Kristjan Järvi and Xavier de Maistre: a Spanish programme

Kristjan Järvi conducts again the Orchestre de Paris. The big surprise of this concert is the version for harp of the famous Concierto de Aranjuez, originally written for guitar and orchestra and popularized by Narciso Yepes. It is another great musician of that time, the harpist Nicanor Zabaleta, who asked Joaquín Rodrigo for a transcription.

The Orchestre de Paris had played the original work once with Semyon Bychkov and John McLaughlin in 1991. Today it hosts Xavier de Maistre, adventurous transcriber himself, who recently recorded this version.

The Concierto de Aranjuez refers to a noble and neoclassical Spain. Both popular and children's songs influences meet around the second movement, whose beautiful melody – Aranjuez is a town that symbolized happy memories for Rodrigo – is sadly played by the English horn. A contemporary composer of Stravinsky, inspired by Dukas, Ravel and Debussy when he studied in Paris, De Falla could seem more modern than Rodrigo, although he was 25 years older. The suites from the ballet The Three-cornered hat, organized into short sequences, is rhythmic and colorful.

Ravel's Spain is less authentic or less "informed." It is based on his mother's – who had lived some years in Madrid –memories, explaining why the habanera, ballroom dancing at the time, appears so often in Ravel's scores. Alborada del Gracioso is an adaptation of Miroirs pour piano, written in 1905 by Ricardo Viñes, a friend of Ravel and De Falla. Written in 1919, its virtuosity is such that the work has become one of Ravel's best-known works.

This concert was broadcast live on www.citedelamusiquelive.tv and www.arteliveweb.com

© Picture: Peter Rigaud.

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