Manuel de Falla: Works for Stage and Concert Hall

“one of those experiences that change one's perception of a work forever...At the most basic level they take the trouble to get the balance right. ['Nights'] is no concerto, and the pianist has to be an observer of the music's events rather than needing to boss them around...the level of engagement with the music is exceptional. Often spacious and dark, the performance reaches past its starlit, balmy surfaces to find the ache and stoicism of Spanish history” --BBC Music Magazine, March 2012 *****

“it is greatly to the credit of Juanjo Mena and his forces (with a truly authentic touch from soprano Raquel Lojendio) that such a potent atmosphere is achieved...[Bavouzet's] performance [of Nights in the Garden of Spain] is more subdued than from celebrated champions of this score...yet it casts its own spell, sultry and scintillating as required.” --Gramophone Magazine, May 2012

Gramophone Magazine
Editor's Choice - May 2012

BBC Music Magazine
Disc of the month - March 2012

MP3 320 · 170 MB

Asturiana

“It looks like a standard song recital, yet it's played on the viola. …the opening excerpt from Falla's Seven Popular Songs… turns up later in its usual context to hypnotic effect: slower than would be singable, and so contemplative that it sounds like Arvo Pärt. The sense of concentration, with minute inflections of line and timbre in which the pianist is caught up too, continues into the ensuing Granados set.” --BBC Music Magazine, December 2007 *****

“The performances deceive the ear into thinking these idiomatic arrangements are instrumental originals.” --Gramophone Magazine, November 2007

A remarkable, absorbing, beautiful recording

Wow! That is really almost all I can think of to say. This is a remarkable, absorbing, beautiful recording, one I have returned to many times in the month since Fanfare headquarters sent it my way. Kim Kashkashian is one of the finest violists of our time, and she and Robert Levin have been performing together for many years. One of the results of that is an extraordinary chemistry between them—and in this case we are the beneficiaries.

These are not pure transcriptions of Spanish and Argentine songs—they are transcriptions-plus. The “plus” factors are subtle additions, modifications, ornamentations, enhancements—none of which disguise or distort the original melodies, and all of which add interest. Kashkashian’s beautiful, dark, richly varied tone inflects these as completely as any singer could, and Levin plays with beauty of line and remarkable rhythmic vitality. The piano opening of “Polo,” the last of the Seven Popular Spanish Songs of Manuel de Falla, is so brilliantly articulated and rhythmically alive as to snap the listener to attention.

Three of the songs appear twice on the disc, including the title piece, “Asturiana.” It is one of the Falla songs, and it opens the disc alone and re-appears (in what seems a different performance) later on in its proper place in the Falla cycle. The other two are Ginastera’s dark “Triste,” and “La rosa y el sauce” by Carlos Guastavino. The repeats fit into the shape of the program perfectly.

It is that shape, along with the gripping performances, that makes this disc unique. The recorded sound is up to ECM’s usual very high standards, resulting in the feeling of having the musicians in the room with you. ECM even provides English texts for the songs, despite the fact that the words are not sung. A truly memorable disc. --FANFARE: Henry Fogel

MP3 320 · 162 MB

Falla: Noches en los jardines de España, Etc

“In the Nights in the Gardens of Spain...both pianist and orchestra revel in its colouristic opportunities. Perianes employs the subtlest of rubatos here, teasing us with little delays and hurry-ups before joining the orchestra on the main beats. Thanks to the conductor these are firmly under control, affording a satisfying interplay between fantasy and rigour.” --BBC Music Magazine, December 2011 ****

“This is a disc to lift the spirits. Whether the music is sultry, strenuous or sunny, Javier Perianes plays with an infallible ear for style, atmosphere and colour...in the Nights in the Gardens of Spain the BBC Symphony Orchestra joins Perianes for a performance of panache and captivating flair and freshness.” --Gramophone Magazine, January 2012

“Falla has not found so persuasive an interpreter among his compatriots since the late, great Alicia de Larrocha. Perianes...relish[es] the dance rhythms and melodic sensuousness of the solo part as much as Pons and the BBCSO savour the colours and atmosphere of his Debussy- and Ravel-inspired orchestration. It is a rare treat to encounter a pianist so inside the idiom of Falla’s seldom-heard works” --Sunday Times, 4th September 2011

“Perianes brings colour and flair to Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain, matched by the rhythmic piquancy of the orchestra...A highly attractive disc.” --The Telegraph, 2nd September 2011 ****

“what immediately impresses is the sharpness, the steeliness of Josep Pons’s accompaniment. He too loves [Noches] but never wallows in it...Perianes spent time consulting Falla’s autograph scores before making these recordings; it’s hard to imagine them being bettered.” --The Arts Desk, 29th October 2011

MP3 320 · 177 MB