Don Satz:

>I'm looking for two or three good versions of Falla's Nights in the Garden
>of Spain.  It was one of my favorite works as a youngster, but I haven't
>heard it for decades.  Also, any opinions on the Pons version on Harmonia
>Mundi?

Don't know Pons' version.  My favorites are Argerich, Barenboim, Orch de
Paris (nla, but an Erato cutout which has some circulation) and whichever
DeLarrocha version you can find (there are/were at least two; I have one
with Fruhbeck de Burgos & LPO).  A Rubinstein version from the mid-1940s
was fantastic, but nla...the early stereo remake with Jorda and the SFSO is
orchestrally inept.

Such an amazing piece-the most attractive combinations of
conductor/pianist/orchestra never seemed to materialize for recordings,
alas.  I heard DeLarrocha/Martinon/Chicago in Carnegie Hall around 1967;
that was incredible.

I suspect that the relative brevity of the piece and the curious nature of
the piano-orchestra interaction makes many major artists shy away from it.
I keep planning to perform it myself and then can't, either for lack of a
pianist who will take it seriously enough-or because the soloist tries to
bait and switch me over to Ravel G major PLUS Franck Variations.....nothing
against those wonderful works but if I want them, I'll ask for them!

Good luck--I'll be interested to see what else our readers suggest.

Joel Lazar
Conductor, Bethesda MD
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