Composer: Enrique Granados
Performer: Xiayin Wang
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Chandos
Catalogue: CHAN10995
Release: 2018
Size: 1.03 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Goyescas, Op. 11, Book I
01. I. Los requiebros
02. II. Coloquio en la reja, duo de amor
03. III. El fandango de candil
Goyescas, Op. 11, Book II
04. IV. Quejas, ó La maja y el ruiseñor
05. V. El amor y la muerte
06. VI. Epilogo
Seis piezas sobre cantos populares españoles
07. No. 6. Zapateado
Ochos valses poéticos
08. Introducción. Vivace molto
09. I. Melodioso
10. II. Tempo de Valse noble
11. III. Tempo de Valse lente
12. IV. Allegro umoristico
13. V. Allegretto
14. VI. Quasi ad libitum
15. VII. Vivo
16. VIII. Presto
17. Tempo de Valse
18. Allegro de concierto, Op. 46
A pianist of keen musicality and sweeping virtuosity, Xiayin Wang returns to solo repertoire with this fascinating exploration of works by Enrique Granados, revealing a technically challenging and complex musical language, yet full of colour and emotional intensity. Perhaps because the source of their inspiration was so close to the composer’s heart, the Goyescas piano pieces are the most liberated examples of the genius of Granados. ‘I have written’, he said, without exaggeration, ‘a collection of great sweep and difficulty’, which Xiayin Wang addresses with complete mastery.
Across the repertoire featured here, this album reveals the genius of Granados, a composer of wide contrast whose music deserves to be heard more often. While the brilliance of Granados as a composer of piano music in a more conventional idiom is convincingly exemplified in the Allegro de concierto and in Zapateado, inspired by Andalusian flamenco, the Ochos Valses poéticos are unique and uncharacteristic in that they are neither virtuosic in their piano scoring nor Spanish in style.