Francesco Goya Archive

GRANADOS: Goyescas; Zapateado; Ochos Valses Poeticos; Allegro de Concierto – Xiayin Wang, piano – Chandos 

by Audiophile Audition | Mar 2, 2018 | Classical CD Reviews

Much in the spirit of the Iturbi duo, Xiayin Wang brings colossal technique and ardent affection to the music of Enrique Granados. GRANADOS: Goyescas, Op. 11; Zapateado; Ochos Valses Poeticos; Allegro de Concierto, Op. 46 – Xiayin Wang, piano – Chandos CHAN 10995, 70:00 (2/2/18) ****: Enrique Granados (1867-1918) felt a strong affinity with Madrid and its great artistic icon Francesco Goya (1746-1828), whose engravings and tapestries that embrace the eighteenth and early nineteenth century sensibilities of the national and Catalan idioms.  Prompted by the more erotic of the Goya corpus, Goyescas (1909-1912) in two books captures the imagined rendezvous and dalliance of the various majos and majas of the old quarter of Madrid. The recording (8-9 September 2017) projects fine luster, courtesy of Recording Engineer William Schwartz and his crew. The florid writing for Granados’ piano contains “pieces of sweep and difficulty,” as he points out. The first piece, Los requiebros, utilizes a kind of jota as a pick-up line—almost a guitar strum in arpeggios—and its reception. Romantic in color, the piece develops a melody from one of the composer’s own Tonadillas. Castanet sonorities blend with triplet figures tempo changes that stop and start, eventually becoming rapturous.   Coloquio […]