Previous Releases
volumes 1-4 are on BIS CD-923, -1043,
-1143 and -1243
Comparison Recordings:
Alicia De Larrocha,
piano Decca 448 191-2
Artur Rubinstein, piano
(1 piece in "Rubinstein Collection
Vol. 18") RCA/BMG CD
As I said when I reviewed
Volume 4, this is not merely great pianism,
this is ravishingly beautiful pianism,
magnificently recorded, conforming at
the same time to the most rigorous standards
of musicianship and responsibility to
the text. One of the first things one
learns is that Albéniz’s work
was quite consistent, and there is no
decline in quality as we move from early
to late music.
As with so many famous
Spanish musicians, Albéniz was
Catalonian. Number three from Suite
Espagnole is "Sevilla,"
one of Albéniz’s most popular
piano works and you have never heard
it more beautifully or seductively played
than here. As with other great pianists,
we have the feeling that the hammers
of the piano are actually the ends of
the artist’s fingers and that he is
directly caressing the strings, as one
would the strings of a guitar. Number
five from Suite Espagnole is
"Leyenda" another of Albéniz’s
most popular and frequently played pieces.
In contrast to most pianists, Baselga
makes this less of an imitation of guitar
sound and plays the work as a true piano
study. Through this we become aware
of Baselga’s awesome musico-dramatic
intelligence. Few guitarists could play
the work this fast anyway. You will
want to keep your other favourite performances
of this work, but you won’t want to
miss this one.
Rubinstein’s recordings
of Spanish music reflect a showman’s
skill at effective drama. DeLarrocha’s
performances have more reflective insight
into the content of the music and remain
an authoritative and scholarly standard.
Her earlier recordings are showing their
age in their dated sound quality. Her
newer digital recordings for BMG show
that her mind, her heart and her fingers
are still everything they ever were.
But Baselga loves this music and his
ravishingly sensual, masculine style
sweeps away all objections. I would
love to hear him play Ravel. In Volume
4, his jacket portrait strove for a
gaucho-hunk image, but here he is the
bespectacled scholar, the intense young
Euro-adult, mirroring in his various
physical incarnations the shifting moods
of his musician’s view of Albéniz
the colourist.
Paul Shoemaker
Miguel Baselga (piano) 
