Enrique GRANADOS
(1867-1916)
Piano Music Volume 4:
Apparitions: Romantic Waltzes; In the Cuban Style (before 1898); Stories
of Youth; 'Honey from Alcarria': Jota (1894); Poetic Waltzes (c. 1893-94);
Aragonese Rhapsody (1901); Scenes of Childhood - Miniatures;
Apparition
Douglas Riva (piano)
rec. May 1999, St Martin's Church, East Woodhay,
Suffolk
NAXOS 8.554629
[73.32]
Crotchet AmazonUK
AmazonUS
Early Granados here and much of it written before 1898, according to pianist
Douglas Riva in his excellent notes. The music echoes Schumann - Stories
of Youth could hardly be anything else - and Chopin. Chopijn is in evidence
in terms of delicacy and poetic touch, turning to Spanish inflection and
dance through the waltz form. 'The Beggar Woman' has a descending syncopated
seven note theme capped by a fermata, full of pathos and sudden defiant
but beautifully spirited stabs. Granados peeps through here in a piece of
quiet but real distinction. 'The Ghost' is like many Spanish spirits, rather
rumbustious and full of fandango tendencies. Schumann's miniaturesque language
comes through more strongly in the Poetic Waltzes, particularly in
the 'Slow Waltz' and 'Humorous' or 'Brilliant Waltz' - a glitch on the tracking
has lost track 28 at exactly this point, so what follows is guesstimate.
All that said, the overriding influence is, quite clearly, Grieg. From Grieg
to Granados, is 25 years, nautical miles and two weather-bound Nationalisms.
Try the 'Butterfly Waltz'. Over a descending figure of Grieg's what should
flutter through the Chopin Etude but filigreed early Bridge; a retiary old
lace pattern of glissandi imitating the arrhythmic beat of stereotypical
wings. Delightful. It sports a Schumannesque melodic cut that comes out most
clearly in the beautiful 'Ideal Waltz'. It's to him and Grieg that Granados
owed some of the melodic birthmarks, before the insistent Spanish dance forms
moulded Granados's individual voice. This certainly emerges here in a handful
of pieces, like 'Honey from Alcarria': Jota. In the Cuban Style is
an up-beat and nearly characteristic piece, probably written before Spain
lost Cuba in 1898.
Most stunning of all is the wonderful Aragonese Rhapsody, melodically
Grieg but as good as some of the best of the Lyric Pieces. And with
Granados's own rhythms becoming more and more insistent through the seven-minute
piece. This is wrongly tracked as 34, but is in fact 33, incidentally.
Scenes of Childhood is not wholly Schumannesque. A chillied wisp of
the Carmen habanera in 'Apologising'; and 'Crying Child' is a gently
falling twin-set of tears, with a Moorish arabesque in the bass, which again
is the real Granados.
Another voice is Fauré's, quiet but insistent, in the quietest pieces;
and again almost pure in the berceuse rhythm of Apparition. It's one
of the five pieces of genius that make this a mandatory acquisition to lovers
of Granados, Spanish music and Romantic piano music. Douglas Riva, in this
fourth volume, has less competition from Alicia de Larrocha here - other
more famous pieces are available in Decca Doubles. But this disc is the one
to recommend with full confidence even to those who have de Larrocha in the
mature works. Riva is an excellent guide, with a fine touch that modulates
to real delicacy in the children's pieces, and plenty of idiomatic élan
elsewhere. His rhythms are a little like nascent Granados. That is, those
of someone fully discovering a language de Larrocha - and to a lesser extent
champions like Aldo Ciccolini - acquired almost from birth. Riva is, in fact
,on a par here with Ciccolini, which isn't a back-handed compliment. And
Ciccolini hasn't, as far as I know, recorded this early repertoire. Close
but truthful Naxos piano sound.
Simon Jenner
