Albéniz: Rapsodia Española, Op.70

Introduction

Written at the same time as the Concierto fantástico, the Rapsodia española has a much more explicitly Spanish inspiration. After an atmospheric start, in which the haunting theme in octaves includes typically Hispanic intervals (including augmented seconds) and rhythmic traits (including triplets), the score presents several Spanish dances. The first of these is a Petenera, a traditional flamenco form with specific accentuation that Albéniz follows precisely (phrases of 12 beats, with the emphases on 1, 4, 7, 9 and 11). Described in the score as ‘Petenera de Mariani’, this is a minor-key dance, marked Allegretto non troppo. Interpersed with recollections of the opening theme, other dances follow, all in triple time: a ‘Jota original’ (Allegro, A major), a ‘Malagueña—Juan Breva’ (Andantino ma non troppo, E flat major), and ‘Estudiantina’ (Allegro, D major)—a quick waltz, with which the work ends.

Albéniz was never entirely confident when writing for orchestra, and it is known from surviving correspondence that he asked his friend Tomás Bretón to help with the orchestration of both the Concierto fantástico and the Rapsodia española. The Rapsodia española has sometimes been performed using orchestrations made after Albéniz’s death, by George Enescu (1911) and Cristóbal Halffter (1960; the version recorded by Alicia de Larrocha for Decca). Albéniz performed the work extensively, and one concert, given in San Sebastián on 20 August 1889, is of particular interest. With Bretón conducting, Albéniz played the solo part and subsequently gave an inscribed copy of the printed two-piano score, along with handwritten orchestral parts and a full score, to the pianist and Basque liberal politician Leonardo Moyua Alzaga. The orchestration in this manuscript full score, now in the Conservatoire Francisco Escudero in San Sebastián, is the version used on the present recording. It is less overtly colourful than the orchestration found in a manuscript full score in Barcelona which was edited by the noted Albéniz scholar Jacinto Torres and published in 1995. Torres describes the Barcelona version as Albéniz’s original, but the brilliance and assurance with which the orchestra is handled suggests that he had help from Bretón. The San Sebastián manuscript is written in a different hand and there is no clue to the identity of who made the orchestration. But since this manuscript had been used at a concert involving both Albéniz and Bretón, it is likely to have been the work of one or both of them. One plausible speculation might be that it was made by Albéniz and Bretón, either as a preliminary version, or as an alternative to the more colourful orchestration found in the Barcelona manuscript.