RICARDO VINYES (1875-1943)
Spanish-Catalan pianist

Ricardo Vinyes championed the works of many of his French and Spanish contemporaries and often performed the piano music of Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Erik Satie, Déodat de Séverac, Isaac Albéniz, and Manuel de Falla. I had hoped to find examples of his playing the music of Ravel and Granados, but until now have had no sucecess.  His performances of the French and Spanish composers of his time are unparalleled, capturing the subtleties of the zeitgeist perfectly.

Vinyes was a close friend of both Debussy and Ravel.  Debussy considered him to be a wonderful interpreter of the composer's own works for piano and chose Vinyes to give the first performances of many of his works, some of ehich are included here.  For those of you who undestand French, there is a recording of Ricardo Vinyes speaking about Debussy.

The pianist also premiered many of Ravel's important early works for the piano.  The Menuet antique and  "Oiseaux tristes" from Miroirs were dedicated to Viñes.  Manuel de Falla dedicated to Vinyes his "Nights in the Gardens of Spain", a rarely performed work of incredible beauty.

It is also interesting to note that Ricardo Vinyes was the piano teacher of the greatest French composer of the subsequent generation, Francis Poulenc.

Scarlatti  Sonata in D major, K 29