The impact that Granada causes on those who go to its festival, whether artists or spectators, goes beyond that Nazarite air that is literally breathed in the Alhambra, where part of the shows are held. It goes beyond even the strength of a Yuja Wang at the Carlos V palace, a stage that this week the Chinese pianist turned “upside down”, playing the Rhapsody on a Paganini theme by Rachmaninov with the Luxembourg Philharmonic and teacher Gustavo Gimeno.
But the point is that this appointment with music and dance that already adds up to 140 years of history takes place in one of the great epicenters of Andalusian cultural wealth, a spectacular container of diverse influences. And this is something that becomes evident when early music naturally coexists in this program with what in the 19th century would be called flamenco.
The Al Ayre Español ensemble rescued this Saturday, in the magnificent acoustics of the church of the monastery of San Jerónimo, anonymous parades and cantatas by José de Torres that contrasted with the sonatas of his contemporary Handel. And at night it was the Antonio Najarro company that, among the cypress trees of the Generalife and with its refined and musically cinematic dance, illustrated the differences between flamenco, bolera school and Spanish dance.
What is curious is to stop to observe these rhythms and dances that, from Andalusia, had a great influence on the European Baroque and later on Flamenco. The anthropologist Miguel Ángel Rosales analyzed it in the documentary Gurumbé (2016) about the cultural memory left by black African slaves in Spain since the 16th century, whether on their way to the colonies or on their way back… His expression and culture was the only thing that could not be taken away from them: the guineo or the cumbé were their dances that everyone danced, since, as Gurumbé points out, they were mixed with forms of expressiveness from other classes marginal
And although it is difficult to know which elements of flamenco can be African, gypsy or Andalusian – due to the diversity of melodic structures and rhythmic affinities, such as the characteristic 12-time beat that can be found in the petenera, the guajira, the soleá, the buleria, the sarabanda or the canaris – it is indeed notorious that the canaris composed by Gaspar Sanz, for example, the most important guitar theorist of the 17th century, are precisely characterized by the bars divided into three and two. That classic 3×2, with its syncopations and rhythm games, came with the black slaves and represented a musical revolution in the European Baroque, as can also be drawn from Jordi Savall’s exploration of the slave route.
“Spain’s culture is not a simple European culture, let’s say. I don’t know if it’s because of black Africa or because of Muslim culture, but everything comes together here. And it’s so complex and so mysterious what emanates… it’s a wonderful place.” The speaker is the Japanese conductor and organist Masaaki Suzuki who, despite coming from a distant culture, has made Bach the center of his artistic life. In fact, he was supposed to do an organ concert at San Justo y Pastor, in Granada, contrasting Bach and Spanish polyphony, but he has encountered a more primitive organ than expected which makes it impossible to play Bach. Instead, he concentrates on the Spanish seventeenth century, with Joan Cabanilles, Francisco Correa de Arauxo and Pablo Bruna.
“Bruna’s tientos, for example, are rhythmically very interesting – he explains – there are times when it is more complex than Bach. We often see the complexity of polyphonic lines at that time. Counterpoints so interesting and complicated that it’s hard to know what’s going on… The beautiful polyphonies of the tientos de Cabanilles have a beastly energy, they’re crazy. Domenico Scarlatti himself was influenced by Spanish rhythms when he lived here”, explains the Japanese master to La Vanguardia.
So, this weekend in Granada, the La Ritirata ensemble will take care of Bach, which brought together four harpsichordists and four remarkable harpsichordists, among them the French Pierre Hantaï, for an extraordinary evening that ended with the Concert for four keys based on Vivaldi’s for four violins. Hantaï took care of making one of the two that are preserved in the archives of the Manuel de Falla Auditorium in Granada sound, a Rafael Puyana with three keyboards and 16 feet, like the one that Bach had…
With a budget of 4.1 million euros (almost a million more than pre-pandemic), the festival has managed to get all the administrations to increase their contribution by 10% and that two boxes (Unicaja from Malaga and Cajasol from Seville) want be among the main benefactors. The good going of the festival is contagious. If last year it exceeded a million euros at the box office for the first time, this time its artistic director, Antonio Moral, who with savoir-faire and dedication has returned the category of international to this event shielding it from any change of political sign, ensures that they already exceed 1.3 million. And it ends on July 19,
