GRANADOS  SPANISH DANCES
Danses espagnoles, Op 37

The Granados Spanish Dances are a world unto themselves.  Listening to them is akin to getting lost in Chopin's mazurkas or Schubert's Ländler.  I must say, Granados, a great pianist, is one of my favorite composers of music for the piano.  And these pieces, many of which I have played for much of my life, are among the gems of the repertoire.

Other than the recordings Granados himself made of several of the dances which often have wonderfully spontaneous extra notational effects, I always seem to go back to performances by Alicia de Larrocha, especially the early 1954 recordings.  They are perfection.  She owns this music.  But this takes nothing away from the other great Spanish pianists represented here, del Pueyo, Soriano and Orozco.

The performances of the fifth of the he Granados Spanish Dances (the most popular by far if the number of recordings of this piece is any indication) by Aldo Ciccolini and the Russian pianist Konstantin Bogino - Who is this guy? - are stunning. 

Rubinstein's version of the fifth dance is typical Rubinstein.  It is beautifully and elegantly played.  But it does not capture the essence of the Spanish rhythms so essential to the performance of this music.  It is too clean, too precise, too . . . not enough, and it don't dance.  If you want a spectacularly stylized alternative approach, try the Michelangeli. 

There are gorgeous performances by Cor de Groot of the fifth dance, and by Boshniakovich of the second.

Also of note are the recordings of almost the complete set of the Granados Spanish Dances by Carolina Estrada Bascuñana, a young Spanish pianist.  On the whole the playing is very fine, but the performance of the 12th dance is magical.

ENRIQUE GRANADOS

1913 Welte Mignon piano rolls

2 Oriental