A Musical Journey - Spain - A Musical Visit to Madrid, La Mancha
and Córdoba
Chapters 1- 5 Madrid
Chapters 6 - 8 La Mancha, Belmonte Castle, landscape and windmills
Chapter 9 Córdoba, Alcazar gardens and landscape
Music by Emmanuel Chabrier España. Mikhail Glinka A Summer
Night in Madrid. Jules Massenet Le Cid, Ballet interludes. Nikolay
Rimsky-Korsakov Capriccio espagnol
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra/Keith Clark - Naxos 8.550086
No recording dates
Director: G. Gachot
Cameraman: H. T. Aschwanden
Audio Format: DTS 5.1. Dolby Digital 5.1. PCM Stereo 2.0
Video Format: NTSC. Region 0. Colour. Aspect ratio 4:3
NAXOS DVD 2.110308 [52.45]
Of the opening five Chapters, three (nos. 1, 2 and 4) focus on Madrid at various
times of the twenty-four hour cycle. Some views are from above, others at
street level. As a capital city its architecture is varied and interesting,
less so its traffic jams. However, the totality is to give a sense of a capital
city of architectural character to go along, as in London, with modern high-rise
development. The opening with a statue of Don Quixote on his horse, accompanied
by his faithful squire Sancho Panza, on a donkey, reminds us where we are.
The other two Chapters on Madrid home in on the city’s fountains (CH.5)
and the El Retiro (CH.3). Particularly interesting to the British are the
pictures of Palacio Cristal, located in the Retiro along with grandiose monuments
to Alfonso II. The impressive glass construction was modelled on that in London,
built to house the 1851 Great Exhibition, and tragically burnt down in 1936
after its removal and re-erection at Sydenham Hill. Seeing it is a reminder
of what London lost.
The music of the opening Chapter is of Chabrier’s España.
Like the rest of the music, and despite none of it being by Spanish composers,
it does invoke a feeling of Spain. Glinka’s, Summer Night in Madrid,
is an invitation to photography that is not resisted (CH.2) whilst the six
short ballet pieces from Massenet’s Le Cid take us from Madrid
to La Mancha. This is an historical region located on a plateau of central
Spain south of Madrid. The photography whilst showing the town itself (CH.8)
focuses particularly on the Belmonte Castle and surrounding landscape (CHs.
6 and 8). The castle itself became the property of Countess Eugenia who married
Napoleon III of France, becoming Empress until the fall of the Third Empire
following the siege of Paris in 1870. It’s a magnificent structure in
an interesting region of Spain.
We conclude with a visit (CH.10) to Córdoba on the banks of a shallow
Guadalquivir, doubtless filmed in the dry period. Much of the content, accompanied
by Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio espagnol, is concerned with the
local industry of olive farming. The views of pollarded trees are somewhat
excessive whilst those of the town all too brief. The harvesting of the olives,
both modern and traditional, is interesting. The excellent, and more than
usually extensive booklet notes, point out Córdoba’s long history
that preceded it being a regional centre for the Romans before falling into
the Byzantine empire from which it returned to Christianity in 1236. The gardens
of the Alcazar of the Christian Kings were built under Alfonso XI of Castile
in 1328 on the site of the old Moorish fortress.
This makes for a well-documented and interesting journey, with much to ravish
the ear and interest the eye.
Robert J Farr
A well-documented and interesting journey with much to ravish the ear and
interest the eye.
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