THREE AUDIO PIECES On November 14, 1971, soprano Victoria de los Angeles (1923-2005) and pianist Alicia de Larrocha teamed up for a concert of Spanish music at New York's Hunter College. The program included the Tonadillas of Enrique Granados and Fallas's Seven Popular Spanish Songs. Victoria had been a world star for twenty years in 1971, and she'd continue to sing for twenty more years. Larrocha's years of great fame in the States were just beginning, though she had been acclaimed in Europe for a decade. The two ladies, friends and neighbors for thirty years, performed without scores. A vocal recital with piano accompaniment became a level and very exalted playing field. Here's what Harold C. Schonberg said the next day in The New York Times.
Miss de los Angeles can still project a song in a manner that can tear the heart out of a brass idol...It goes without saying that these two Spanish artists gave performances of Granados, De Falla and early Spanish composers that could be called definitive. Miss de Larrocha played the entire program from memory, listening carefully to the singer, joining the piano to the voice in a wonderfully sensitive manner.
The Concert at Hunter College was published on LP by EMI/Angel in 1972. I wore out two copies. As far as I know the performance has never been published on CD. I have it. In bits and pieces, put back together from tapes, I have the entire concert on CD. The recorded sound quality is not great but who cares? You hear what you need to hear. I'm playing this on an upcoming Serenata (Saturdays at 1 PM, 89-7 FM) Here are a few samples. Thank me later. Granados: La maja de Goya (The maja of Goya) [audio:tondadilla-1.mp3] "As long as I live I will never forget the gallant and beloved image of Goya. There is not a woman, or maja, or lady who does not miss Goya. If I found one who would love me as he loved me, I would not desire, no nor crave greater fortune or happiness." Granados: El majo olvidado (The forgotten majo) [audio:tondilla-7.mp3] "When you recall the bygone days, think of me. When your window fills with flowers, think of me. Poor deserted majo! What deep suffering has befallen him! Since the ungrateful maja left him, he does not wish to live. When in the evening the nightingale sings, think of the forgotten majo, who is dying of love." Falla: Seven Canciones populares espanolas: Jota [audio:jota.mp3] "Ay! I nourish an Ay! I nourish a pain in my breast, and can tell no one of it! Accursed by love, ay! And the one who professed it to me!" Victoria de los Angeles, soprano Alicia de Larrocha, piano Hunter College, New York, November 14, 1971
