Event

program:

I.
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH
24 preludes Op34

II
FALLA
El Amor Brujo (transcription for piano: JLNieto)

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (1906 –1975) was a Russian composer and pianist, and a prominent figure of 20th-century music. Shostakovich achieved fame in the Soviet Union under the patronage of Soviet chief of staff Mikhail Tukhachevsky, but later had a complex and difficult relationship with the government. Nevertheless, he received accolades and state awards and served in the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR (1947–1962) and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (from 1962 until his death). A poly-stylist, Shostakovich developed a hybrid voice, combining a variety of different musical techniques into his music. Shostakovich’s music is characterized by sharp contrasts, elements of the grotesque, and ambivalent tonality; the composer was also heavily influenced by the neo-classical style pioneered by Igor Stravinsky, and (especially in his symphonies) by the post-Romanticism associated with Gustav Mahler. Shostakovich was in many ways an obsessive man: according to his daughter he was «obsessed with cleanliness»; he synchronised the clocks in his apartment; he regularly sent cards to himself to test how well the postal service was working. Elizabeth Wilson’s Shostakovich: A Life Remembered (1994 edition) indexes 26 references to his nervousness. Mikhail Druskin remembers that even as a young man the composer was «fragile and nervously agile». Yuri Lyubimov comments, «The fact that he was more vulnerable and receptive than other people was no doubt an important feature of his genius». In later life, Krzysztof Meyer recalled, «his face was a bag of tics and grimaces». In his lighter moods, sport was one of his main recreations, although he preferred spectating or umpiring to participating (he was a qualified football referee). His favourite football club was Zenit Leningrad, which he would watch regularly. He also enjoyed playing card games, particularly patience. He was fond of satirical writers such as Gogol, Chekhov and Mikhail Zoshchenko. The influence of the latter in particular is evident in his letters, which include wry parodies of Soviet officialese. Zoshchenko himself noted the contradictions in the composer’s character: «he is … frail, fragile, withdrawn, an infinitely direct, pure child … [but he is also] hard, acid, extremely intelligent, strong perhaps, despotic and not altogether good-natured (although cerebrally good-natured)». He was diffident by nature: Flora Litvinova has said he was «completely incapable of saying ‘No’ to anybody.» This meant he was easily persuaded to sign official statements, including a denunciation of Andrei Sakharov in 1973; on the other hand he was willing to try to help constituents in his capacities as chairman of the Composers’ Union and Deputy to the Supreme Soviet. Oleg Prokofiev commented that «he tried to help so many people that … less and less attention was paid to his pleas.» When asked if he believed in God, Shostakovich said «No, and I am very sorry about it.»

With Manuel de Falla, Spanish music found its true form in the XX century, at a time when it found itself in an impasse, split between the increasing favour gained by popular forms of expression, which were being produced at a staggering pace through the zarzuelas, the received tradition of the Spanish guitar, which had been well instilled in the popular culture by this time, and the international dominance of the music; while the emergence of nationalistic themes throughout the second half of the XVIII and all of the XIX century resulted in the formulation of a different tone, as it were, for German, French and Italian music above all, in Spain the national flavour steered differently. While Manuel de Falla’s professional life goes through so many stages and is so extensive that it is difficult to identify which, exactly, was his most proficient time, it remains certain that his days in Paris marked his early stages and led him to produce some of his most affecting work. But once Manuel de Falla finds himself back in Spain, the impact of folklore and nationalism begins to give way in his work, in favour of a more traditional melody, which is still enriched by the Spanish sound, as it were. Following the end of the Spanish Civil War, Manuel de Falla was forced to emigrate once again, this time to Argentina, where he would live until his death in 1946. El amor brujo is a ballet composed in 1914-1915 by Manuel de Falla to a libretto by Gregorio Martínez Sierra. The work is distinctively Andalusian in character with the songs in the Andalusian Spanish dialect of the Gypsies. The music contains moments of remarkable beauty and originality; it includes the celebrated «Danza ritual del fuego» (Ritual Fire Dance), «Canción del fuego fatuo» (Song of Wildfire, or Song Of The Will-o’-the-Wisp) and the «Danza del terror» (Dance of Terror). El amor brujo was commissioned in 1914 as a gitanería (gypsy piece) by Pastora Imperio, a renowned flamenco gypsy dancer. It was scored for cantaora voice, actors and chamber orchestra and performed at the Teatro Lara, Madrid, on 15 April 1915, unsuccessfully.