Starter Packs

Complete your collection with these curated titles, grouped at a special discount.

Shop Now

Naxos

BOLERO AND OTHER SPANISH FAVOURITES

$19.99 Only 1 left

Details

Composer: CHABRIER
Artist: Adrian, Kenneth, Leaper, Keith, Jean, Clark
Format: CD
Label: Naxos
Released: Sep 01, 1997
Catalog #: 8554044
UPC: 636943404423

About

The music of Spain retains it's exotic attraction, with it's individual blend of regional and national elements, influenced by the colorful traditions of the country and of it's former colonies. It was in the nineteenth century, with the growth of nationalism, politically and culturally, that Spanish musical identity became established internationally as something apart from the main European cultural traditions of which Spain had for centuries formed apart. It was natural that something of this fascination with things Spanish should make an early appearance in neighboring France. The French composer Emmanuel Chabrier had spent the early part of his career as a civil servant, resigning his position only in 1880 in order to devote himself to music. Chabrier lacked the thorough training of the Conservatoire, but had been able to study music with some assiduity as a private pupil of a number of teachers of distinction, while mixing socially with a circle of well known musicians, painters and writers. In 1881 Charles Lamoureux made him chorus director and organizing secretary for the new concerts that he was promoting in Paris, his first professional musical employment. It was a journey to Spain in 1882 that aroused Chabrier's interest in the music of that country. Returning to Paris, he composed a fantasia for piano, based on the melodies he had collected, and played it through to Lamoureux, who encouraged him to orchestrate it. The result was the orchestral rhapsody España, first performed under Lamoureux on 6th November 1883. Chabrier won immediate fame, although his continuing operatic ambitions never brought him the success that he wanted. España, a vivid evocation of Spain, uses the contrasting elements of the jota and the malagueña in a colorfully orchestrated work. Manuel de Falla, born in Cádiz in 1876, was the leading Spanish composer of his generation, writing music that captured the essence of all that was Spanish, while proving acceptable internationally. His ballet The Three-Cornered Hat, originally a pantomime under the title El corregidor y la molinera (The Magistrate and the Miller's Wife), is based on a story by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón. The plot concerns the jealousy of the miller, whose attractive wife has been subjected to the attentions of the elderly Corregidor. The ballet was first staged in London in 1919 by Dyagilev's Ballets russes, with décor by Picasso and choreography by Leonid Massin. The excerpts included here start with the Fandango for the miller's wife, followed by a Segnidillas for the neighbors, a Farruca for the miller and a final Jota. Manuel de Falla's opera La vida breve ('Short Life') was completed in 1905, before the composer left Spain for Paris, and was first staged in Nice in 1913, a year before de Falla's return to Spain. It's plot concerns the betrayal of the gypsy girl Salud by her lover Paco, who marries a girl of richer background. Salud, appearing with a companion to dance for Paco and Carmela's wedding-guests, falls down dead, as she moves forward to accuse Paco. An Interlude marks night-fall, leading to the well known Spanish Dance of the wedding-guests, familiar from arrangement after arrangement. El amor brujo ('Love the Magician'), staged in Madrid in 1915, made full use of the traditions Spanish gypsy music. It tells the story of a gypsy girl Candelas, haunted by the spirit of her dead lover, which she summons up in her ritual fire dance, in the original version the Dance of the End of the Day. A dominant figure in French opera towards the end of the nineteenth century, Jules Massenet based his opera Le Cid on the play on the subject of the Spanish hero by Corneille. The opera was first staged at the Paris Opéra in 1885. The Spanish dances on which much of the present reputation of Massenet's opera depends come in the first scene of the second act, a contrast to the tragic events that have taken place. At the heart of the drama is the conflict in the heart of Chiméne, whose lover Don Rodrigue, El Cid, has killed her father. Massenet offers, in his ballet scene, a series of characteristic dances. Composers in the newly developed Russian nationalist tradition also had recourse, as Glinka had done, to the exotic, whether to bordering countries, to the ethnic minorities of the Russian Empire or to remoter Spain. Rimsky-Korsakov's famous Capriccio Espagnol began as a Fantasia on Spanish Themes, for violin and orchestra, and was eventually completed in it's present form in 1887. The work won immediate acclaim, above all for the brilliance of it's orchestration, an achievement from which the composer drew great satisfaction. The French composer Maurice Ravel was the son of a Swiss father and of a mother from the Basque country. He was familiar from childhood with Spanish culture and language and had occasion to make use of this element in his background in a number of compositions. Boléro, which he himself described as an orchestrated crescendo, was written for Ida Rubinstein, whose ballet troupe staged it in 1928, with choreography by Nijinska. It's two thematic elements are linked by the continuing percussion rhythm that gives the work it's hypnotic fascination.

Show more Show less

Tracklist 15 tracks

1 España 06:06

Track
1

Title
España
Duration
06:06
Composer
Emmanuel Chabrier
Ensemble
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor
Adrian Leaper
2 I. Dance of the Miller's Wife (Fandango) 02:36

Track
2

Title
I. Dance of the Miller's Wife (Fandango)
Duration
02:36
Composer
Manuel de Falla
Ensemble
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conductor
Kenneth Jean
3 II. The Neighbours' Dance (Seguidillas) 03:24

Track
3

Title
II. The Neighbours' Dance (Seguidillas)
Duration
03:24
Composer
Manuel de Falla
Ensemble
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conductor
Kenneth Jean
4 III. The Miller's Dance (Farruca) 03:15

Track
4

Title
III. The Miller's Dance (Farruca)
Duration
03:15
Composer
Manuel de Falla
Ensemble
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conductor
Kenneth Jean
5 IV. Finale Dance (Jota) 06:35

Track
5

Title
IV. Finale Dance (Jota)
Duration
06:35
Composer
Manuel de Falla
Ensemble
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conductor
Kenneth Jean
6 I. Castillane 02:56

Track
6

Title
I. Castillane
Duration
02:56
Composer
Jules Massenet
Ensemble
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conductor
Keith Clark
7 II. Andalouse 02:48

Track
7

Title
II. Andalouse
Duration
02:48
Composer
Jules Massenet
Ensemble
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conductor
Keith Clark
8 III. Aragonaise 01:42

Track
8

Title
III. Aragonaise
Duration
01:42
Composer
Jules Massenet
Ensemble
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conductor
Keith Clark
9 IV. Aubade 01:10

Track
9

Title
IV. Aubade
Duration
01:10
Composer
Jules Massenet
Ensemble
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conductor
Keith Clark
10 V. Catalane 02:59

Track
10

Title
V. Catalane
Duration
02:59
Composer
Jules Massenet
Ensemble
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conductor
Keith Clark
11 VI. Navarraise 03:07

Track
11

Title
VI. Navarraise
Duration
03:07
Composer
Jules Massenet
Ensemble
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conductor
Keith Clark
12 La vida breve: Interlude and Dance 07:17

Track
12

Title
La vida breve: Interlude and Dance
Duration
07:17
Composer
Manuel de Falla
Ensemble
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conductor
Kenneth Jean
13 Capriccio espagnol, Op. 34 16:00

Track
13

Title
Capriccio espagnol, Op. 34
Duration
16:00
Composer
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Ensemble
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor
Adrian Leaper
14 El Amor Brujo: Ritual Fire Dance 04:18

Track
14

Title
El Amor Brujo: Ritual Fire Dance
Duration
04:18
Composer
Manuel de Falla
Ensemble
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conductor
Kenneth Jean
15 Bolero 13:34

Track
15

Title
Bolero
Duration
13:34
Composer
Maurice Ravel
Ensemble
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor
Adrian Leaper