マヌエル・デ・ファリャ
作曲
While Manuel de Falla’s work was influenced by the developments of the Parisian avant-garde in the first quarter of the 20th century, he was the first Spanish composer to achieve international fame – comparable to the significance of Smetana, Sibelius, Bartók and Janáček in their respective countries. Despite his rather small catalogue of works, de Falla, whose music is influenced by impressionism and Andalusian folklore, became one of the leading representatives of early Spanish Modernism – even though he was always critical of the widespread enthusiasm for Spain outside his homeland with its popular clichés of “españoladas”.
Manuel de Falla, born in Cádiz, Andalusia, in 1876, completed his piano studies in Madrid in 1899, winning first prize at the conservatory, but nevertheless decided against a career as a virtuoso. To keep himself financially afloat, he completed his first zarzuela, a Spanish variant of operetta, in 1900, followed by five more by 1903. Only the second, Los amores de la Inés, was performed – to moderate success. His private studies with the composer and musicologist Felipe Pedrell, who also taught Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados and Roberto Gerhard, were decisive for de Falla’s further musical career. Through Pedrell, de Falla became acquainted with the vibrant Spanish folk music tradition, which would go on to influence his work. The composer gained national recognition when his one-act opera La vida breve was awarded first prize in a competition to promote Spanish national opera in 1905. In 1907, de Falla went to Paris, where his works increasingly took on an impressionistic tone under the influence of composer friends such as Dukas, Debussy, Ravel and Florent Schmitt. At the outbreak of the First World War, he returned to Spain, where the premieres of El amor brujo and Noches en los jardines de España established his international reputation as a composer. He finally gained further recognition with the ballet El sombrero de tres picos, which premiered in London in 1919 with the Ballets Russes, with stage designs and costumes by Pablo Picasso.
