Trés Canciones Portugesas

Born in Madrid, Halffter wrote his first work at the
age of thirteen and later became a pupil of  
Falla, with whom he developed a close friendship.  He married a Portuguese pianist and settled
in Lisbon where
he became a professor at the Spanish Institute there. He researched Portuguese
music extensively, leading to such compositions as his Five Portuguese Songs,
three of which are being sung this afternoon. 
He wrote many orchestral works, chamber music, piano pieces and songs.
He undertook the difficult task of finishing Falla’s huge choral work Atlántida
after Falla’s death in 1946.

The group opens with a lullaby to words
by Portuguese poet, scholar and linguist  Branca de Gonta Colaço [1880-1945] describing
the little star which greets a girl at daybreak and the evening star which bids
her goodnight.  This is followed by a
folk song describing the marital adventures of Geraldino, a page, and the
Infanta, with a surprisingly happy ending. Finally there is another traditional
poem in which a lovesick lad admires in vain a beautiful young maiden leaving a
house with her crimson calico dress all bunched up.