Falla's musical education began with piano studies with his mother and concluded in Madrid with José Tragó, a pupil of Georges Mathias, who was himself a pupil of Chopin.
Composer Biography
Manuel de Falla, the composer, was born in Cádiz, an Andalusian port city known for its cultivated, open, and cosmopolitan atmosphere throughout the 19th century.
Performer Biography
Miguel Baselga, the pianist on this recording, began playing piano at age six and received first prize upon graduating from the Royal Belgian Conservatory of Music in Liège in 1985.
Composition History
Falla's Allegro de concierto, an ambitious early work, was written for a competition at the Madrid Conservatory in 1903, where he received an honourable mention while Enrique Granados won first prize.
Compositional Technique
Falla did not strictly use popular songs in his compositions, but rather extracted their rhythm, modality, ornamental motifs, and modulatory cadences to stylize traditional forms like the jota.
Composition History
Falla's piano version of the "Song of the Volga Boatmen" was created in 1922 at the request of diplomat Ricardo Baeza to support Russian refugees through an initiative by Fridtjof Nansen and the League of Nations.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Falla was deeply influenced by Edvard Grieg, stating that Grieg's popular character, harmonic procedures, and suppression of troublesome developments inspired him to do something similar with Spanish music.
