MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
CD: Crotchet
Download: Classicsonline

 

Enrique GRANADOS (1867-1916)
Goyescas - suite for piano in two books (1911): Book I: Los Requiebros [9.23]; Coloquio en La Reja [10.53]; El Fandango de Candil [6.41]; Quejas, ó la Maja y el Ruiseñor [6.22]; Book II: El Amor y la Muerte: Balada [12.43]; Epilogo: Serenata del Espectro [7.39]
Ana-Maria Vera (piano)
rec. Studio van Schuppen, The Netherlands, May 2006. DDD
Booklet notes in English
SIGNUM SIGCD146 [54.00]
Experience Classicsonline


Enrique Granados is possibly best remembered for his songs and evocative solo piano music. However he also composed various orchestral works and six operas. His music relies heavily on Spanish and Catalan folklore. Granados was instrumental in bringing this to the attention of his countrymen, as well as to the European musical scene at the turn of the century. He was one of the representatives of musical nationalism, a movement that swept across Europe mainly during the nineteenth century but which extended into the early twentieth century as well.

Possibly Granados’s best work and undoubtedly his most famous, the piano suite Goyescas, was composed between 1909 and 1911. It was inspired by paintings by Spanish artist Francisco Goya (1746-1828), specifically a set of sketches of Spanish life that Granados saw at the Prado Museum in Madrid as well as some of the artist’s famous series of etchings Caprichos, published in 1799. Goyescas comprises two books: the first is in four pieces and the second two. Besides being a composer, Granados was also a virtuoso pianist and the Goyescas are indeed a show-piece, fiendishly difficult in certain passages. Granados premiered Book I himself in 1911 at the Palau de la Música Catalana, in Barcelona, and Book II in 1914 at the Salle Pleyel in Paris. The complete piano suite had such an impact and was so successful that the composer was persuaded to convert it into an opera. Due to World War I, the piece could not be performed in Europe, however Goyescas, the opera, received its premiere in 1916 at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, in Granados’s presenc. This was indirectly to be the reason of the composer’s premature death. The success at the Met led to an invitation by President Woodrow Wilson for Granados to give a piano recital at the White House. Granados accepted; and so he and his wife missed the ship on which they were booked to return to Europe. The boat that they eventually took was torpedoed by a German submarine. The composer abandoned the life-raft where he was in an attempt to save his wife. Tragically, they both drowned. 

Goyescas is not only a piece that demands technical virtuosity but also possesses great warmth, beauty and dramatic expression. One of its most interesting features that makes the piece rather attractive is the transfer of the rhythms of the flamenco guitar to the keyboard. The performance of Goyescas demands a pianist with a fabulous technique, an excellent insight into the composer’s intentions, a good understanding of Goya’s paintings and, most of all, an ability to narrate the story of each piece and subtly express its emotions and melodic lines. The American pianist, of Dutch-Bolivian origin, Ana-Maria Vera completely fits the bill. 

This recording of Goyescas, as performed by Ana-Maria Vera, offers the suite in its entirety (nearly 55 minutes), with all four pieces of Book I and the two from Book II, all in their logical order, as Granados created them. The first, Los Requiebros (Compliments or Flirtation) is the one I most enjoyed: it is vivacious, warm, full of wit and humour; with a lively, catchy melody and contagiously sunny rhythm. Vera’s rendition is as sparkling and expressive as her technique is brilliant. One can easily imagine flirtatious looks being exchanged and people making humorous comments in the background. Marvellous!

After this effervescent opening, Ana-Maria Vera continues to dazzle throughout the remaining five pieces. She plays the second, Coloquio en la Reja (Dialogue at the window) with a delicate melodic sense, then she is wonderfully romantic and evocative in the third, El Fandango de Candil (Candlelit Fandango); effectively creating the image of two people courting by candle-light. The fourth piece, Quejas, ó la Maja e el Ruiseñor (Laments, or the Maiden and the Nightingale), which is written almost like a nocturne, full of hidden voices, trills and arpeggios to reproduce the sounds of the bird, is given a beautifully lyrical interpretation, suitably poetic but never sentimental and always underlined by subtle emotion. In the fifth work (the first of Book II) El Amor y la Muerte: Balada (Love and Death: Ballad) the composer on occasions gives one the impression that the piece is an improvisation and not something that he very specifically wrote. Vera effectively captures and expresses this feeling, giving the piece a fresh touch that makes it incredibly attractive. Finally, the sixth, suitably named Epílogo: Serenata del Espectro (Epilogue: The Ghost’s Serenade) is as with all others beautifully interpreted with a supreme delicate touch in the closing bars to indicate how the ghost disappears.

Ana-Maria Vera has a delicate musicality supported by technical brilliance and a fresh, focused approach. She imparts new insight into a popular piece so often used as a mere vehicle to display sheer virtuosity but where the feeling is lost. Her sensibility is always present. Her style is subtle and the sound luminous. She never allows her undeniable technical prowess to overcome the soul of the piece. Thus the listener is rewarded with an interpretation full of lively, Latin spontaneity and recognisable Spanish flair; possibly fulfilling Granados’s intentions when he composed Goyescas.

I thoroughly enjoyed this performance of Granados’s crowning work and I dare say that it is possibly one of the best and most pleasing interpretations of this famous piano suite that I have ever heard.

Margarida Mota-Bull

 

 


 


 




 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.