2026 is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Manuel de Falla, arguably Spain’s greatest composer. He has been described by biographer Burnett James as ‘the most complete representative of the Spanish mind and spirit in music’.
Spain for centuries stood apart from western classical music and produced relatively few composers of stature until the late 19th century. The great Tomas Luis de Victoria in the 16th century and the tragically short-lived Arriaga in the early 19th are the two exceptions. In the late 1800s, Isaac Albeniz introduced a strong Spanish flavour to his music and with Enrique Granados did much to establish Spain in the mainstream of European classical music. However, de Falla absorbed the modern influences of composers he met whilst living in Paris – Ravel, Debussy, Dukas, Stravinsky, Schmitt, and impresario Diaghilev. Domingo Hindoyan and the RLPO present a superb programme of de Falla’s colourful, sensuous and passionate music and include an orchestration by Francisco Coll of one of his great piano works (composed for Arthur Rubinstein), ‘Fantasia Baetica’.