The Essence Of Spain

On this two disk set, Artur Pizarro tackles two epics ( THE two epics ? ) of Spanish piano music, Goyescas by Granados and Albeniz's Iberia. He tackles them and he wins, giving convincing performances which handle all the many technical difficulties and capture the mood and essence of the pieces. Not being a pianist, I tend to find it difficult to write at length about solo piano pieces which is not to say that I do not enjoy them thoroughly. Pizarro explains in his booklet notes that he has very direct links to this music both in terms of familial background and of his teachers. A lot is made of nationality in music ( Pizarro is Portugueese rather than Spanish but close enough given the links mentioned above ) but I do feel that it helps in this instance to keep in touch with the folk elements that are undoubtedly there. The other comparisons are with the French impressionistic school of Debussy and Ravel, both of whom wrote Spanish flavoured pieces of course, and Pizarro is also an accomplished performer of their works as evidenced in the recent BBC music free disk. All in all, as good a modern performance and recording of these works as you are likely to find.