Spanish Seduction

It’s easy to draw parallels between Emmanuel Chabrier’s Espana and Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio espagnol, pieces that the Evanston Symphony Orchestra will perform on February 4 at 2:30 p.m. Both were written about the same time in the 1880s and draw on the music and culture of Spain. But there is another similarity: Neither composer was actually Spanish.

Chabrier, who was French, wrote his piece after a visit to Spain with his wife. He was riveted by locales such as Toledo, Sevilla, Valencia and Barcelona. He wrote to the conductor Charles Lamoureux that upon returning to Paris, he would compose an “extraordinary fantasia” that would bring the audience to a rapturous emotion. It turned out to be the composer’s most famous orchestra composition.

Rimsky-Korsakov, the well-known Russian composer, wrote his five-movement orchestra suite based on Spanish folk melodies. It is one of the most recognized pieces of classical music.