Event

program:

I.
FEDERIC CHOPIN
Three waltzes
Nocturno
Five Etudes Op10

II
MANUEL DE FALLA
El Amor Brujo (transcripcition for piano: JL.Nieto)

Frédéric François Chopin (22 February or 1 March 1810 – 17 October 1849), was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic era, who wrote primarily for the solo piano. He gained and has maintained renown worldwide as one of the leading musicians of his era, whose «poetic genius was based on a professional technique that was without equal in his generation.» Both in his native Poland and beyond, Chopin’s music, his status as one of music’s earliest superstars, his association (if only indirect) with political insurrection, his love life and his early death have made him, in the public consciousness, a leading symbol of the Romantic era. His works remain popular, and he has been the subject of numerous films and biographies of varying degrees of historical accuracy.

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.