Although she never liked being pigeon-holed as a Spanish piano music specialist, Alicia de Larrocha was supreme in the music of her country. This CD brings together all of the solo piano recordings of music by Falla she made for Decca in 1973, together with her first (1970) of two recordings of Nights in the gardens of Spain. The recital includes transcriptions of works better known in orchestral guise – El sombrero de tres picos and El amor brujo, the suite of Four Spanish Pieces and the big Fantasia bética.
MANUEL DE FALLA
Noches en los Jardines de España
L’Orchestra de la Suisse Romande
Sergiu Comissiona
Tres Danzas de El sombrero de tres picos
Suite de El amor brujo
Cuatro piezas españolas
Fantasia bética
Alicia de Larrocha, piano
Recording Producer: Michael Woolcock
Recording Engineers: Philip Wade, Simon Eadon (Cuatro piezas españolas, Fantasia bética, El sombrero de tres picos, El amor brujo); James Lock, Tryggvi Tryggvason (Noches en los jardines de España)
Recording Locations: Victoria Hall, Geneva, Switzerland, 6 September 1970 (Noches en los Jardines de España); Kingsway Hall, London, UK, 25–28 June 1973 (Cuatro piezas españolas, Fantasia bética, El sombrero de tres picos, El amor brujo)
‘What to say of Alicia de Larrocha in music such as this? Only, I think, that one cannot imagine it more idiomatically and imaginatively played … In Spanish music her playing has all the rhythmic verve and the control of Rubinstein at his best, and I cannot hear enough of her … Decca has recorded her well here, in all her warmth and colourfulness and with an attractive touch of haziness in the atmosphere around the sound.’ Gramophone (April 1975)