[Editor’s note: Unable to attend this concert, I asked Erik Dyar to write a review for PENINSULA REVIEWS. Mr. Dyar, an architect by profession, is also an accomplished pianist who performed a recital in Carmel, California last year.]
Before the advent of recordings, in order to discover musical interpretations that could be directly linked to a composer’s own, one had to seek out interpreters who were part of a lineage connecting them back to the composer. There can be, after all, no more direct connection to Brahms than listening to Artur Rubinstein who was a protégé of Joseph Joachim and very close to the composer himself.
On Sunday night, hearing Alicia de Larrocha playing Granados at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, I had a similar feeling of direct connection to the Spanish master. Ms. De Larrocha can be considered, today, (and has been for many years) the interpreter of Spanish keyboard music, for she does have direct links to several Spanish composers. From the age of five she studied with Frank Marshall, a pupil and close friend of Enrique Granados. After his death, by the terms of his will, she became the director of the conservatory of music bearing his name that he had established in Barcelona. Beyond Granados, she has established definitive interpretations of virtually all the great Spanish keyboard works, not least of which is Albeniz’ Iberia Suite, two selections of which she performed on Sunday night.
This recital was originally announced as an all-Granados concert. The program that Ms. De Larrocha actually performed, however, was exclusively Granados only in the second half. We could have wished that she had maintained the original programming, since the music performed after intermission (Book II of the Goyescas, concluding with El Pelele) was indisputably the highlight of the program. The title “Goyescas†reveals that this work is inspired by some of Francisco de Goya’s paintings in Madrid’s Prado museum. Understanding Ms. De Larrocha’s historical connection to these works is one thing, but observing this 79-year old woman perform these pieces is a powerful experience, for it seemed this music was flowing through her fingers not just from her mind, but from every cell in her tiny frame. Having lived with this music for almost eight decades, one felt it truly was a part of her. The world of Spain, and Granados in particular, truly came alive for the near-capacity audience. I felt that the continuity of the second half, without breaks between the selections, effectively enhanced the effects of this music and the mood it created.Â
This music is extremely dense and requires great skill to create the appropriate balance between overlapping textures and melodies. Ms. De Larrocha met and transcended these challenges, displaying exceptional cantabile and lovely shaping of phrases. And, one cannot say enough about her innate rhythmic sense, which is unparalleled.
The audience reacted to the end of the recital with prolonged, standing ovations, which elicited two encores. The love for this artist was clearly felt in the hall that night. The final encore was Granados’ Spanish Dance No. 6 that was played with great élan, and which again brought members of the audience to their feet in one additional spontaneous ovation. This piece can easily degenerate into raucous, unpleasant sound, but, Ms. De Larrocha played with a lovely fullness of tone that never became harsh.
The concert opened with two delightful sonatas by the Spanish Baroque composer Antonio Soler, a protégé of Domenico Scarlatti at the Spanish Royal Court in the mid 18th century. Soler composed 120 keyboard sonatas, which reveal a strong influence of the Italian master. For these pieces, De Larrocha exhibited the pianism which has made her such a superlative Mozart player — her exceptional clarity of articulation and phrasing.
She followed this by two selections from Isaac Albeniz’ Iberia, the first piece in the suite, Evocacion, and El Albaicin from Book Three. Although these were works Ms. De Larrocha virtually “owns,†and they were played with consummate skill, I felt the effect of these pieces was diminished by not permitting the listeners to hear the suite in its entirety, or at least, a more extensive portion of it. They were over before the full effect of their emotional impact could be felt.
The first half concluded with two works by 90 year old Xavier Montsalvatge. The first, the Impromptu en el Generalife from Quatre dialegs amb el piano composed in 1930 and revised in 1996 and written for Alicia de Larrocha. The second, the Sonatina para Yvette (the composer’s daughter), was composed in 1960. Ms. De Larrocha, obviously felt an affinity for this music as well. These are fine compositions, however, Ms. De Larrocha’s great musicality and charm brought them to a higher level than they might otherwise have achieved.
As a great admirer of Ms. De Larrocha and the Spanish keyboard repertoire, I knew that I had to be there for this recital. Because of her advancing age (and the fact she really has no peer with these works), this may have been the last time I would have an opportunity to hear this music at this level, in live performance. She fully satisfied my expectations.
Let us hope a new great interpreter of the Spanish keyboard repertoire will arise soon to continue the legacy so firmly established and embodied by Alicia de Larrocha.
To hear some recordings of this music, I cannot recommend more highly the Granados compilation on two CD’s from EMI Classics of De Larrocha’s recordings of the Goyescas, Escenas Romanticas, Valses Poeticos, and Seis Piezas Sobre Cantos Populares Espanoles, from the 1960’s.  I can also recommend her recording of Albeniz’ Iberia Suite on the London Decca label from the 1986.
