Rodolfo Halffter-part of a twentieth-century dynasty of composers that included brother Ernesto and nephew Christobal-composed Don Lindo de Almeria as a ballet based on humorous stories by Jose Bergamin. The full work was not performed until 1940, but a twenty-minute suite for strings and percussion-the only form in which it appears today-was premiered in Paris in 1936. In style, the score looks back to El Retablo de Maese Pedro by Halffter's teacher, Manuel de Falla, and ahead to Benjamin Britten's Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge.

The suite's Introduction is almost a mock-minuet, but it doesn't last long enough to establish itself; it segues right into the more modern, syncopated First Dance. Next comes a quiet, mysterious Scene followed attacca by the Second Dance, a stomping number colored with castanets and triangle; this is more of a minuet than the Introduction was, and features a very brief trio. The Third Dance begins with a sustained, intense melodic line over a restless bass; it's interrupted by a Mexican-style military interjection from the percussion, which leads to a quick, light, mocking march. All these sections repeat in more elaborated form. The intricate Fourth Dance expands on the material of the First, now more intense in its busyness and wrong-note harmonies, even though the percussion section sits at rest. Wedding Scene brings relief from the tension and satire; it's a slow, straightforward hymn that goes fugal in the middle. The Fifth Dance evokes an antique minuet more directly than any of its predecessors, although still with a syncopated skip. This leads straight into another Scene of brief drum rolls and swirling writing for the strings. A dark, measured transition with dissonant harmonic underpinnings leads to the Final Dance, a mercurial piece that would be a two-step if the rhythm were more regular; it builds to a percussive climax reminiscent of the end of Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat, though less obsessive.

© All Music Guide

Portions of Content Provided by All Music Guide.
© 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide is a registered trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.