Francisco Coll and Javier Perianes have extra duende than ‘Il trovatore’ in Les Arts | Culture | EUROtoday

“Olé! “That has a duende!” exclaimed the gypsy dancer La Malena after listening to the pianist Alexander Brailowsky interpret Bach. This is without doubt one of the examples that Federico García Lorca makes use of to outline this “hidden spirit of the painful Spain”, in Leprechaun idea and recreation. The composer Francisco Coll (Valencia, 38 years outdated) has discovered, on this 1933 convention, the phrases to elucidate the second motion of his work City with out sleep (2022): “’Everything that has black sounds has duende,’ Lorca wrote, ‘that mysterious power that everyone feels and that no philosopher explains.’ The elf“, the ineffable, untranslatable spirit of earthliness, of authenticity, of possession…”.

This fantasy for piano and orchestra, which takes its title from one of the poems included in Poet in New Yorkpremiered in London last February. Now, he has had his first Spanish, last Friday, December 20, at the Palau de les Arts in Valencia within the series Symphonic of the Valencian Community Orchestra. We are talking about a masterpiece that confirms Coll not only as a renowned composer in the panorama of current Spanish creative music, but also internationally. It is a score in which the sharp and expressive sound language, which he had in his symphony, is already perfectly recognizable. Mural (2015) one of its first milestones.

He begins by connecting his kaleidoscopic vision of flamenco with surrealism in Lunges. And we listen to those live iguanas that bite men who do not dream, as in Lorca’s poem. But those tense and angular sonorities advance fluidly in a dialogue where the soloist’s prominence continues to grow. In fact, the piano takes over the central movement, Elf-Nanaand unfolds all its expressive magic in a beautiful lullaby accompanied by the sound of a suspended cymbal. A melody that Coll played on the piano to put his two children to sleep and that thrilled the public with the suspension of its syncopations.

But suddenly the brutal Orgy end. The sharp rhythms of flamenco now intensify with true quejíos that drive the leadership of the piano. And we hear the Lorca insistence of “No one sleeps in the world. Nobody, nobody.” The public enthusiastically obtained Coll’s new composition, which is able to quickly be joined by two essential world premieres in Spain: the symphony Lilith with the Principality of Asturias Symphony, in June 2025, and his first large-format opera, enemy of the individualsprimarily based on a libretto in Spanish by Àlex Rigola, which may be seen subsequent season at Les Arts and on the Teatro Real below the course of the composer.

The architect of the emotion of the central motion of City with out sleep It was Javier Perianes (Nerva, Huelva, 46 years outdated), to whom it’s devoted. In reality, the composition is a portrait of the Huelva pianist that evokes Nights within the gardens of Spainby Falla, profiting from its proverbial musicality. Perianes continued, within the second half, with a superb interpretation of the Piano Concerto in Gby Maurice Ravel, who brilliantly exploited the Basque aroma of the start and the jazzy air of the rag-time finish. But he impressed within the sluggish motion waltz with an thrilling and masterful efficiency that soared supported by the orchestral accompaniment with an beautiful English horn solo. Perianes culminated his efficiency with a vaporous and fluid Debussy as a tip: prelude no. 8 of the primary e-book, titled The lady with flaxen hair. And lately you possibly can see his good interpretations of Scarlatti and Albéniz on RTVE within the incomparable setting of the Real Alcázar in Seville.

The third protagonist of the live performance was the American conductor James Gaffigan (New York, 45 years outdated) who has simply introduced in his X profile the tip of his stage as head of the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana. Bad information in view of the extent reached below his mandate and the consolidation of his engaging symphonic cycle. We are speaking about what stays the most effective Spanish orchestra whose origins had been eloquently summarized in 2009 by Agustí Fancelli as “Doña Helga’s Orchestra”.

It was sufficient to hearken to the start of the live performance, with the symphonic poem The cursed hunterby César Franck, to persuade your self of the facility and ductility of its members in such a tense and narrative rating. Gaffigan wrapped his efficiency in a great arc from the hunter’s preliminary vanity to his remaining demon-ravaged sinking. But his capability to breathe fantasy and shade into Ravel’s staves emerged in the long run with an admirable The Waltz. In reality, Gaffigan himself commented on his shock when discovering, in an vintage store within the capital of Turia, this system of a live performance performed by Ravel himself in Valencia that ended exactly with The Waltz. It was November 17, 1928 and native critics highlighted his vigorous and nervous dealing with of the baton.

But the Valencian Community Orchestra is, above all, a first-class operatic symphonic ensemble. He demonstrated it, as soon as once more, within the efficiency final Thursday, December 19, below the agency and incisive course of Maurizio Benini. This substitute of the manufacturing of Àlex Ollé, of The troubadour by Giuseppe Verdi, which premiered in Amsterdam 10 years in the past and has handed by way of Paris and Barcelona, ​​has allowed us to return to normality after the Dana tragedy. In any case, the efficiency didn’t stand out for notable vocal flashes.

The well-known sentence that The troubadour exact of “the four best singers in the world”, attributed equally to the conductor Arturo Toscanini and the tenor Enrico Caruso, reveals the problem of casting this opera. The solely singer who got here near excellence was mezzo Russian Ekaterina Semenchuk, in a strong position as Azucena, though she started Stride the vampire! a little bit misplaced. She was additionally the one one who made her tormented and vengeful character plausible. On the opposite, the Ukrainian soprano Olga Maslova, within the position of Leonora, began with an irregular cavatina, though she improved on the finish with the gorgeous Of love on rosy wings.

The Italian tenor Antonio Poli was additionally an uneven Manrico with some flashes of musicality in his aria Ah sure, my pricey!though with issues within the treble that hindered the well-known cabaletta Of that pyrethe place he stopped singing within the tight of the refrain to achieve the well-known excessive C that Verdi by no means wrote. Nor did the American baritone Lucas Meachem stand out as Conte di Luna, who changed within the extremes to Artur Ruciński and has mixed with the Liceu as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly. Good efficiency by the Cor de la Generalitat Valenciana and, among the many supporting solid, the bass Adolfo Corrado as Ferrando was higher than the soprano Holly Brown as Inés.

Àlex Ollé’s battle staging strikes the motion to the First World War with out attaining a notable theatrical contribution. The important novelty is within the scenic versatility offered by Alfons Flores’s scenography, with these rectangular blocks that sink and rise, seasoned by the excellent lighting by Urs Schönebaum. However, this predominance of the surroundings hinders scenic motion and in addition visibility on account of its extreme darkness. In quick, a Verdian manufacturing with much less elf than the symphonic live performance that may be seen once more at this time, Saturday, December 21, on the Auditorium and Conference Center of Castellón.