Teatro Real Orchestra Perform at Lincoln Center

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Tuesday, 27 October 2026 14:16

Written by Jack Angstreich

Photo by Chris Lee

At Lincoln Center’s wonderful David Geffen Hall, on the night of Thursday, October 15th, I had the exceptional pleasure of attending a fabulous concert presented by the incomparable musicians of Madrid’s Teatro Real Orchestra, under the outstanding direction of Gustavo Gimeno. 

The event started brilliantly with a marvelous realization of Manuel de Falla’s exquisite El amor brujo, some of which has a celebratory quality, but elsewhere is more dramatic—or at least suspenseful—in character; it has some intimations of the music of Igor Stravinsky, especially in its rhythms. A terrific soprano, Adriana Gonzalez, then entered the stage to arrestingly perform the same composer’s superb Seven Popular Spanish Songs which vary considerably in mood and feature extraordinary orchestrations. Enthusiastic applause elicited a stunning encore from the vocalist with the ensemble: an aria, "Goizeko eguzki argiak," from the Basque zarzuela, Mirentxu, by Jesús Guridi.

Another splendid soloist, guitarist Juan Manuel Cañizares, then joined the artists to enchantingly play Joaquín Rodrigo’s superb Concierto de Aranjuez. The initial, Allegro con spirito movement opens somewhat jauntily and this is sustained throughout it, although some serious undercurrents are discernible. The ensuing Adagio opens with a haunting melody for the English horn which is then recapitulated by the guitar—most of the remainder of the movement is elaborated from this unforgettable material and it concludes very quietly. The finale, marked Allegro gentile, is also lively and cheerful, closing softly but charmingly. A standing ovation drew forth another enjoyable encore, here from Cañizares alone: “Cádiz,” from the Suite Al-Ándalus, the version for solo guitar derived from his own Concierto Al-Ándalus.

The second half of the evening was comparable in strength, consisting of a bewitching version of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s fantastic Scheherazade, Op. 35, which begins somewhat portentously and then mysteriously and then reveals a seemingly enormous influence upon the early ballet scores of Stravinsky for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Ardent applause was again rewarded with another lovely encore: the famous Prelude from the zarzuela, El bateo, by Federico Chueca.