Within the realm of the nationalistically inspired, early 20th-century genre, de Falla's ballets stand out. This is music that goes far beyond the 'glorified picture postcards of come-to-sunny Spain' (Constant Lambert). In my opinion it oozes intelligence and an amazingly keen sense of orchestral colour. It is seductive and severe at the same time. There is no indulgence, not a gram of 'fat' in this music. Everything seems to have been thought through up to the tiniest detail. And yet there is this feeling of abundance, of warmth and insouciance. I have only one version of De Falla's key ballets in my collection and I have been perfectly happy with these early 1970s recordings. The Three-Cornered Hat is performed by the Boston SO under Ozawa, whilst Love the Magician is offered by the LSO conducted by Garcia Navarro. Despite the differences in orchestra and recording venue, the set feels like a whole. Both conductors seem to admirably have captured the spirit of this music. Teresa Berganza's voice in the vocal tracks functions as an additional 'traît d'union'. The recordings are warm and not as sharply contoured as we are used to nowadays but I personally love this kind of old-fashioned sound.
The Corregidor is, in fact, an early pantomime version (1915) of what would become a few years later, at the request of the Ballets Russes' Diaghilev, a full-fledged ballet. It is scored for a small ensemble of about 20 musicians. I listened to a recording by the chamber ensemble established by Josep Pons, who is nowadays Principal Conductor with the Spanish National Orchestra. Those familiar with the Sombrero will not find a lot of suprises. The two scores seem to have an awful lot in common (although I would like to read Carol Hess' assessment; she writes that the material for the Corregidor "assumed an entirely different attitude in the hands of Sergei Diaghilev"). I must say I was not terribly captivated by this recording. Surely the playing seems of a very high standard, with marvelous soloistic contributions throughout. However, the thinner instrumentation reinforces the recording's extreme, close-miked transparancy and as a result the music loses some its essential, seductive character. In addition I was annoyed by the choice of tempos, particularly in the slower pieces. Maybe Pons wanted to maintain (or underscore) the character of a pantomime by taking the numbers at a very deliberate speed. Very soon, however, this comes across as an irritating mannerism.
The Corregidor is complemented on this disc by a strange collection of old Spanish folk songs collected (or re-composed? it's not quite clear) by the poet Federico Garcia Lorca (who was closely acquainted with De Falla). They are performed by Ginesa Ortega, who seems to be a flamenco singer. I don't find it an attractive voice at all. It's likely the point as these songs are in the tradition of the cante jondo (literally: 'deep song') which is seen as the aboriginal Iberian music. Lorca wrote:
The "cante jondo" approaches the rhythm of the birds and the natural music of the black poplar and the waves; it is simple in oldness and style. It is also a rare example of primitive song, the oldest of all Europe, where the ruins of history, the lyrical fragment eaten by the sand, appear live like the first morning of its life.It seems to be an acquired taste, though. I couldn't really latch on to it.
I've been looking into other work of de Falla. There is not a lot. Altogether he left only a tiny oeuvre. There is of course the Noches en las Jardinas de Espana which I don't have in my collection. In addition the Harpsichord Concerto, the one-act opera La Vida Breve, the puppet opera El Retablo de Maese Pedro and the elusive late magnum opus, the scenic cantata La Atlantida on which he worked for decades but left unfinished. Of the latter there is only an historical recording with Thomas Schippers who conducted the premiere at La Scala.
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