de Falla: Ballet Music

Review

England's Regis label has reissued a series of notable but offbeat performances from the 1980s and 1990s; many of them offer fresh, overlooked readings of post-Romantic and early modern orchestral standards. A quoted review serving as a cover blurb for this one claims that "[p]ersons over 60 should consult their physicians" before listening to this disc, and for once the blurb is accurate -- these are as hell-for-leather performances of these three Falla dance-music warhorses as has ever been put on disc. It's not for everybody -- the "primitive" element in Falla is counterbalanced by a good dose of neo-Classic thinking that is hardly in evidence in these readings -- but in terms of execution of unusual ambitions it is top-notch. The State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra (it is not a national body but one based in the Mexican state surrounding Mexico City) was founded by conductor {Enrique Bátiz}, who went on to conduct the Mexico City Philharmonic and to a solid career in Europe and North America. His style, fiery in the extreme, may come through in its purest form with his homegrown ensemble, which lights into the motor rhythms of El amor brujo and El sombrero de tres picos as if it were a hardcore punk band in an English city at one o'clock in the morning. Mezzo-soprano Nancy Fabiola Herrera gets into the spirit of {Bátiz}'s reading in El amor brujo better than does her counterpart {María Luisa Salinas} in El sombrero de tres picos, and the two performances, recorded five years apart in two different venues (the central instrumental interlude and dance from La vida breve belongs to the first), are not entirely of a piece either musically or sonically. Nevertheless, this unique recording is for anyone who wants to hear really blazing orchestral playing, and it has its uses -- for the instructor in a music-appreciation class who wants to give his or her students a jolt, it's just the ticket. ~ James Manheim, All Music Guide

Tracks + Soundclips

Performances