MADRID
1915. (Madrid. Barcelona). On 15 January, the Ateneo de Madrid pays homage to Joaquín Turina and Manuel de Falla. The same day, the soprano Luisa Vela, accompanied by Falla himself, premieres the Siete canciones populares españolas. The inaugural concert of the Sociedad Nacional de Música takes place at the Hotel Ritz in Madrid on 8 February, in which the soprano Josefina Revillo gives the first performance of Oración de las madres que tienen a sus hijos en brazos. On 15 April, the first version of El amor brujo (gitanería in one act) is premiered at the Teatro Lara, Madrid, conducted by José Moreno Ballesteros (father of Federico Moreno Torrobo, who plays the piano part), and with Pastora Imperio in the role of Candelas. At the end of March and beginning of April, Falla joins María Lejárraga (wife of Gregorio Martínez Sierra) on a trip to Granada (where he stays at the Pensión Alhambra), Ronda, Algeciras and Cádiz. A little later, he continues on to Barcelona with the Martínez Sierras, and remains there for almost six months. Santiago Rusiñol invites him to spend a few days at the Cau Ferrat in Sitges, where he works intensively on Noches en los jardines de España. In Portugal on 23 September, José Media-Villa’s sextet premieres Falla’s own arrangement of two numbers from El amor brujo. Completes El pan de Ronda que sabe a verdad, to a text by María Lejárraga (Barcelona, 18 December).
1916. On 28 March, at the Hotel Ritz in Madrid, Enrique Fernández Arbós and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid premiere the first concert version of El amor brujo. On 9 April, at the Teatro Real in Madrid, the pianist José Cubiles joins the same orchestra and conductor for the first performance of Noches en los jardines de España (Granada is once again a subject in a work by Falla). Works with the Martínez Sierras on El corregidor y la molinera, a mimed version of Pedro Antonio de Alarcón’s novel El sombrero de tres picos. In its April issue, the Revista Musical Hispano-Americano publishes Falla’s article “Enrique Granados, Evocación de su obra”, and the newspaper La Tribuna publishes his “El gran músico de nuestro tiempo: Igor Stravinsky” on 5 July. Contact with Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Diaghilev, whose famous Ballets Russes visit Madrid. Undertakes a visit to the south of Spain in the company of Diaghilev and the dancer Léonide Massine. During the spring and the summer, he gives concerts in Seville, Cádiz and Granada. On 26 June, he plays Noches en los jardines de España at the Palacio de Carlos V in Granada, with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid under Arturo Saco de Valle. Writes the prologue to Georges Jean-Aubry’s La música francesa contemporánea. The Revista Musical Hispano-Americana publishes a further article by Falla in its December issue: “Introducción al estudio de la música nueva”.
1917. On 7 April, El corregidor y la molinera is premiered at the Teatro Eslava in Madrid, performed by members of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Madrid under the direction of Joaquín Turina. On 29 April, at the Teatro Real, Enrique Fernández Arbós and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid give the first performance of a version of El amor brujo for small orchestra. Falla writes the prologue to Joaquín Turina’s Enciclopedia abreviada de Música, and publishes “Nuesta música” in the June issue of the magazine Música. During the summer, he undertakes further travels around Spain with Diaghilev and Massine. On 8 October, he attends the unveiling of the monument to Francisco Goya in Fuendetodos. Tours the north of Spain in the company of the soprano Aga Lahowska.
1918. Works on the comic opera Fuego fatuo, to a libretto by María Lejárraga, which is to remain unfinished. On 27 April, he delivers a speech entitled “El arte profundo de Claude Debussy” at a function at the Ateneo de Madrid paying tribute to the memory of the French composer. The Princess de Polignac commissions him to write a work to be premiered at her salon in Paris, and Falla conceives El retablo de maese Pedro.
