Julian Bream - Danza Española No. 5: Andaluza; Granada; Córdoba;

11.05.2013

Uppladdad den 30 jul 2011

Danza Española No. 5 is Granados' most celebrated piece and in my opinion deservedly so. Apart from the beautiful and evocative melodic invention, the subtle shifts between minor and major tonalities create a simple yet most dramatic tension. Many of the harmonic modulations are pure Andalusian in character, yet the piece conveys through its value of proportion and elegence the spirit of the eighteenth century - a period in the history of painting and music that Granados admired very much.

Julian Bream

DeZigeunerbaron

Uppladdad den 30 jul 2011

It is, however, his earlier pieces and in particular the Suite Española Opus 47 which initially brought Albeniz such fame and succes in his lifetime. This Suite was published 1886. It consists of four highly impressionistic tone poems. The evocation of Granada -surely one of his most Idyllic pieces, the exhilarating portrait of Sevilla and the gay and busling Saeta Cadiz.

Julian Bream

DeZigeunerbaron

Uppladdad den 15 aug 2011

The final piece on this side is Córdoba Opus 232 No. 4 from Cantos de España. This pearl of musical impressionism was much admired by Claude Debussy and in it Albéniz has eschewed his earlier, more formal compositional method in favour of a freer, more thorough-composed conception. It was this freedom, and the subsequent control of it that released his musical ideas and energies, so that he could compose at the end of his life the remarkable Iberia - a final tribute to his beloved country and a superb masterpiece of inventive piano writing. It was the audacious brilliance of this music that was subsequently to influence the piano music of both Debussy and Ravel, and I daresay of Rachmaninoff as well.

Julian Bream

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