Noches en los jardines de España

Noches en los jardines de España (Nights in the Gardens of Spain) started life in 1909 as a set of nocturnes for solo piano before Falla expanded it to a three-movement work for piano and orchestra lasting 25 minutes. Noches is not a concerto as such, more a set of tone-impressions evoking “places, sensations and sentiments”, as Falla put it. It opens with “En el Generalife”, where the jasmine-scented gardens of the Alhambra palace complex in Granada are magically summoned in fluttering piano figurations and diaphanous orchestration. “Danza lejana” (“A distant dance”) is a less site-specific movement, conjuring an unsettled, nocturnal atmosphere that gradually grows in animated intensity. The concluding “En los jardines de la Sierra de Córdoba” follows on directly, opening with a succession of skirling fanfares. The spirit of Spanish dance pervades the movement, along with what Falla himself termed an element of “melancholy and mystery”.