TORONTO — Some years ago, I visited Manuel de Falla’s burial site in the crypt of the Cádiz Cathedral. Falla was born in Cádiz but died in Argentina in 1946. But by that time, he had become recognized as Spain’s greatest composer and certainly worthy of honor in his own country. The crypt is damp and cold, as most crypts are, and there are many other prominent Spaniards buried there. But it was a special experience to come so close to the spirit of a composer whose music I have admired all my life.
It so happens that the Toronto Symphony now has a Spanish music director. And while Gustavo Gimeno excels in all kinds of music, he has brought with him a steady dose of Spanish music past and present. This year is the 150th anniversary of Falla’s birth, and Gimeno has chosen one of his most distinctive works for concerts early in the 2026-27 season. But Gimeno did more than that in putting together an unusually imaginative program, heard Oct. 1.
El amor brujo, a ballet score from 1914 but revised in 1925, is heavily influenced by flamenco music. To give the Toronto performances even more authenticity, Gimeno brought with him Maria Toledo, one of Spain’s most celebrated flamenco singers and composers, to sing the three songs in El amor brujo. But there is more. This concert also included a recent work by the American composer José Gonzalez Granero, who spent four years studying in Spain and has said that “Falla has been the main influence on my music to this day.”
To give the concert even more structural and stylistic coherence, Gimeno began the evening with a song by Toledo that she sang while accompanying herself at the piano. Then, without pause or applause, came the contemporary work by Granero, Canto y Danza, in its Canadian premiere. It is a five-minute, unaccompanied piece for solo clarinet played from the choir loft by the TSO’s principal clarinet, Eric Abramovitz. Again, without pause or applause, Gimeno began conducting El amor Brujo. It was a thoughtful and satisfying way to present all of this music.
Flamenco originated in the southern Andalusian region of Spain, evidently with the Romani people, or gitano, as they are called in Castilian. The style is associated with the guitar, but it also refers to singing and dancing. For many of us, our first exposure to flamenco was probably seeing José Greco dancing on a table in a tavern, with fast footwork and pounding rhythms. Greco popularized flamenco, and it remains very much alive in Spain and throughout the world. Toledo has been described as “an icon of contemporary flamenco, and the first woman in the history of the art form to sing while accompanying herself at the piano.” She has made numerous award-winning recordings and hosts her own TV program in Spain.
The concert opened with Toledo singing and playing her early song “Con el tiempo.” The song had a flamenco flavor in its melody and rhythm but also in the sound of Toledo’s voice. It was earthy and somewhat melancholy, the same qualities she would later bring to the songs in El amor brujo. We could hear flamenco also in Granero’s recent piece for solo clarinet. It is a virtuoso piece that Abramovitz played brilliantly. But it also recalls the flamenco singing and dancing the composer heard in the streets of Granada.
El amor brujo was initially conceived as an evocation of Spain’s Romani or gitano community and was set for voice and chamber orchestra. This was not a success, so Falla reworked it as a ballet about a Romani woman named Candela. In this form, it was more successful. In fact, one of its movements, “Ritual Fire Dance,” has become one of Falla’s most popular pieces, either in its original form or in one of its many transcriptions. Arthur Rubinstein often played it as encore in his recitals.
El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered Hat) is a much more ambitious Falla ballet score and probably a greater achievement. But El amor brujo has a singular folkloric quality, based on Falla’s study of flamenco, and a wide range of orchestral colors. Gimeno led a vibrant performance with some wonderful trumpet playing by Renata Cardoso. She is second trumpet in the TSO and seldom gets a chance to shine. But shine she did, and then some, on this occasion. The TSO first performed El amor brujo in 1954, and perhaps surprisingly has played the complete ballet on no fewer than six other occasions over the years under such conductors as Rafael Frübeck de Burgos, Walter Susskind, and Hugh Wolff.
After intermission came another important ballet score, Stravinsky’s Petrushka. And there is a link between Falla and Stravinsky: Both wrote works for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Petrushka was produced in 1911 and Falla’s El sombrero de tres picos in 1919. The Ballets Russes was based in Paris and never performed in Russia. And although Paris was its home base, the Ballets Russes was really a touring company, and El sombrero de tres picos had its first performances in London.
There is no flamenco in Petrushka, but this classic score seemed to fit perfectly with the Spanish and Spanish-inspired music in the first half of the program. And Gimeno demonstrated that while his home-grown affinity for Spanish music is authoritative, he is also a master of all music that requires rhythmic precision and wide-ranging dynamics. He has conducted a lot of Stravinsky in Toronto, including a recording of Pulcinella, and each time he has brought to the task an exemplary stick technique and a remarkable ear for orchestral balances. His conducting of Petrushka was superb, and the orchestra responded with inspired playing.
Principal flute Kelly Zimba Lukić was outstanding, and so too was principal trumpet Steven Woomert in the prominent cornet solos in the Third Tableau. Lots of thrills and chills in this exciting performance, but there was subtlety and sadness, too. The closing pages after the death of the puppet Petrushka were unusually touching.
Finally, a word about the acoustics in Roy Thomson Hall. When the hall opened in 1982, many people, myself included, were not impressed. Frankly, the acoustics were terrible. In 2002, extensive renovations were undertaken to improve the sound, and they were at least partially successful. But there was still very little bass response, and all too often the brass overpowered the rest of the orchestra. In 2026, Roy Thomson Hall is what it is, and any further acoustical improvements will be limited to what a good conductor can do. It appears that Gimeno has been addressing this problem by experimenting with different seating arrangements. The latest arrangement has cellos to his right on the outside and basses behind them.
But why do we still have brass and percussion on risers at the back? For years, the Cleveland Orchestra, for example, has managed perfectly well, to say the least, with no risers at all. These instruments by their very nature have an unfair advantage and are the last that need help projecting their sound. Gimeno is doing a great job making the TSO sound like a major orchestra. Let’s hope he can find a way to persuade a deeply flawed Roy Thomson Hall to assist his efforts.
