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The
Fantasía bætica
is such a radical work, isn’t it? Where
would you place it in the context of the piano music of the
twentieth century?
Like Bartók, Falla makes use of elements from folk music in order
to transcend them. That’s what appealed to me in the
Fantasía
bætica
, as in certain works by Villa-Lobos; it’s something I find
fascinating, this idea of taking the basicmaterial and going further
with it. Its very harsh tone is comparable with the language of
Rudepoêma
, and in fact both works were written for the same
pianist, Arthur Rubinstein. And then there’s that additional
dimension of producing a work of universal significance without
renouncing a language rooted in a specific identity.
24 MANUEL DE FALLA