Search - Albeniz, Ciccolini :: Iberia

Clearly the finest Goyescas & Iberia ever recorded

Daniel J. Rose | Shrewsbury, MA USA | 09/07/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Note (10 Jan 2008): With great joy, I am happy to report that this recording was finally re-released over the previous year and is still, fortunately, available. You can find it together with an updated version of the following review at Albéniz: Iberia; Granados: Goyescas.



It is a minor musical tragedy (minor by tragedy's standards) that this recording is currently out of print, because it has no peer that I have so far been able to locate in the available recordings of these fiendishly difficult works by Enrique Granados and Isaac Albeniz, and I have heard most of them.



Goyescas probably has many other competent and inspiring performances, for example, in the utterly masterful recording of the complete piano works of Granados by Thomas Rajna. I still think Ciccolini eclipses most of them.



However, it is Iberia where Ciccolini stands alone without question. This is technically so difficult a work that I have found only one or two other performances that begin to approach the remarkable work that Ciccolini has given us on this recording. Alicia del Laroche's effort (still available, also from EMI) is most often said to "own" this work. However, I have to say, with some sadness, that she is simply not technically capable of playing it. I can only imagine that those who look so much to her performance of Iberia have not really heard it played by a master of the piece. I love del Laroche's playing of so much of the rich Spanish impressionistic repertoire, but anyone who has simply looked at the score knows that Iberia pretty much stands alone in its technical demands, right up there with anything that Chopin, Liszt, or Rachmaninoff ever conceived of.



Ciccolini not only plays most all the notes, but with such total control of rhythm and variety of touch that sometimes defies comprehension. Where so many other players struggle to get through the many hand ripping passages, Ciccolini not only rips through them with ease, but plays them with utter clarity, with a minimum of pedal, and isolates the soaring thematic elements no matter how dense and difficult the texture. And he does this with absolutely no compromise. He never slows arbitrarily to get through a particularly difficult passage, as is heard in so many recordings.



At the same time, absolutely no one I have heard, with the possible exception of Jean-Francois Heisser (Erato 4509-94807-2), has been able to play so freely with the rhythm and meter of the work without any sign of hesitation, on the one hand, or rushing, on the other (as if to "get through it" before breaking down). However, unlike Heisser, Ciccolini is able to layer the textures of the piece through impossible varieties of touch and weight in the many voices--although Heisser comes closer than most. Esteban Sanchez has left an inspired recording of at least some selections from the Iberia suite (Brilliant Classics 92398). But, again, his technique is so labored in the more difficult selections that the thematic content is completely lost in his effort to crunch the notes. We are left with accurately crashing sound clusters, where Ciccolini also gives us a smooth melodic line (totally lost with Sanchez) against which to appreciate them.



I cannot emphasize enough what a loss this recording is, while still grateful its remainders can still be obtained on the used market. A few years ago, I picked up a bunch of them new to give away to friends when EMI had some kind of clearance going on. Anyway, if we ever overcome the terrible mess in which the classical market finds itself, perhaps EMI (or someone who purchases their stock) will someday re-release this fine set and give it the publicity that it needs in order to finally take the place that it deserves among the finest historical piano performances of all time.

"