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People seem to be playing the music of Manuel de Falla less and less
frequently, but not you. Why?
I like to make a habit of original programmes: I’ve recorded a disc of Villa-Lobos,
another of Wagner – I’m always curious to discover something different. In the
case of Falla, I’ve actually known his music quite a long time. It was always
one of my dreams to play the
Fantasía bætica
,
even when I was a student at
the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon; I’d heard it several
times and found it attractive, but unfortunately the opportunity never arose. I
continued to discover other works by Falla, but what really triggered things off
for me was hearing Ginesa Ortega sing Candelas in a recording of the original
version of
El amor brujo
. It was the
flamenca
voice, its timbre, its way with words,
that fascinatedme,and in fact after that I started listening to
cante jondo
regularly.
I was intrigued by this gypsy voice in combinationwith so-called ‘classical’ music,
and it made me think again about Falla’s music, made me look at it from a new
perspective. I had just turned thirty, I had friends inMadrid and oftenwent there,
and I started getting into zarzuela, which is a culture in itself, a different world.
WHY FALLA?
An interview with Wilhem Latchoumia