Maria Elena, Barrientos Orquesta De La Comunidad De Madrid & José Ramón Encinar - Halffter: Dom Lindo De Almeria / La Madrugada Del Panadero (2004)

The first volume in a series of Rodolfo Halffter's orchestral works, this disc gives a rather spotty impression of his long career and inadvertently portrays him as an eclectic composer by scrambling his different periods. Early and late works are presented out of chronological order, so the spiky Paquiliztli (1983) for percussion hardly prepares the listener for the rest of the works, which date back several decades. The jaunty Obertura festiva (1952) and the playfully dissonant Obertura concertante (1932) come next, and these neo-Classical works at times employ Stravinsky's asymmetrical rhythms and Milhaud's polytonality. The album's last two selections bring yet another side of Halffter to light -- the composer of ballets, stylistically indebted to Manuel de Falla, and inclined toward evoking a Spanish golden age in a sentimental, gallant style. The humorous La madrugada del panadero (1940) and the suite for strings and percussion from the ballet Don Lindo de Almería (1936) are the featured works, yet their relegation to the last portion of the program makes them seem weak and inconsequential, especially after the more adventurous pieces. In any case, the Comunidad de Madrid Orchestra, led by José Ramón Encinar, play Halffter's scores with verve and appealing color, and Naxos provides its usual high-quality sound.