Summer in Nancy promises to be filled with the rhythms and colours of Spain! From the end of the nineteenth century onwards, the Iberian peninsula, its popular culture and its atmospheres, both harsh and warm, fascinated composers from as far afield as Russia, who found there a new source of inspiration: in 1889, Rimsky-Korsakov drew on a collection of popular Spanish melodies for his Capriccio, initially conceived for violin and orchestra.
With L'Alborada del Gracioso (The Jester's Aubade) Ravel once again turns his attention to Spain (a natural affinity given his Iberian origins!), in a searing orchestral frenzy where, in the blinding light of the burning plains that had already turned Don Quixote's head, the painful sensuality of the jester mocked by his sweetheart comes to the fore. At this time, Spain so permeated French musical life that it was in Paris that Spanish composers came to discover their own music: De Falla, first of all, who found there an impressionist art ready to embrace his own musical heritage. His Three-Cornered Hat, written in 1919 for the Ballets Russes, is a burlesque and irresistible concentration of the colours and scents of his native land.
Later, it was in the French capital that Rodrigo would also seek out the skill and style of celebrating Spain in music: his Aranjuez Concerto was born on his return from France and is intended to celebrate the memory of Spain's great Golden Age as his country recovers from civil war.
