The main item here is the 40-minute one-act ballet Sonatina (1928). The plot concerns not the eponymous musical form but a lovelorn princess who is so depressed that nothing – not her nimble-footed ladies-in-waiting, a local shepherd, or her pet dragon (!) – can cheer her up. Only the arrival of a mysterious gypsy cures her melancholy, conjuring by dance the requisite handsome prince replete with white charger. Naturally, they fall head-over-ballet-shoes in love and the work ends in a sunlit final dance.
Halffter’s music matches the scenario admirably, displaying a light touch throughout. The Stravinsky of Pulcinella, shorn of Pergolesi, is never far away, nor is Halffter’s teacher and friend de Falla (traces of whose The Three- cornered Hat sound through the textures), but neither influence was allowed to overwhelm. The same is true in the other large work here, the Rapsodia portuguesa, Halffter’s not-quite-piano-concerto written in 1940 (rev 1951) in memory of Ravel and over which the spirit of the creator of La valse and the Rapsodie espagnole also benignly floats. Unlike Sonatina, there are other recordings of the Rapsodia: those above, and two by Marguerite Long and Charles Munch, listed in the classical catalogue as dating from 1941 (A Classical Record) and 1942 (Dante). The principal contender is that by Juh Hee Suh and Muhai Tang for CPO, slightly tauter than Ramos and Leaper, though there is little to choose between the two. The all-Halffter programmes are also preferable, though Etcetera’s of de Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Gerhard’s Alegrias has much to commend it.
Leaper is one of the leading British recording conductors. He audibly has the measure of Halffter (as he did, in earlier projects for other companies, of Sibelius and Havergal Brian). Here he secures lively and spirited playing from his orchestra, Ana Rodrigo singing the three songs delightfully to complete a warmly recommendable disc.'