Decca were justifiably proud of their ffrr (full frequency range recording) system, the first fruits of which were issued in 1945 and which is impressively illustrated on the present disc. How much of a hand the ingenious Michael Dutton has had in this reissue I don’t know (perhaps little more than cleaning up the original 78rpm shellac pressings?), but the results give rise to not the least suspicion that the recordings were made half a century ago. One of the system’s first triumphs was this Nights in the gardens of Spain, the earliest of the recordings of the work by the then 38-year-old Clifford Curzon (who wasn’t knighted until over 30 years later). It’s a performance of great sensitivity, always flexible without ever losing shape; and particularly appealing is Curzon’s almost liquid tone at his first entry. (Knowing him, I’m rather surprised that he didn’t jib at a couple of imperfectly tuned notes in the piano’s top octave!) Save for a slightly constricted feeling in the loudest passages of the work’s second movement, this is a most recommendable recording.
Enrique Jorda was specially noted for his readings of the Spanish repertoire, but more striking here is the popular Dukas symphonic poem, which he paces admirably and shades imaginatively; all the detail is vividly recorded. His Amor brujo (which lacks the highly atmospheric songs) is less memorable, apart from an extremely exciting “Dance of terror”: there’s a weedy oboe in the “Ritual fire dance”, and the haunting “Pantomime” somehow misses its magic. In the Three-cornered hat it’s interesting to compare the LSO, which plays the extracts from the first part of the ballet, with the NSO, which adds the dances from Part 2. (Incidentally, it’s not the “Neighbour’s dance”, as the listing has it, but the “Neighbours’” in the plural.) The LSO, the more established and stable body, reveals warmer violin tone and generally superior polish, but the largely ad hoc NSO put up a good show, and Jorda’s weighty and deliberate opening of the Miller’s farruca sends a shiver of pleasurable anticipation down the spine.'