[ Harmonia Mundi / CD ]
Release Date: Friday 23 February 2024
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The three works on this CD evoke the worlds of commedia dell'arte (Pulcinella), Don Quixote (El retablo de maese Pedro) and picaresque Spain (the Harpsichord Concerto).
Telling their stories with colour, rhythm and humour, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Pablo Heras-Casado and Benjamin Alard (playing a sumptuous Pleyel harpsichord) invite us to an exhilarating firework display.
"Without the visuals, [the Falla] needs the utmost vividness. And it gets it from the Mahler Chamber Orchestra under a fiery Pablo Heras-Casado at the start...The Pulcinella Suite is simply perfect, buoyant and stylish rather than in your face, with vivid personalities from leader William Hagen to first bassoon Marceau Lefèvre lending ideal sophistication." BBC Music
"Heras-Casado draws a slightly dirty sound from his players [in the Falla], and then a much more formally elegant body of tone for Stravinsky" Gramphone
"Heard one after the other in these fine, if slightly dry, performances from Pablo Heras-Casado and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the comparison between the two almost contemporary works [Pulcinella and El Retablo] is fascinating, not only in their sound worlds, but in their use of existing musics...But the real gem on this disc is a suitably intense account of Falla's Harpsichord Concerto, with Benjamin Alard as the soloist." Guardian
Falla: El retablo de Maese Pedro
Falla: Concerto for Harpsichord & Chamber Ensemble
Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite