Enrique Granados - Escenas románticas; Bocetos; Cuentos de la juventud (Alicia de Larrocha)

Information

Composer: Enrique Granados

• (01) Escenas románticas
• (07) Bocetos
• (11) Cuentos de la juventud

Alicia de Larrocha, piano

Date: 1994/2003

Label: RCA

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Review

ARTISTIC QUALITY: 9 / SOUND QUALITY: 9

If Goyescas represents the public, theatrical side of Granados’ temperament, the six Escenas Románticas are relatively personal and inward. Though less well-known, the Bocetos and Cuentos de la juventud (the latter might be described as Granados’ answer to Schumann’s Kinderszenen) surely will attract those who respond to this composer’s vivacious romanticism and smoky range of colors. Who knows why these 1994 recordings took nine years to see the light of day; still, better now than never.

Praising Alicia de Larrocha in this repertoire is tantamount to giving fresh air a good review. At 71, her lush, cantabile style and multi-tiered articulation are just about as intact as in her previous recorded Escenas Románticas forays. Listen to the Allegretto’s deliciously differentiated imitative writing, the broad, organic rubatos that heighten the Allegro Appassionato’s lava-like expressive qualities, or to the elegant understatement the pianist breathes into each of the Cuentos de la juventud. Not that she lacks rhythmic verve when needed, as the concluding “Marcha” proves, with its unwitting allusions to Schubert’s F minor Moment Musical.

Picky Larrocha fans might argue that the pianist had lost a modicum of her erstwhile dynamic range and fire by the late-’80s/early-’90s (her 1985 Escenas Románticas on Decca are just a little more incisive). RCA’s warmer engineering, however, wins me over in the long run, together with Harris Goldsmith’s superb booklet notes. [9/15/2003]

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday

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Enrique Granados (27 July 1867 – 24 March 1916) was a Spanish pianist and composer of classical music. Granados studied piano in Barcelona with Felip Pedrell, then in Paris with Charles-Wilfrid de Bériot. His music is in a uniquely Spanish style and is representative of musical nationalism. He is best known for his compositions for piano such as 12 Spanish Dances and Goyescas, a suite based on Franciso Goya's painting. Granados was an important influence on at least two other important Spanish composers and musicians, Manuel de Falla and Pablo Casals. He was also the teacher of composer Rosa García Ascot.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrique_Granados

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Alicia de Larrocha (23 May 1923 – 25 September 2009) was a Spanish pianist and composer. She was considered one of the great piano legends of the 20th century and "the greatest Spanish pianist in history", who is credited with bringing greater popularity to the compositions of Isaac Albéniz and Enrique Granados. De Larrocha made numerous recordings of the solo piano repertoire and in particular the works of composers of her native Spain. As she grew older she began to play a different style of music; more Mozart and Beethoven. De Larrocha won several individual awards throughout her lifetime.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alicia_de_Larrocha

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