In a Magical Garden
****Nights in the Gardens of the Real Alcázar. Program: ‘La belle excentrique’, by E. Satie; ‘Jeux d’enfants’, by G. Bizet; ‘Ma mère l’Oye’ and ‘Spanish Rhapsody’, by M. Ravel. Piano four-hands: Laura Sánchez and Cristina Lucio-Villegas. Venue: Gardens of the Alcázar. Date: Saturday, July 19. Capacity: Full.
The triple celebration of the centenary of Eric Satie’s birth, the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the death of Georges Bizet and the birth of Maurice Ravel allowed the Duo Scarbo to weave an engaging and intelligent program of pieces for piano four-hands. The understanding between the two pianists was absolute, with perfect harmony in articulating, coloring, and regulating the sound, brilliantly resolving the passages of hand crossing. And, above all, they fully identified when it came to lending each piece their own particular and appropriate expressive touch. With the four pieces from Satie’s La belle excentrique, they imbued themselves with the festive spirit of the Parisian cabarets of the Third Republic, as if they were livening up the dances and conversations at the Moulin de la Galette, with staccato touches, rapid fingering, a festive spirit, and changes of rhythm and mood (in the waltz, for example).
Delicate touch and varied dynamic gradations characterized their version of Ma mère l’Oye, with special attention to the colors (‘Laideronnette’ and its pentatonic scales evocative of the Eastern world) and the ostinati that painted the Beast with sounds, clearly sustained by Lucio-Villegas in the bass. The articulation was more lively in Bizet’s Jeux d’enfants and its evocation of children’s stories. Here, Sánchez excelled in precise ascending and descending arpeggios (‘L’escarpolette’) and both in the agile and rhythmic passages of ‘Le bal’.
And it all culminated with that marvelous evocation from the distance of a space more dreamed than lived: Ravel’s Spanish Rhapsody. Listening to the delicate and mysterious way in which both pianists played the «Prelude to the Night,» we could pause to recall that photograph of Ravel in these same Alcázar gardens with Romero Murube, the poet of the gardens, in 1935. The pianists accurately captured the guitar strumming in the «Malagueña,» as well as the restrained languor of the rhythm of the «Habanera,» leading to the explosion of color and sound of «Feria.»