Customer Reviews

Granados: Spanish Dances

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What can be said of Ms. de Larrocha that hasn't been said already?She is so perfectly attuned with the Spanish idiom she makes most others look like pretenders and hopeless amatuers.This impeccable recording is another demonstration in how to play as the composer would have played.Here are some highlights.Track 2:One of the most breathtakingly beautiful,melancholy and tender pieces of music ever written.A small masterpiece.A rather simple andante marked "Oriental" with a repeating main theme that is so exquisite in its tenderness and longing that it makes the heart ache.Track 3:Fast yet incredibly nimble.Track 4:A winsome,yet melancholy pastoral-lullaby marked "Villanesca".This is the best version I've ever heard.Track 5'"Andaluza".Recorded countless times,mostly on guitar.Alternately a dance and quiet reflection.One of the defining works of Granados and the Spanish school at the turn of the 20th century.Here it is played ever so perfectly by Dame de Larroccha.Track 6:Great crescendo and repeats.Track 7:Some clever phrases.Track 9:Kool stacattos and flourishes.Track 11:A playful theme that keeps foiling the attempted entry of a more solemn theme.A delightful tug of war.Track 12:Graceful andante offset by heavy dance steps.The 8 Poetic Waltzes(not individually marked)are the epitome of lightheartedness.Best subjects:1,4,5,7 and 8.Disc time:67'44.Stellar sound.If you want a Granados disc make this the one.It is PERFECTION.

I discovered this cd by accident at a friend's house and couldn't get it out of my mind. I listen to my copy frequently and never tire of it. The music is beautiful and played with a delicate, exquisite touch. Some of the pieces are truly haunting. I've given it as a gift to many friends--it's perfect as background music, but it rewards the careful listener even more.

Extraordinary sensitivity at the keyboard and the finest interpreter of Spanish piano compositions. Ms. de Larrocha, that is!

There really is nothing to add here but I'll try.

I'm impressed with the depth of these compositions as much as, say, Chopin's Preludes or Mazurkas; they are entirely unique. I can't in words express how wonderful I feel every time I listen to these "paintings on the easel". For every listener, a wondrous soundscape
waits to be discovered!

Larrocha's performances are both technically and artistically pristine. And they should be...she literally wrote the book on these pieces; with Douglas Riva, she collaborated to produce the Urtext edition of Granados' works for piano, so, IMO her performances can be trusted to be played just the way the composer intended. For the pianist, these recordings are downright authoritative.

I love this recording. The music is lively, hummable, memorable and inspiring. I am not a pianist and cannot appreciate the greatest of the talent of the musician, I can only say as a person who appreciates music, that this music is wonderful.

If you're looking for a textbook definition of the word "authoritative," you can't do better than Alicia de Larrocha's performances of the piano music of her fellow Catalunyan Enrique Granados. Granados' "Danzas Espanolas" are to Spain what Chopin's mazurkas are to Poland or Grieg's Lyric Pieces are to Norway. No one--except, presumably, Granados himself--ever played them with greater delicacy or feeling than De Larrocha, who learned her craft from Granados' own students. For anyone who likes Spanish piano music, this CD is a must-have.

My mother really enjoyed the cd. She listens to it all of the time.