Manuel de Falla: Nocturno

Today I have a gorgeous nocturne for you, composed in 1896 (wikipedia seems to claim 1916). Manuel de Falla y Matheu (1876 – 1946) was an Andalusian Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20th century.

By 1900 he was living with his family in the capital, where he attended the Real Conservatorio de Música y Declamación. He studied piano with José Tragó, a colleague of Isaac Albéniz, and composition with Felipe Pedrell. In 1897 he composed Melodía for cello and piano and dedicated it to Salvador Viniegra, who hosted evenings of chamber music that Falla attended.
It was from Pedrell, during the Madrid period, that Falla became interested in the music of his native Andalusia, particularly Andalusian flamenco (specifically cante jondo), the influence of which can be strongly felt in many of his works.
Falla moved to Paris in 1907, where he remained for seven years. There he met a number of composers who had an influence on his style, including Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy and Paul Dukas, as well as Igor Stravinsky, Florent Schmitt, Isaac Albéniz and the impresario Sergei Diaghilev.
He wrote Siete canciones populares españolas, which he finished in mid-1914. Shortly after, World War I began, forcing Falla to return to Madrid. From 1921 to 1939 Manuel de Falla lived in Granada, where he organized the Concurso de Cante Jondo in 1922. During the 1920s and 1930s, he frequently visited Barcelona and Catalonia and became associated with various Catalan artists, critics and intellectuals, such as Joan Lamote de Grignon, Oleguer Junyent, Frank Marshall, Rafael Moragas, Jaume Pahissa and Santiago Rusiñol.

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Thanks for listening :-)

[RobertZürcher-qe]

Fabelhaft interpretiert! Vielen Dank für die Einspielungen. Sehr inspirierend.

[dkallanson]

Thank you for sharing this piece with us, dear Julian....sigh... 😌👌💓🤗 Another precious gem for me to download and learn.. ❤️

[TheXinver]

Gracias por esta belleza. Thanks for this beauty.

[jakubr]

This is probably one of the most beautiful pieces I have ever heard.

[eloisadomingo]

Que preciosidad! Es increíble como cada día puedes interpretar piezas tan complejas y bellas. Es emocionante escucharte. Gracias, gracias, ❤

[MyPianoRarities]

In fact, the dating of De Falla's Nocturne is controversial: According to the Dictionary of Music and Musicians UTET (an Italian encyclopaedia, very well done in 12 volumes) the composition dates back to 1899 and was published by Union Musical Española in 1940. A another source informs us that it was written in 1890. These are added to the aforementioned years of 1896 and 1916. A great mystery then! Instinctively I would tend to exclude 1916, since the Nocturne is certainly a language steeped in Chopin, but extraneous to the sound world of De Falla; more than anything else I see it as a youthful infatuation for a model of composition that must have struck the young De Falla and inspired him a really happy work! The author's style in those years had already taken shape: in 1915 he completed his impressionistic masterpiece of “Noches in los jardines de España”, in which there is no trace of Chopin's romantic reminiscences. The Fantasia bètica of 1919, "Homenaje pour le tombeau de Claude Debussy" of 1920, are very far from the sphere of influences of De Falla, to whom the work of the impressionist composers and Dukas (to whom he dedicates the " Homenaje pour le tombeau de Paul Dukas” in 1935, which he later orchestrated). If there is uncertainty about the real dating of the Nocturne, there are certainly no doubts about Julian's incredible performance (those final two arpeggios are extraordinarily beautiful and represent a worthy conclusion!). Thanks for sharing!

[eneidaschaefer]

Muito lindo ! Parabéns por nos proporcionar esta maravilha ! Muito bonita a tua interpretação ! Um abraço do Brasil

[elisabethmariamalecki]

Danach kann man nur noch im ruhigen Schlaf einfach träumen, ob/ oder die Nacht in einen Zauber des Augenblicks verwandeln.

[JohannaA.]

Those last 3 bars! _Herr_ Gamma, you are amongst the Pianists that I consider being the most expressive. The nuances you give are baffling! And I never heard a digital Piano with that level of expression. Would you mind telling me which instrument you use?

[ronl]

Lovely composition & well performed

[mrsnegy]

Very lovely. I hope that you have already played for your friends and family in home-set recitals. If not, do that: they will be very grateful to you.

[НиколайАтаков-пв]

Can you tell me who is the interpreter of this work?