Piano Music, Vol. 3 Naxos 8.572196
- Composer: Isaac Albeniz
- Artist: Guillermo Gonzalez
The third volume of Albéniz’s piano music presents three contrasting sets of dances, each brimming with the delicacy, joie de vivre and voluptuous beauty that characterise so much of his music. Albéniz is touched by the spirit of Chopin in his delightful Pequeños valses, while the Mazurkas de salón, like those of his predecessor, and the Danzas españolas both transcend mere folkloricism. Volumes 1 and 2, also featuring Guillermo González, one of the leading authorities on the composer, have been critically acclaimed.
Piano Music, Vol. 3 Review
This disc, the third in Naxos’s Albéniz series, is devoted to salon music composed early in the composer’s life. At the time, he was known as a piano virtuoso who also gave lessons to young ladies to whom he dedicated many of his salon pieces, including all six of these mazurkas.
Premonitions of the mature Albéniz may be glimpsed in the Danzas españolas, which shares a pleasant lilt, usually in habanera rhythm, and the composer’s predilection for a melodic line in three against a languid accompanying figure in four. The pieces resemble Granados’s later set of Spanish Dances in their occasional underlying hint of melancholy, but those in Albéniz’s set are neither as formally diverse nor as pianistically challenging as are those of his slightly younger contemporary. Chopin is the predominant influence in the sets of waltzes and mazurkas…If you are curious about the antecedents of Iberia, it is worth a listen. Phillip Scott – Fanfare