Anam- The Up-bow Down-low

Episode 12, 2020: de Falla’s Concerto for Harpsichord Wednesday 23 September 2020 When pianist Wanda Landowska asked composer Manuel de Falla to write a composition inspired by Baroque music, she envisioned the piece to be played on a harpsichord. To this end, Landowska also commissioned the French firm Pleyel to build the instrument for her which they indulged with four 7-and-a-half feet long harpsichords made up of metal frames more powerful than any harpsichord known to JS Bach. Although it took him three years to complete, de Falla, a devout Catholic, was able to translate his love for rituals and sacraments into his music. In the second movement of the composition, one can hear solemn plainchants and the clanging of cathedral bells in the bass notes of the cathedral which were inspired by the yearly Corpus Christi procession the composer witnessed in Seville, Spain in 1922. Even without the magnificent harpsichords that the composition was first performed on, ANAM Associate Artist Peter de Jager was s