1919. Death of his parents (his father on 12 February, his mother on 22 July). On 22 July, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes premiere El sombrero de tres picos at the Alhambra Theatre in London, with choreography by Léonide Massine and sets and costumes by Pablo Picasso. This work will become part of the Russian company’s standard repertory. Composes Fantasía bætica in response to a commission received from Artur Rubinstein the previous year. Negotiates a contract with the house of J. & W. Chester, London, which becomes his principal publisher. Visits Granada with his sister María del Carmen and Vázquez Díaz and his wife, to attend a tribute being paid in his honour by the Centro Artístico (15 September). During his stay in the city, he stays first at the Pensión Alhambra, in rooms reserved by him by Ángel Barrios (a friend since his days in Paris), and later (according to John Brande Trend, his first biographer, who met him on this visit) at the Pensión Carmona. Both hotels are situated in the Calle Real, within the precincts of the Alhambra.
1916. On 28 March, at the Hotel Ritz in Madrid, Enrique Fernández Arbós and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid premiere the first concert version of El amor brujo. On 9 April, at the Teatro Real in Madrid, the pianist José Cubiles joins the same orchestra and conductor for the first performance of Noches en los jardines de España (Granada is once again a subject in a work by Falla). Works with the Martínez Sierras on El corregidor y la molinera, a mimed version of Pedro Antonio de Alarcón’s novel El sombrero de tres picos. In its April issue, the Revista Musical Hispano-Americano publishes Falla’s article “Enrique Granados, Evocación de su obra”, and the newspaper La Tribuna publishes his “El gran músico de nuestro tiempo: Igor Stravinsky” on 5 July. Contact with Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Diaghilev, whose famous Ballets Russes visit Madrid. Undertakes a visit to the south of Spain in the company of Diaghilev and the dancer Léonide Massine. During the spring and the summer, he gives concerts in Seville, Cádiz and Granada. On 26 June, he plays Noches en los jardines de España at the Palacio de Carlos V in Granada, with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid under Arturo Saco de Valle. Writes the prologue to Georges Jean-Aubry’s La música francesa contemporánea. The Revista Musical Hispano-Americana publishes a further article by Falla in its December issue: “Introducción al estudio de la música nueva”.
1917. On 7 April, El corregidor y la molinera is premiered at the Teatro Eslava in Madrid, performed by members of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Madrid under the direction of Joaquín Turina. On 29 April, at the Teatro Real, Enrique Fernández Arbós and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid give the first performance of a version of El amor brujo for small orchestra. Falla writes the prologue to Joaquín Turina’s Enciclopedia abreviada de Música, and publishes “Nuesta música” in the June issue of the magazine Música. During the summer, he undertakes further travels around Spain with Diaghilev and Massine. On 8 October, he attends the unveiling of the monument to Francisco Goya in Fuendetodos. Tours the north of Spain in the company of the soprano Aga Lahowska.
1918. Works on the comic opera Fuego fatuo, to a libretto by María Lejárraga, which is to remain unfinished. On 27 April, he delivers a speech entitled “El arte profundo de Claude Debussy” at a function at the Ateneo de Madrid paying tribute to the memory of the French composer. The Princess de Polignac commissions him to write a work to be premiered at her salon in Paris, and Falla conceives El retablo de maese Pedro.
1919. Death of his parents (his father on 12 February, his mother on 22 July). On 22 July, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes premiere El sombrero de tres picos at the Alhambra Theatre in London, with choreography by Léonide Massine and sets and costumes by Pablo Picasso. This work will become part of the Russian company’s standard repertory. Composes Fantasía bætica in response to a commission received from Artur Rubinstein the previous year. Negotiates a contract with the house of J. & W. Chester, London, which becomes his principal publisher. Visits Granada with his sister María del Carmen and Vázquez Díaz and his wife, to attend a tribute being paid in his honour by the Centro Artístico (15 September). During his stay in the city, he stays first at the Pensión Alhambra, in rooms reserved by him by Ángel Barrios (a friend since his days in Paris), and later (according to John Brande Trend, his first biographer, who met him on this visit) at the Pensión Carmona. Both hotels are situated in the Calle Real, within the precincts of the Alhambra.
