This release by Hungary's
Katona Twins offers a brief, rather sober explanation for playing the music of Manuel de Falla on two guitars and percussion: Falla's music, although it rarely involved a guitar, often took for its inspiration flamenco and early Spanish guitar music, and they felt that percussion "might enhance the rhythmic element that is most characteristic for the music of Spain." These explanations make sense, but they don't convey the flavor of the performances here. This is rocking and rolling Falla that might not play well with the usual admirers of low-decibel guitar duo music but that could, on the other hand, be used to introduce young audiences to Falla.
Peter and
Zoltán Katona draw on music in which the influence of the guitar is especially strong, and they not only, to use their words, "[translate] these pieces back to their original source of inspiration," but also boil them down to their essences and blow them up with percussion, and this involves timpani for a good deal of the time. The percussion never overwhelms the guitar, and it's not clear whether this balance is something that could be duplicated in live concert or whether it's produced by engineering. The whole thing is executed with close-up sound that adds to the intense effect, however, and anybody who has come under Falla's peculiar spell is encouraged to give this take on Falla favorites a try.