Catalan composers, such as Xavier Montsalvatge and Leonardo Balada, have been doing well in recordings of contemporary Spanish composers, so it is good to see some focus now on the Castilian Cristóbal Halffter (b1930), scion of a most distinguished composer-dynasty. His one-act opera Don Quijote (1996-99) was premièred in February 2000 in Madrid with the conductor of this full-blooded recording, Pedro Halffter Caro. Although it represents the climax of Halffter’s music of the 1980s and ’90s, the opera’s roots extend rather further back, to the 1960s at least (and including an earlier treatment of the subject, Mito – Don Quijote, completed in 1971).

In contrast to Montsalvatge’s piquant, tonally based style, Halffter’s is considerably more radical in means, though no less Spanish for that, as the great choral outbursts at the start of the Third Scene and towards the close of Scene Six manifestly confirm. Another layer of the music’s Iberian sound stems from the quotation or allusion to music from the time of Cervantes, not least by Cabezón and Enzina. This mirrors the esoteric libretto (by Andrés Amorós), with Cervantes’ work only one of several sources.

Halffter’s treatment is not conventionally theatrical, presenting here aspects of the Quixote legend and its author in addition to familiar, if not notorious, episodes such as the battles with the windmills and the ‘army’ of sheep. Halffter was keen to present a more modern side of his hero, not a fool but one out of step with the world in which he finds himself. At the start of the climactic Sixth Scene, Quijote even berates Cervantes – lying on his deathbed – for always writing of his failures and defeats. The author rebuffs this by claiming that these are really Quijote’s victories and the use of two baritones to perform creator and created underscores the feeling that the one is but a projection of the other. Even a scene such as the book-burning in Quijote’s library in Scene 5 has an unreal quality and its poignancy reminded me not a little of Henze, whose earlier operatic works seem to me generally to have been important influences on the opera. As a whole, Halffter’s powerful but unsentimental score makes this an ideal work for hearing on disc in a kind of ‘opera of the mind’.

The cast is uniformly excellent, displaying a commitment to the work that belies its difficulty (to listen to as well as perform). The baritone principals give nicely rounded accounts of Cervantes and the aged knight, though Enrique Baquerizo as the latter rightly steals the show. There’s able support from the Madrid Symphony Orchestra, who have the full measure of this ambitious and brilliant score, ably directed by Halffter Caro. The sound quality is first rate, full (without being over-rich), clear and naturally balanced.