BBC Philharmonic, Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Don Quixote (complete ballet); Suite from Alegrías; Pedrelliana (2024) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

BBC Philharmonic, Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Don Quixote (complete ballet); Suite from Alegrías; Pedrelliana (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:01:25 minutes | 1,02 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Chandos Records

The Catalan Roberto Gerhard studied piano with Granados, and was the only Spanish composer to study with Arnold Schoenberg. It was, however, over twenty years before he committed himself to writing twelve-tone music. In the interim, his output brought a new focus and precision (owing more to Stravinsky and Bartók) to the Spanish style. All the works on this album were composed in that period. Dating from the early 1940s, his ballet Alegrías was originally conceived for two pianos, but soon evolved into the four-movement suite heard here. The flamenco-inspired movements are linked in pairs, and show Gerhard’s brilliance and humour in equal measure. During this same period Gerhard decided to mark the centenary of his first teacher, Felipe Pedrell (who had also taught Albéniz, Granados, and de Falla), with a three-movement symphony, Homenaje a Pedrell (CHAN 9693). Gerhard failed to secure a performance of the work, but in 1954 was invited to re-work the final movement for a BBC Symphony Orchestra concert, which became Pedrelliana. Gerhard’s ballet on episodes from Cervantes’s Don Quixote evolved for almost a decade, from a work for chamber orchestra, for a touring company (abandoned because of the war), via a version for radio and an expanded orchestral suite, to the work recorded here, in its full and final orchestration for performances at the Royal Opera House in 1950, choreographed by Ninette de Valois. Robert Helpmann danced the title role and Margot Fonteyn Dulcinea.

Tracklist:

1. BBC Philharmonic & Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Alegrías Suite: I.Preámbulo (02:10)
2. BBC Philharmonic & Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Alegrías Suite: II. Jácara (02:20)
3. BBC Philharmonic & Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Alegrías Suite: III. Farruca (05:07)
4. BBC Philharmonic & Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Alegrías Suite: IV. Jaleo (03:05)
5. BBC Philharmonic & Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Pedrelliana (11:31)
6. BBC Philharmonic & Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Don Quixote: [Introduction] (00:30)
7. BBC Philharmonic & Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Don Quixote, Scene 1: Don Quixote’s Room (00:53)
8. BBC Philharmonic & Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Don Quixote, Scene 1: Don Quixote’s vision of Dulcinea (03:04)
9. BBC Philharmonic & Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Don Quixote, Scene 1: Sancho Panza (00:55)
10. BBC Philharmonic & Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Don Quixote: Interlude I (The Plain of La Mancha) (00:52)
11. BBC Philharmonic & Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Don Quixote, Scene 2: A Wayside Inn (03:01)
12. BBC Philharmonic & Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Don Quixote, Scene 2: The Vigil at Arms (01:31)
13. BBC Philharmonic & Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Don Quixote, Scene 2: The duel with the muleteer (01:31)
14. BBC Philharmonic & Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Don Quixote, Scene 2: The ‘knighting’ of Don Quixote (00:59)
15. BBC Philharmonic & Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Don Quixote: Interlude II (01:12)
16. BBC Philharmonic & Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Don Quixote, Scene 3: The Plain of La Mancha – The Windmills (01:29)
17. BBC Philharmonic & Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Don Quixote, Scene 3: The village barber and his basin (02:13)
18. BBC Philharmonic & Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Don Quixote, Scene 3: The Golden Age (02:44)
19. BBC Philharmonic & Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Don Quixote, Scene 3: The galley-slaves (02:22)
20. BBC Philharmonic & Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Don Quixote: Interlude III (00:56)
21. BBC Philharmonic & Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Don Quixote, Scene 4: The Cave of Montesinos (03:09)
22. BBC Philharmonic & Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Don Quixote: Interlude IV (00:33)
23. BBC Philharmonic & Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Don Quixote, Scene 5: The Prison (03:23)
24. BBC Philharmonic & Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Don Quixote, Scene 5: Dulcinea revealed as Aldonza (02:10)
25. BBC Philharmonic & Juanjo Mena – Gerhard: Don Quixote: Epilogue (03:32)

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