Spanish music has a distinct “flavour” of its own. The influence of the Moorish Occupation of Southern Spain, which lasted for seven centuries, is shown in the love of plucked-string instruments, especially the guitar and in the favoured type of percussion, such as tambourines and castanets – a peculiarly Spanish instrument used to accompany dancing.
Gypsy music and native dances (the Pavan and the Sarabande) have also coloured the work of native composers like Albeniz, de Falla, Granados, Sarasate, Turina and, of course, Rodrigo.
The French have also shown interest in the life and art of their neighbouring country and it has been frequently said that the best Spanish music is written by French composers – Debussy, Ravel and, included in tonight’s concert, Bizet and Chabrier.
A somewhat unexpected connection between Spain and Russian composers began with Glinka, continued with Balakirev and culminated in the extremely successful Capriccio Espagnol by Rimsky-Korsakov.

(Alexis) Emmanuel CHABRIER (1841-1894) “Espana” – rhapsody

At the age of fifteen this most lovable French composer came to Paris where he entered the Civil Service, at the same time studying composition, writing a comic opera, publishing piano pieces and developing into a brilliant pianist.
His friends included Verlaine, Manet, Faure, Chausson, D’Indy and Duparc, who encouraged his admiration for Wagner.
When Chabrier was nearly 40 he devoted himself entirely to composition and, while visiting Spain in 1882, he collected the materials and impressions which emerged two years later in “Espana” – one of the best pieces of light music ever written.
This admirably un-Wagnerian piece is a lively mixture of Spanish dance-tunes and rhythms. The composer’s enjoyment is communicated in sparkling melodies, accompanied by extraordinary scoring for a large orchestra.
In mid-career, suffering from nervous exhaustion, Chabrier had a stroke and died at the age of 53.

Bizet was one of the most gifted French composers of the nineteenth century. He was born in Paris in 1883, learned the piano from the age of four and entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of nine. Among his teachers was Jacques Halevy, who stimulated Bizet’s interest in operatic composition and whose daughter, Genevieve, also stimulated Bizet’s interest, to the extent that he married her in 1869.
Despite the dictum that the best Spanish music is written by French composers, Bizet’s Carmen is not regarded very favourably by the Spaniards. They maintain that Merimee’s admirable story of Spanish life is distorted in the libretto and that the music rarely suggests the Spanish idiom. It is unlikely that this opinion had much to do with the unsatisfactory premiere of the opera in 1875 and, ironically, three months later, on the very evening of Bizet’s funeral, the opera was suddenly discovered to be a masterpiece. Bizet was only 37 when he died. What might he have achieved had he been given more time? He joins the company of Schubert, Mozart and Mendelssohn in this respect.

The Suite consists of nine pieces:
1. Prelude to Act One
The “Fate” motive, which sounds ominously before the brilliant scene of the first act, is echoed again and again throughout the opera and at the end, after Carmen’s murder, it blazes forth luridly.
2. Aragonaise
The Prelude to Act Four is a rapid, impetuous dance. Tones of plaintive longing are mingled with impassioned gypsylike phrases which grow to a tumultuous climax. The piece ends in a mood of vague foreboding.
3. Intermezzo
The Prelude to Act Three is an interlude of great beauty. A simple, exquisitely graceful pastoral melody is first heard in the liquid tones of the flute.
Solo flute: Eileen Montgomery.
4. The Toreadors
The music presents a vivid picture of the colourful crowd that pour in to the bull-ring at Seville, in the last act: magnificent, dark Spanish beauties with their lace mantillas and heavily embroidered silken garments…their escorts in gala attire, even more brilliant…the excitement of the bull-fight that is about to take place.
5. Smugglers’ March
cf. Sullivan’s “With catlike tread” written four years later!
6. Habanera
Carmen’s lascivious Habanera is based on a song by the Spanish composer Sebastian Yradier who wrote “La Paloma”
7. The Toreador’s Song
Escamillo’s boastful song is performed by a blaring trumpet.
8. The Changing of the Guard
A troop of street urchins imitate the step of the marching dragoons.
9. Bohemian Dance
The rhythm of the gypsy song “Near the walls of Seville” is taken from a Spanish folk dance.

Joaquin Rodrigo was born in Sagunto (Valencia) on St. Cecilia’s day the 22nd November. At the age of three he lost his sight almost completely as a result of diphtheria and this event, coupled with his hearing a performance of Verdi’s Rigoletto, led to his interest in music. At the age of eight he began to study piano and violin. In 1927, following the example of other Spanish musicians - Albeniz, de Falla, Granados and Turina - he moved to Paris, where he became a pupil of Paul Dukas. From the start of his career Rodrigo poured out a stream of attractive works, all written in Braille and later dictated to a copyist.

