Customer Reviews

Albeniz: Iberia

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There are few recordings of Isaac Albeniz's complete Iberia scored for orchestra, especially one with a full & rich sound as well as a stunningly poignant interpretation by Jesus Lopez Cobos.

Albeniz, in his youth, after running away from home several times, was exposed to a great number of cultural and eventually musical influences. His travels took him around Spain, his homeland, as well as South America, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and even San Francisco. After settling down back in Spain, he took up friends and colleagues such as Faure, Dukas, Debussy, and Chausson, all leading composers and performers of the time, as well as bold influences on where music was going at that time.

Meanwhile, Albeniz, taking in all of these influences, composes some wonderfully rich music including a series of four books of music for piano, all tied together with a common theme, called Iberia: a musically romantic/impressionistic description of the beautiful lands and exciting events of his homeland. Each book contains three separate pieces of music, each a musical portrait of Spain, and each one exhibiting a spanish dance of some kind.

Traditionally, recordings of Iberia are fast and brash showstoppers, as recorded by Batiz on ASV, and it really misses the heart and the depth of Impressionism that Albeniz was trying to display. Instead, Cobos and the Cincinnati Symphony slow the tempos down for a majesterial and autthentic look at Spain. His tempos allow freedom to experience the sumptuous and often exotic rhythms and harmonies of the Spanish culture with out barreling right through them. In listening to this recording, Iberia becomes even more impressionistic than Debussy or Ravel and is quite a treat.

This is a real treat for the ears with Telarc's fine Digital sound, true excitement and passionate musicality in a fabulous recording of Iberia. In addition, you get TWO CD's, 82 minutes for the PRICE OF ONE!! Get this terrific buy.

This collection of Albeniz's complete Iberia was originally written for the piano. The orchestrations are courtesy of Enrique Fernandez Arbos and Carlos Surinach. And what a wonderful job they did too. Iberia might be best described as the Spanish equivalent of Copland's Americana. They are full of flourishes and motives that spell out Spain as clear as Hoe-Down sells beef. The twelve pieces together form an intricate travelogue across landscapes, colors, temperatures and moods....Lopez-Cobos conducts with an afternoon laziness that permeates the relaxed atmosphere of the work. The Cincinnati Symphony is tight and the sound quality is perfect, almost tropical. This is a great disc to unwind and be carried out of yourself.

For those who enjoy Spanish rhythms, there are a few must-have works. Ironically, some of these are the work of non-Spaniards: Carmen by Bizet, Capriccio Espangol by Rimsky-Korsakov, Bolero by Ravel (true, he was of Basque parentage, but a French citizen) and Espana by Chabrier. Then there are key works by Spaniards: Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo, The Three-Cornered Hat and Nights in the Gardens of Spain by de Falla, and, of course, Iberia.

Albeniz (1860-1909) wrote primarily for the piano. After his death, the popularity of Iberia grew after it was orchestrated. The version of Iberia that you hear in this set actually comes from the hands of two different orchestrators who, working independently, each transcribed several of the 12 vignettes in the original work. Happily, it all hangs together rather well. For their part, Lopez-Cobos and the Cincinnati Symphony do a solid job, with energy and feeling. Just note that, while this is a 2 CD set, the total playing time is only 82 minutes.

If browsing through the catalogue, you might get the impression that this recording of all pieces from Iberia is the one to go for already because it's complete. But what you basically get is works from 2 transcribers, the one being a very good orchestrator, the other one unfortunately not. You can easily tell from the majority of recordings that Arbos is the skillful one. The Surinach pieces are almost exclusively based on bright colors and do not have a very varied thickness of orchestration as well (mostly only 2 instruments/groups play). It sounds as if older Strawinsky had done it. At least after the 2nd piece you will be getting pretty tired of it. Lopez-Cobos rather cautious way with them does not help either. But what a difference the Arbos transcriptions are ! He is really a masterly orchestrator in the Ravel style and you could not think of these pieces being done much better. Even Lopez-Cobos warms up a lot with them.
Conclusion: Buy any set with the Arbos Suite alone; that is the one to go for. The present recording for it alone is not bad too, but don't expect the highest Telarc standard. The recording in 2 channel is marginally too bright, probably having to do with the Surround encoding.

Back in the '70s one of my favorite recordings was a Connoisseur Society double LP of the complete Iberia Suite for piano (I think the pianist may have been Michel Beroff, but I can't really remember for sure). Great music, great recording--even the cover was great. As with many piano suites, the urge to orchestrate them is always out there, the present recording featuring orchestrations by Enrique Fernandez Arbos (1863-1939) and Carlos Surinach (1915-1997). Although I miss the hushed intensity of the original piano music, it was fun to hear the orchestral arrangements with their energetic rhythms and vivid colors.

Because 82 minutes of music could not quite be jammed into one CD, this is a two-CD set, but Telarc is selling it for the price of one. The sound quality is up to the excellent standard that Telarc obtained during that era in Cincinnati, with the notorious Spatializer employed but apparently with taste and discretion--no more "blimp hangar" effects, thank goodness. Not an obvious choice of repertoire, but a most welcome choice by the folks at Telarc.

2 disks of one-of-a-kind multi-instrument lively Impressionism. Traces of Stokowski's creativity can be found in the orchestration, making the full Cincinnati palette out of what was originally a dry piano piece. Also surprising is an extended treatment on Disk 2 of the melody/rhythm of a song loved/hated throughout this planet as Ravel's Bolero. Albeniz wrote his notes down first and the differences are fascinating; am I the only one to catch this? The sound is not far-out, contrary to what could have a been a technologically screwier London Phase 4 treatment suggested by label hype, although this Telarc will not explode your subwoofer. Playing time is 82 min, only a few more than many orchestral Telarcs on 1 disk.