"Atlàntida" by the Boston Symphony Orchestra

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Atlàntida

Boston Symphony Orchestra 

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos has been a frequent guest conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra over the years, and he made one of his finest appearances leading the orchestra in their premiere performance of music from Manuel de Falla's scenic cantata, Atlàntida (seen Nov. 4).  Frühbeck de Burgos has been a proponent of Falla's music for decades, and based on this performance alone, it's easy to see why.  On rare occasions, there exists such a powerful synchronicity between a

conductor and a composer that the concept of "interpretation" no longer applies.  Instead, the conductor inhabits the composer's musical language and intention so thoroughly that the music appears to unfold without mediation. Just such a relationship exists between Frühbeck de Burgos and Falla.

Falla intended Atlàntida to be his masterpiece.  Based on a nineteenth-century Catalonian epic poem by Jacint Verdaguer, the work is enormous in scope, telling of the lost continent of Atlantis, the founding of Barcelona by none other than Hercules, the rich lands ripe for conquest envisioned by Columbus and Queen Isabella, and the predestined role Spain would play in bringing Christianity to the New World.  Although Falla devoted the last twenty years of his life to his... LINK