to Impressionism, as well as one of his most brilliant.

Movements

The work is in three movements or sections, with the second and third joined without pause.

00:00   En el Generalife

10:52   Danza Lejana

16:00   En los jardines de la Sierra de Córdoba

The performance is by Daniel Barenboim, accompanied by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Plácido Domingo.