Description
When the orchestral rhapsody España was encored at its first performance – and received widespread praise from critics and eminent composers – it sealed Chabrier’s fame overnight and remains one of his most popular works.
The French composer wrote the piece (which was originally entitled Jota) in 1883 following a trip to Spain. During his travels Chabrier had written to the conductor Charles Lamoureux (to whom the piece was eventually dedicated and who was to conduct the piece at its première) telling him that on his return to Paris he would compose an ‘extraordinary fantasia’ which would incite the audience to a pitch of feverish excitement.
Indeed it does just that! Far from being just “a piece in F and nothing more” (as Chabrier had often described it) España’s infectious energy celebrates pure ‘joie de vivre’. Chabrier’s work also marked the beginning of a new trend amongst French composers, including Debussy and Ravel, for hispanically-flavoured music.
Although best known in its orchestral form Chabrier also produced an arrangement of España for two pianos – a version that has been referred to extensively in this transcription for wind quintet and piano.
