Lucja Szablewska was the soloist in the first performance of 'El monte y el rio', a setting of Neruda for soprano, harp and orchestra, in Warsaw, 2015. Soon after, she and I discussed the composition of a song cycle 'tailor made' for her voice. 'Sparks will fly' is the result.
The cycle is a setting of three 'Sparks' by Rabindranath Tagore, together with 'Madrugada al raso', (Daybreak), by Octavio Paz and two verses from W.H. Auden's 'Lullaby'. Ravel is a composer never too far from my thoughts and within the music there are references, rather than direct quotes, to a number of his works that suited the texts perfectly and the musical context.
