Nights in the Gardens of Spain

The three-movement piece for piano and orchestra "NIGHTS IN THE GARDENS OF SPAIN" has been called "symphonic impressions" by the composer and there is a real echo of impressionistic musical poetics in it, even in the very conception of the triptych one can find an analogy with Debussy's three Nocturnes. Yet, although born amidst vivid impressions of Parisian musical life, the work became emblematic of Spanish music, painting unique and colourful landscapes of Granada. De Falla began this work as a set of nocturnes for solo piano in 1909, but on the suggestion of the pianist Ricardo Viñes he turned the nocturnes into a piece for piano and orchestra. Falla completed it in 1915 and dedicated it to Viñes. The first performance was given on April 9^th , 1916, at Madrid's Teatro Real, with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid conducted by Enrique Fernández Arbós and José Cubiles as soloist. Immediately afterwards Arthur Rubinstein played it in Buenos Aires, it was performed in Paris in 1920, and De Falla himself was the soloist at the London premiere at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1921. The mysteriously opening first part of En el Generalife (In the Generalife) depicts the fragrant jasmine gardens surrounding the famous ancient Moorish palace of Alhambra. The second movement, Danza lejana (Distant Dance), concerns an indeterminate remote garden from which the sounds and vital irrepressible rhythms of an exotic dance are floating. The final third movement, En los jardines de la Sierra de Córdoba (The Gardens of the Sierra de Córdoba), is the largest, with an almost visual suggestion of alternating changing scenes and actions. Within the large-scale symphonic multi-tempo fabric the piano part weaves organically, adding its own colour to the opulent orchestral richness.