Manuel de Falla - Fantasia Baetica [VIDEO+score]

[jlh]

As the subject says, here is my performance of the piece.  I'm including the score so you can read along with the video. 

Please let me know what you think... good or bad, all comments are welcomed.

Thanks!

Part 1:

Part 2:

Score:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/czsc23q3anmh2gw/Falla%20%281919%29%20Fantasia%20Baetica.pdf 

Background:
Manuel de Falla was, with Isaac Albéniz and Enrique Granados, a leader of the Spanish musical renaissance of the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  While 'nationalism' was an important aspect of his musical make-up, he was far from being narrowly folkloristic in style or outlook.  Alert to contemporary developments in European music, he responded especially to the work of French composers and of Stravinsky.  The Fantasía Baetica of 1919 was commissioned by and dedicated to Artur Rubinstein, who premièred it in New York in 1920. 'Baetica' was the Roman name for southern Spain -- roughly modern Andalusia, the home of flamenco.  The Fantasía is Falla's last major work in the flamenco-inspired style which he had exploited so effectively in scores such as El amor brujo (Love, the Magician) and El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-cornered Hat).  It has been described as his 'musical farewell to Andalusia', and indeed, while never abandoning his Spanish roots, he turned in a neo-classical direction in the 1920s.  The piece is in three clearly defined sections, the second being a short, slow 'Intermezzo' and the third a varied reprise of the first.  Falla's colourful, imaginative piano writing conjures up the sounds of the guitar, the stamping and clapping of flamenco dance and the inflections of the cante jondo style of flamenco singing.
 

[quantum]

Props for taking on this challenging piece.  I've poked around at it, and some of this music has made its impressions in my own improvisations. 

Your interpretation is quick, snappy, with an overarching virtuosic command of the instrument.  The ability to execute some of these passages with your choice of velocity is impressive. 

If there was something to critique, it would be that some of the shaping of the runs is obscured by the velocity at which you play them.  There is a lot of fast passage work in this piece, a lot of which contain varying contours. IMO, the characteristic breadth of the music could be expanded if you were to make differentiations within the fast passage work. 

Good work!

[faulty_damper]

The left hand is louder than the right and it obscures the music.  Also, it's too loud for too long so it becomes annoying to listen to.  It also lacks the drive necessary to deliver the goods.  It almost sounds meandering.  I don't know if that's the music or the interpretation.

[jlh]

The left hand is louder than the right and it obscures the music.  Also, it's too loud for too long so it becomes annoying to listen to.  It also lacks the drive necessary to deliver the goods.  It almost sounds meandering.  I don't know if that's the music or the interpretation.

In some cases I agree with you.  After the dress rehearsal on the Bosendorfer Imperial 190, I made quite an effort to suppress the LH.  It's such a huge piano, it's important to constantly think about balance, and in this case, it's not observable from the stage.  Add recital nerves, and you get a loud LH.  Still love the Bosie!

[cbreemer]

Mighty impressive ! No idea what damper's problem with the LH is. I did not find it too loud, and in any case IMO the hands are pretty much equal partners in this piece.

My little criticism would be that the piece sorta runs away with you. Certainly its scorching bravura should not be sold short, but I don't think it's supposed to sound like a Lisztian toccata
in so many places. I could be wrong but I don't believe Falla intended this primarily as a virtuoso showpiece.
 
Having said that I wish I could play the Baetica like this... It's pretty darn hard to bring off well.