NCH, Dublin
Rimsky-Korsakov — Capriccio espagnol. Rodrigo — Concierto de Aranjuez. Stephen Goss — The Albéniz Concerto (exc). Falla — The Three-Cornered Hat.
The most famous orchestral celebrations of Spain in music were written by Frenchmen. So the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra’s Spanish-flavoured programme on Friday was unusual in that it sidestepped French composers in favour of two actual Spaniards, a Russian and a Welshman.
It was unusual, too, in presenting the full score of Manuel de Falla's El Sombrero de Tres Picos(Three-Cornered Hat), his ballet after a story by Alarcón, premiered by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in London in 1919, with choreography by Massine (who also appeared as the miller, with Karsavina as the miller's wife), designs by Picasso, and Ansermet conducting.
The scenario concerns a pompous magistrate (the corregidorwith the three-cornered hat) who's outsmarted by the woman he lusts after, an attractive young miller's wife. The score bursts with colour and energy, and suites of dances from the ballet have long been concert favourites.
The complete score includes sections where the music is obviously functioning as a background, but also some substantial passages which are well worth revival, and the truncated opening featured in the first suite omits the orchestra’s clapping and shouted olés as well as the evocative folksong.
The unpersuasive vocal contributions by mezzo-soprano Fiona Murphy were the weak spots in an otherwise thoroughly invigorating performance under Alan Buribayev. It wasn’t just that Buribayev invested the music with all its zest and swagger; he did so with consistent care for the blending of colours, and he encouraged individual players to step outside their normal personas in the many solos.
Earlier in the evening he pared his players' sound right back for a performance of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuezso that the guitar soloist, Xufei Yang, could assert herself over the orchestra without having to resort to the tonal distortions that result from over-amplification of the guitar. With Yang showing a sense of total ownership of this piece, this was one of those performances that was simply revelatory, full of fresh and unexpected turns.
Yang also played part of Stephen Goss's showy concerto which reworks music Albéniz wrote for piano in the spirit of the guitar. This has universally been re-adapted for their instrument by guitarists, and Goss now presents it with the additional sheen of an orchestra. Buribayev opened the evening with a performance of an old warhorse, Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol,that was both sensitive and scintillating.
