Manuel de FALLA (1876-1946)
El Sombrero de Tres Picos (The Three-Cornered Hat) ((Introduccion
(Introduction) [1:24]; La tarde (Afternoon) [5:34]; Danza de la molinera (Fandango)
(Dance of the Millers Wife) [3:40]; Las uvas (The Grapes) [4:01]; Danza de
los vecinos (Seguidillas) (The Neighbours Dance) [3:12]; Danza del molinera
(Farruca) (Millers Dance) [7:50]; Danza del corregidor (Corregidors Dance)
[6:55]; Danza final (Jota) (Final Dance) [6:13]) (1919)
Victoria de los Angeles (soprano)
Philharmonia Orchestra/Raphael Frühbeck de Burgos
Zarzuela Arias: La Canción del Olvido [2:20]; EI Rey Que Rabio [5:08];
Bohemios [4:14]; El Cabo Primero [4:35]; Marina [4:40]; [EI Barquillero [6:40];
El Niño Judio [6:47]; La Rosa del Azafran [3:35]
Montserrat Caballé
Orchestra/Eugenio M. Marco
rec. El sombrero de tres picos: Transferred from Angel 4-track tape. rec.
28-30 October, 2 December 1964, No 1 Studio, Abbey Road, London; Zarzuela
Arias: Transferred from RCA 4-track tape. rec. 1966
HIGH DEFINITION TAPE TRANSFERS HDCD 193 [76:48]
Not so very long ago I enthusiastically welcomed a 2 CD EMI
Classics set which included this Frühbeck de Burgos El Sombrero de
Tres Picos. Here it is again in new colours. This is the version that
won me around to the work back in the 1970s when BBC Radio 3 broadcast it
one afternoon. Even allowing for the radio engineers’ tender ministrations
- nowhere near so intrusive in those days - the sheer power and refinement
of the recording utterly captivated me. The cries of Ole! have never
sounded so fervent … even possessed. This HDCD transfer of the Philharmonia
1963 El Sombrero is the best I have ever heard. You will have to get
used to the analogue hiss which is noticeable in a low key way. More positively
you can revel in the gripping Decca-type close-up balance. No detail is allowed
to fall into the soup. Dynamic range may be a shade narrower with vivid close-up
balances but the music still emerges with stunning immediacy. Compare the
results, if you know them, with Fremaux’s Studio 4 Massenet El Cid ballet
music and Decca's FFRR En Saga for Horst Stein and the OSR in 1972.
The blazing strings may be a mite glassy but all can be forgiven with so much
else that is devastatingly alluring. Try, for example, the woodwind writing
in Danza de la Molinera. Victoria de Los Angeles is in youthful and
all-conquering voice. Unlike the HDCD Schmitt reissue - also reviewed this
month - this recording is from reels and the advantages of that provenance
are beyond question. There we are then - not the most natural of balances
but the disc unleashes a flood of magnificent sound, musical detail and ideas.
You too will be shouting out the Oles with the choirs gathered in 1963
in the Kingsway Hall It’s one of the peaks of the recorded music heritage.
Why cannot all CDs sound like this? Breathtaking! Only at tr. 6 does the imperious
brass prove momentarily too much for the technology.
Don't be put off by HDCD's label design decisions. They’re still a bit brash
but what matters is the marriage of music and technology and this the company
has to a tee. Long may their quest for commercial reels continue. The results
are glorious. In the final Jota the climactic launch is built ineluctably
with Frühbeck de Burgos in total mastery of timing, tempo and the semblance
of spontaneity. The Philharmonia’s whirring triple forte castanets rattle
the speakers, harps slash through the texture, the brass are brazenly eruptive
with rhythmic life blazing from every bar - a wide-smiling celebration. Extraordinary!
Caballé's way with the eight Zarzuela arias is lower key but beguiling certainly.
Marco's directing of the orchestra is also adroit. These confections are taken
from an RCA 4 track tape and the sessions date from 1966. I would be grateful
if a Zarzuela expert - which I obviously am not - would tell me the composer
of each of these arias and the name and date of the zarzuela from which each
is taken. The music ranges in style between Mozart and Rossini with Spanish
flavour often strongly sprinkled. Caballé is in magnificent dark wine voice
and is just as indefatigable at triple forte as at triple piano.
Admirers of Caballe should not miss this.
The de Falla is from the greatest vintage and the Caballé constituency need
to hear the young diva in her grandest sunrise.
Rob Barnett