Search - Isaac Albeniz, Enrique Granados, Alicia De Larrocha :: Albéniz: Iberia; Granados: Goyescas

The Spanish Music

Albert E. Everett | Little Rock, AR United States | 04/12/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There are, of course, many reasons why Spanish piano music is so little known or heard in our country. One reason is that the music is beyond the technical and emotional grasp of young students; the music is not like what we were all trained to play, i.e., German, French, etc. Another reason, in my opinion, is that the music is so demanding that the professional will opt for Chopin, Beethoven, or Debussy. Another is that the Spanish music demands extraordinary focus; Alicia has spent most of her life with this focus. Who in the rising tide of pianists will succeed her?The entire "Goyescas" is a musical and pianistic masterpiece. I would describe the first four pieces in order as stunning, profoundly beautiful, thrilling, and emotionally ecstatic. I can promise you a wonderful listening experience.In the "Iberia" we find a composer whose music reflects his Moorish feelings. Here we have flights of pure fantasy, gorgeous dissonances, beautiful melodies, and at times, just fun. Albéniz must have been born inside a piano with a quitar in each hand. I like the Evocation and the Jerez. The whole work reflects incredible energy and creativity in a man of supurb pianistic competance.Every piano player should own and cherish this CD not only to enjoy piano music which they can never play, but also to understand how high and wide the human mind can go.One can only wonder why Alicia doesn't record Scarlatti. Here's a man who started in Italy, stayed in Portugal, and settled in Spain; he used Spanish music in his Sonatas. Spanish music. What about it, Alicia? Anybody can play "European" music; you can play the music of Spain!"

Best CD I own

07/10/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's kind of weird, my being an 18 year old, to say a classical piano cd is my favorite. But, I'm a classical pianist, and a huge fan of Albeniz (and spanish music in general) and this is the best performance of these two incredible works you will find. Alicia de Larrocha makes this seem easy, never repetitive, and her technique is amazing without losing any of the expressiveness needed to play this music. Wow."

The CD I couldn't live without

Christopher Dunlap | Charlottesville VA | 06/10/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The title for my review may sound hyperbolic, but of my entire collection, this is the one. I purchased this CD knowing Alicia de Larrocha's playing from two concerts I had seen, one at the tender age of six and another in my teenage years, at which point I was fascinated with the music of Joaquin Turina. A bit of research on the Albeniz work she performed at that later concert, "La Vega," led me to the name of Iberia. The pairing of Iberia and Goyescas certainly represents one of the most ambitious 2-cd collections of piano music I know, and Ms. de Larrocha not only manages the enormous technical challenges of Albeniz's greatest work, parts of which he himself nearly destroyed as unplayable (Lavapiés, CD1, track 9, according to a biography.) Her interpretation sparkles from the first muted bars of "Evocación" to the last triumphant chords of "Eritaña", as she shows us the rich colors of this music without ever seeming to get bogged down in a mire of notes. I am not sure which deserves greater admiration - Albeniz's compositional genius or de Larrocha's interpretative flair, so I will say that they are inextricable parts of a glorious whole. Admittedly, on first listen, I thought "What's the big deal with Iberia?" Four or five years later, it is still an album I pull out to listen to - in its entirety. Save 85 minutes sometime to listen to all of Alicia's Iberia, but be warned that this can be a pleasantly addictive habit. For the curious, Albeniz's suite was organized into four books of three pieces each - the first two books were written for Blanche Selva and the last two for the more technically gifted Catalan pianist Joaquin Malats. The recording engineers should have left more time to marvel at the achievement of "Eritaña," Debussy's favorite in the collection - Albeniz felt compelled to draw lines between the staves in the score merely to allow the pianist to follow his melodic line through this piece, but as a listener, just sit back and marvel at what one of the greatest living pianists brings to this work.



Regarding "Goyescas," I can't say I know as much, but its lush, rich texture and its careful building upon themes sprinkled throughout the work (unlike separate movements of Iberia) make for a beautiful complement to Iberia. Granados, born seven years after Albeniz and one of his closest friends, wrote one of the most important piano pieces of the twentieth century in "Quejas, o la maja y el ruiseñor" (Laments, or Beauty and the Nightingale), the high point of the Goyescas collection for me. The third piece in Goyescas is a delight as well, and the power and beauty that de Larrocha brings to this entire work is tremendous.



To summarize: Run, don't walk, to buy this CD, one of the greatest in the annals of recorded classical piano."