Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite - Falla: El Retablo de Maese Pedro & Harpsichord Concerto

El retablo de Maese Pedro (Master Peter’s Puppet Show), based on a chapter from Cervantes’ Don Quixote, was Manuel de Falla’s penultimate work. It was premiered in 1923, and was originally designed to be performed at the Paris home of Princesse Edmond de Polignac, who commissioned the work. All of which explains the brevity of the piece (half an hour or so), and its scoring for an ensemble of just 20, including the intriguing presence of a stridently sounding iron-framed Pleyel harpsichord, played at the premiere by Wanda Landowska and here by the superb Benjamin Alard. The opera features just three vocalists: a tenor as Master Peter; a bass representing Don Quixote, who watches the show and finally destroys it; and—the most extensive and demanding role—a boy who introduces each scene, sung characterfully, and with a winning confidence, by Héctor López de Ayala Uribe. Under Pablo Heras-Casado, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra captures both the earthiness of the work’s folk-like inspiration and the beauty of Falla’s imaginative scoring. The Harpsichord Concerto is neo-classical in its feel, with the harpsichord’s rattling toccatas liberally sprinkled with sharp and sour dissonances. It’s likewise given an excellent and detailed performance which reveals its fleeting beauties. After this, Stravinsky’s lighthearted and lively Pulcinella Suite offers a pleasantly diverting finale.