Search - Geoffrey Simon, Sarah Walker, Margaret Fingerhut :: Manuel de Falla: Love the Magician (El Amor Brujo) / Nights in the Gardens of Spain (Noches en los Jardines de España) / Interlude & Dance (from La Vida Breve) - Sarah Walker / Margaret Fingerhut / The London Symphony Orchestra / Geoffrey Simon

Falla (1876-1946) wrote two versions of his masterpiece, El Amor Brujo or Love, the Magician. The first is a more extended production with narration (or vocal lines) and transition passages, since it was conceived as a ballet. The version on this disc is the later orchestration, the one Falla put together in 1916. The narration is gone, but the mezzo-soprano role is still here. Falla's other masterpiece, Nights in the Gardens of Spain (1909), began as a set of piano pieces, but the composer later orchestrated it around the piano as the centerpiece. This is a superlative release. --Paul Cook