My new recording of four dances from Manuel de Falla's ballet "El Sombrero de tres Picos" (The three-cornered hat). This brilliant and colorful stage work, based on an earlier pantomime "El corregidor y la molinera" (The Magistrate and the Miller's Wife) was commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev of the Ballets Russes, and premiered in London in 1919 with choreography by Léonide Massine and sets and costumes designed by Pablo Picasso. The work is dedicated to Leopoldo Matos, a prestigious lawyer, governor and minister and a very close friend of the composer.
I have been wanting to record these splendid piano "reductions" by the composer for a long time but never got around to it properly. It's a pity that not more of this ballet is suitable for piano solo. Some other bits and pieces are playable but the intricate and complex fabric of the full score would really require a couple more hands. How I wish I could make these pieces sound like Alicia de Larrocha can.... But despite my best efforts, this is not to be of course.
0:13 Danza de la molinera (Dance of the Miller's Wife)
4:29 Danza de los vecinos (Dance of the Neighbors)
8:01 Danza del molinero (Dance of the Miller)
11:02 Danza del corregidor (Dance of the Magistrate)
Chris Breemer, piano
buymeacoffee.com/cbreemer
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Recording date: Sunday March 10, 2024
Piano: Kawai Novus NV10S
Setting: SK-EX Rendering, Dynamic voicing
Postprocessing: Concert Hall Light reverb
Art work:
Left : My well-used Chester score (cover design by Ethelbert White)
Right : Pablo Picasso's stage curtain for the ballet
10 мар 2024
