Search - Enrique Granados, Isaac Albeniz, Aldo Ciccolini :: Albéniz: Iberia; Granados: Goyescas

Clearly the finest Goyescas and Iberia ever recorded

Daniel J. Rose | Shrewsbury, MA USA | 01/09/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It is a minor miracle (minor by miracle's standards) that this recording has been reissued, because before that date, it had been out of the retail catalog and expensive to obtain for many, many years. It has been back for at least a year, now, and still has no real peer that I have so far been able to locate in the available recordings of these fiendishly difficult works by Enrique Granados and Isaac Albeniz, and I have heard most of them.



Goyescas probably has many other competent and inspiring performances (for example, in the utterly masterful recording of the complete piano works of Granados by Thomas Rajna, Enrique Granados: Piano Works (Complete) - Thomas Rajna, Piano). I still think Ciccolini eclipses most of them.



However, it is Iberia where Ciccolini stands alone, almost without question. This is technically so difficult a work that I have found only one or two other performances that begin to approach the remarkable reading that Ciccolini has given us on this recording. Alicia del Laroche's heroic efforts are most often said to "own" this work (still available, also from EMI, e.g., Albéniz: Iberia; Granados: Goyescas). However, I have to say, with some sadness, that she is simply not technically capable of playing it. I can only imagine that those who look so much to her performance of Iberia have not really heard it played by a master of the piece. I love del Laroche's playing of so much of the rich Spanish impressionistic repertoire, but anyone who has simply looked at the score knows that Iberia pretty much stands alone in its technical demands, right up there with anything that Chopin, Liszt, or Rachmaninoff ever conceived.



The best recent recording I have heard, played by Marc-Andre Hamelin, was recorded in 2004 (Albéniz: Iberia). This recording more than remedies the technical deficiencies in del Laroche's playing, but it shares one attribute that I have always found uninspiring in other performances of this work. The tempo of the work is twisted through an extraordinary amount of rubato. However, unlike many other players, Hamelin's rubato does not mask technical deficiency. Like Segovia (the guitarist), who was also known for the propensity to bend time to his will, Hamelin does it very effectively in its way, and for those who enjoy playing like this, his is about as good as it gets in a complete recording of this work. However, it really does lose the tactus, the sense of time, that I believe must still carry a piece of music to its full potential, no matter the style.



One of several things that Ciccolini does better than just about everyone else in this work (and Goyescas as well) is to use his own ample rubato, not according to his own whim, but to properly transition from one tempo to another, and in such a way that you never wonder how you got to where you are. In part, this is because he maintains an underlying, and rock steady, tactus, a steady beat, to which he always returns, no matter how far he bends the time. This has the effect of a propelling excitement that never leaves his playing, no matter how fast or slow is the underlying tempo. He is always coming from one place and going to another, and absolutely never loses his sense of direction. Certainly, Hamelin never gets lost, or forgets his place, but he loses the point, the sense, that he is trying to make, at least with me.



So, Ciccolini not only plays most all the notes, but with such total control of rhythm and variety of touch that sometimes defies comprehension. For example, how can he play the same note, seemingly staccato and tenuto (sustained) at the same time? He does this frequently to help bring out a thematic element, especially in the middle to low range. Where so many other players struggle to get through the many hand ripping passages, Ciccolini not only rips through them with ease, but plays them with utter clarity, with a minimum of pedal, and isolates the soaring thematic elements no matter how dense and difficult the texture. And he does this with absolutely no compromise. And, again, he never slows arbitrarily to get through a particularly difficult passage, as is heard in so many other recordings.



At the same time, absolutely no one I have heard, with the possible exception of Jean-Francois Heisser (Albéniz: Iberia), has been able to play so freely with the rhythm and meter of the work without any sign of hesitation, on the one hand, or rushing, on the other (as if to "get through it" before breaking down). However, unlike Heisser, Ciccolini is able to layer the textures of the piece through impossible varieties of touch and weight in the many voices--although Heisser comes closer to Ciccolini's accomplishment than most. Esteban Sanchez has also left an inspired recording of at least some selections from the Iberia suite (Albéniz: Iberia; España; Recuerdos de viaje; Sonata No. 5). But, again, his technique is so labored in the more difficult selections that the thematic content is completely lost in his effort to crunch the notes. We are left with accurately crashing sound clusters, where Ciccolini also gives us a smooth melodic line (totally lost with Sanchez) against which to appreciate them. Finally, another player who has given us a remarkable balance of tactus and rubato, and with great technical clarity and touch, is Stephen Hough who recorded two selections from Iberia (Evacacion and Triana) as part of his Spanish Album (Stephen Hough's Spanish Album) in 2005. The quality of this performance begs for a complete performance of Iberia from Hough, if he ever has the opportunity to do it.



I cannot emphasize enough how grateful I am that Ciccolini's recording has returned to the catalog. Many years ago, I was able to pick up a few copies of the first CD release of this recording, still new, to give away to friends when EMI had some kind of clearance going. Anyway, EMI Classics is to be highly commended for re-releasing this fine set as part of its Gemini series so it can hopefully and finally take the place that it deserves among the finest historical piano performances of all time."