Naxos Spanish
2007
Albéniz: Piano Music
About This Album
Isaac Albéniz's piano music is historically indispensable to the rite of passage made by Spanish music into the twentieth century from the nineteenth and in recapturing some of the native verve of Spanish traditional music that mysteriously disappeared from Spain's concert music earlier in that century. Naxos' Albéniz: Piano Music 2 is the second volume in what promises to be a complete survey of the surviving piano works of the composer as performed by pianist Guillermo González; another by Miguel Baselga for BIS only runs to five volumes and there is question if it is truly complete. Arriving at such a milestone for Albéniz in terms of piano music would be difficult, as Albéniz was enormously prolific, especially early on, and many of his efforts in the genre have been lost, even some published pieces. The conventional wisdom regarding Albéniz's piano music is that after his arrival in Paris in 1894, and his concurrent exposure to the work of Claude Debussy, Albéniz becomes much more experimental in style, adopting a bolder, richer harmonic palette that doesn't smack quite as much of the Victorian salon as his earlier music. This has led, in part, to the dominance of the piano suite Ibéria over all his other efforts, save the early Tango in D, a piece of the 1880s immensely popular in its own day that has managed to survive throughout the intervening decades.
Track List

Recuerdos De Viaje, Pieces (7) For Piano, Op. 71, B. 18
1.
2.
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7.
España (Souvenirs), Pieces (2) For Piano, B. 45
8.
9.
Azulejos (Tiles/Mosaics), For Piano, B. 50 (incomplete; Only 1 Piece, Finished By Granados)
10.
La Vega, Fantaisie Espagnole For Piano, B. 46 (for The Incomplete Suite, "Alhambra")
11.
Navarra, For Piano In A Flat Major, B. 49 (completed By Sévérac)
12.