With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 Rodrigo returned permanently to his homeland. By the time he took up residence in Madrid his music had taken on a warm Mediterranean spirit and when his Concierto de Aranjuez for guitar and orchestra was produced in 1940 it brought him immediate fame.
There is a royal palace in the town of Aranjuez which is situated on the River Tagus, S.E. of Madrid. In 1991, to celebrate the 90th birthday of the composer, Joaquin Rodrigo was raised to the nobility by H.M. Juan Carlos I, King of Spain, with the title “Marques de los jardines de Aranjuez”.

At the time of its premiere the Concierto de Aranjuez was regarded as a curiosity, apparently because of the seeming incongruity of pitting a guitar against an orchestra. As Berlioz, an amateur practitioner of the guitar wrote, “The guitar is an instrument suitable for accompanying the voice and for taking part in instrumental compositions of an intimate character”. In seeking a satisfactory solution to the problems of balance between guitar and orchestra, the composer wisely began by leaving out the trombones and percussion. This made it possible for him to achieve his aim of making the work sound “like the hidden breeze that stirs the treetops in the parks”.

1. Allegro con spirito
This aim was furthered by the unusual beginning of the work, where one hears not an orchestral tutti but an introduction for the solo guitar, strumming a persistent 3 bar pattern of chords, while the double-basses sustain a pianissimo pedal-point. After the strings repeat the introductory rhythm the principal theme is heard for the first time played by the first violins and oboe. Throughout this movement the orchestration is clear and colouristic, the guitar continually contrasted with the rich timbres of various other solo instruments – cello, clarinet, oboe, flute. As a result, the work suggests a concerto feeling without the guitar ever having to compete with massively large forces.
2. Adagio (Cor anglais: George Dodds)
The second movement is celebrated for its lyrical, expressive melody. The guitar begins in the role of the accompanist to the cor anglais, which states the theme. Then the guitar repeats the theme, adding embellishments of its own. The movement draws to a close with an extended cadenza in which motifs of the theme provide the basis for a variety of figurations. The full orchestra majestically declaim the theme, before the soloist returns in the coda to bring the movement to a peaceful conclusion.
3. Allegro gentile
In the final movement the guitar once again sets the pace by exploring a single terse, witty theme. It appears several times in a number of keys, with varying orchestration, and the concerto concludes with a brisk, descending pianissimo – a gesture of farewell.

In achieving his compositional goals, Rodrigo made no concessions to the difficulty of the guitar, with the result that this concerto requires exceptional virtuosity from the soloist.
We are privileged, and delighted, to welcome Roberto Carillo-Garcia as our distinguished soloist in this performance.

* Born in Breslau (Poland) in 1854, Moszkowski lived as teacher and performer in  Berlin and then for nearly thirty years in Paris, where he died in poverty owing to the  loss of his savings through war-depreciation. He had a great reputation as a solo  pianist, violinist and conductor. He retired from his concert career in 1897 and  concentrated on teaching. His pupils included Sir Thomas Beecham and the  harpsichordist Wanda Landowska.  As a composer Moszkowski’s works include an opera, two piano concertos, a ballet and a Violin Concerto. His attractive piano music includes two books of Spanish Dances, originally for piano duet, then arranged for solo piano and later orchestrated by Phillipp Scharwenka.

The three dances to be performed this evening are taken from the five which comprise  Book 1, Op. 12.

Massenet arrived at the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 11 and studied composition with Ambroise Thomas, winning the Rome Prize at twenty-one. After a period in Rome he returned to Paris, married in 1866, and had his first opera produced at the Opera- Comique in 1881. For eighteen years he was Professor of Composition at the Paris Conservatoire.
Over the years many nasty things have been said and written about Jules Massenet. His unique gift for expressing certain elements of female sensibility in music led to him being cruelly referred to as “Gounod’s mother”. “The mere mention of his name was enough to set the table in a roar; to make lady members of the Bach choir turn pink with disapproval; to induce apoplexy in the most bloodless cathedral organists.”
And yet - currently fresh interest is being shown in his work. (Opera North staged a highly successful new production of Manon in Newcastle in October.)
His operas are a mixture of lyrical sweetness and dramatic fervour and demonstrate his gift for melody of a suave, voluptuous and eminently singable kind.

Despite being a colossal success at its first performance in 1885, “Le Cid” is remembered today by only a soprano aria, a tenor aria and the ballet music. The title “Le Cid” is from the Arabic “El Seid”, the conqueror, and refers to the hero of the opera, Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar (1026 – 1099 A.D.), a great warrior and champion who led the common people in their struggles against the Moors in Spain.

The ballet music, in which Massenet evokes eleventh-century Spain through the use of national rhythms and tunes, is set in the square of Burgos where a carnival is taking place in front of the King’s palace. The crowd looks on in mounting excitement as seven dances unfold (based on the various provinces of Spain) to a richly coloured sequence of warm melodies, mirroring swift changes of mood from a soft, sinuous languor to headlong gaiety.
1. Castillane
2. Andalouse
3. Aragonaise
4. Aubade
5. Catalane
6. Madrilene (Flute: Eileen Montgomery, Cor Anglais: George Dodds)
7. Navarraise