Isabel Leonard & Malcolm Martineau

With this opening recital, we welcome the recital debut of mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, this season’s Carnegie Hall Artist-in-Residence and one of the Metropolitan Opera’s most beloved singers, joined by the acclaimed pianist Malcolm Martineau, a regular guest of this series. Together, they offer a journey through the musical worlds of Manuel de Falla and Xavier Montsalvatge, two composers who, from different perspectives, reflected on Hispanic cultural identity during a period of profound transformation. The loss of Spain’s last overseas colonies in 1898 marked the beginning of a time of crisis and reassessment that profoundly—and often violently—shaped the country’s history, leading first to the Tragic Week of 1909 and later to the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). Montsalvatge’s songs, particularly those inspired by the Caribbean, evoke the cultural ties between the Iberian Peninsula and the Antilles, while Falla’s music reflects both a renewed engagement with Spain’s folk traditions and a search for a distinctive musical language, celebrated here in the 150th anniversary of his birth.