Manuel De Falla’s ballet music "El sombrero de los picos", “The Tricorn”, is a well-known favorite subject of the Swiss conductor Ernest Ansermet and the Orchestra de la Suisse Romande (OSR), based in Geneva, founded by him in 1940 with the support of the Suisse radio. A recording from the year 1961 available on LP and CD on the Decca label attests from the affinity of the conductor and the orchestra to the compositions of the Spaniard De Falla. Having interpretative as well as sound reference character this recording must not be missing in any serious CD or LP collection. As a longtime conductor of Sergei Diagilev’s "Ballets Russes" Ernest Ansermet possessed the specific know-how of getting ballet music to the heart of the content, not least ballet music of de Falla, which, in the case of the "The Tricorn", mirrors in an enormous joy and high precision of play of his OSR musicians. And then there is the formidable mezzo Theresa Berganza, who opens the action of the ballet based on rousing Spanish folklore dances after introductory dry drum-hits with pithy Olé shouts and a dramatically charged introduction to the action of the ballet.

In view of a Theresa Berganza, who has absorbed the idiom of the flamenco with the mother's milk, Sophie Harmsen, the mezzo in the new recording of the ballet "El sombrero de los picos" is incomparable successful. Considering this shortcoming the OSR under Kazuki Yamada scores with an interpretation, which excels the play culture of the "original" OSR under Ansermet. The beauty of sound of today's OSR, skillfully brought about by the engineers of Pentatone and not at least to the quality of this high-definition download, was not available to the "original OSR" and the Decca sound technicians with their analog tape equipment. Unleashed sound bursts are experienced on the new as well as on the old OSR recording. More violent sounds, going right under the skin however are experienced on the old recording with the less play culture trimmed and somewhat roughly playing OSR. If one does not refer to the unrivaled OSR recording with Ansermet, it is to be noted that the new recording of “The Tricorn”, but also the recording of the ritual fire dance from De Falla’s “El amor brujo” under the baton of young conductor Kazuki Yamada occupies a top place under the available competing recordings.

The "Noches en los jardines de España", the “Nights in Spanish gardens”, with obligatory piano, are the Spanish counterpart to the impressionist compositions of a Claude Debussy, who had a first-hand meeting with De Falla on the occasion of his Paris stay. In these variations for piano and orchestra, De Falla has captured the night atmosphere in various historical gardens of Spain in a variety of colors and full of atmosphere. One almost believes to perceive the spicy perfume of the garden’s planting exhaled by the air, heated up over daytime, together with the heat pleasantly tempered in the meantime, so strong is the acoustic experience of the partly sparkling composition. Here, the beautifully sounding OSR is full in its element and the Japanese pianist Mari Kodama, who has made a name for herself with recordings of the complete set of the Beethoven sonatas and concerts on the Pentatone label, sets bright lights in the twilight Spanish nights with her once-rushing, once sparkling play. More authentic, one cannot create these impressionistic mood pictures.

Mari Kodama, piano (in Nights in the Gardens of Spain)
Sophie Harmsen, mezzo-soprano (in The Three-cornered Hat)
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
Kazuki Yamada, conductor