Manuel de Falla y Matheu (23 November 1876 – 14 November 1946) was a Spanish composer. Along with Isaac Albéniz and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain’s most important musicians of the first half of the 20th century. His image was on Spain’s 1970 100-pesetas banknote.
Noches en los Jardines de España
Dedication: Ricardo Viñes
I. En el Generalife
II. Danza Lejana
III. En los Jardines de la Sierra de Córdoba
Alicia de Larrocha piano and the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos
Description by James Reel [-] For Falla to gain the freedom of harmonic thinking to become the twentieth century’s best-known and most effective author of Spanish music, he paradoxically had to leave Spain and study in Paris, principally with Paul Dukas. By absorbing the free harmonic approach and rich orchestral effects of the likes of Debussy and Ravel, Falla found the vocabulary he need for his own expressions of his native land. Nights in the Gardens of Spain, the most shimmeringly Impressionistic of Falla’s major works, is a wistful, sultry triptych for piano and orchestra. It begins with a depiction of the gardens of the Generalife near the Alhambra, evoking Granada’s Moorish history. Falla’s use of the orchestra is colorful but delicate, including distant horn calls and sul ponticello effects in the strings to embellish a quivering piano line.
The second movement, “Danza lejana” (Distant Dance), moves to some unspecified, perhaps imaginary garden. Although the dance fragments do indeed begin as if from a distance, they soon come to the forefront, the piano sometimes accompanied by aggressive strumming effects in the strings, and sometimes quietly playing agitated passages over delicate, dark little woodwind solos. Without a pause, this leads into the fast final movement, “In the Gardens of the Sierra de Córdoba.” Here the strumming effects become even more prominent, with both orchestra and piano engaging in heavily rhythmic passages inspired by gypsy and flamenco music. But a slower, mysterious Andalusian tune also insinuates itself into the movement, and has the last say as the strings take control of the quiet, soaring melody.