Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Impressiones Españolas

María del Carmen was Enrique Granados' first great operatic success and the stage work he held in highest regard. It was received with great acclaim at its premiere in 1898, admired for its refined and brilliant orchestral writing and for its prfound lyricism. Using the folklore, language and sounds of Murcia in south-eastern Spain alongside the influence of Wagnerian thematic techniques, the opera is set in a rural village where a water shortage and a love triangle inflame the mutual hatred between the peasant farmer Pencho and his wealthy rival Javier.

Enrique Granados' music is full of an emotion and tenderness that rightly elevates him to the status of a national monument of the same rank as Isaac Albéniz or Francisco Goya, whom he adored. The Frenchwoman Myriam Barbaux-Cohen and the Spaniard Granados: Two souls who understand each other blindly meet here and harmonize even over the temporal separation of a century. Myriam Barbaux-Cohen began learning piano in the city of La Rochelle. Soon after she was awarded First Prizes in Chamber Music and Piano from the Conservatory of Genevilliers. She continued her studies with Muza Rubackyte in the Russian Conservatory Serge Rachmaninoff in Paris. Myriam performs regularly at official events at the French Ministry of Economy and Finance, and enjoys a busy career as a piano accompanist.

Granados, E.: Piano Music, Vol. 5 - Escenas Poeticas / Azul

Vocal Recital: Oelze, Christiane - DEBUSSY, C. / GRANADOS, E

Angel Stanislav Wang (b. 2003, California), winner of the 2022 Jaén Prize International Piano Competition, presents his debut recital featuring Liszt’s monumental Sonata in B minor, and Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor accompanied by the Bretón String Quartet, plus excerpts from Granados's Goyescas and the competition imposed work Poema a un amor eterno by Laura Vega.

I feel Catalan through and through, but in my music I want to express what I feel, what I admire and what attracts me, be it Andalusian or Chinese – Enrique Granados. I hope that this album will provide a deeper understanding of the Goyescas, drawing not only the most common images of Spanish folklore such as the sevillanas or the bullfighters, but also a more complete picture of a diverse country. It was the inspiration for an artist like Goya who was at once deeply local and universal. It is this fascinating mixture of tradition and modernity, of Spain and Europe, that Granados liked and loved in his illustrious predecessor.

Russian pianist Valentin Malinin, winner of the 62nd Jaén International Piano Competition, has chosen a program that offers moments of reflection alongside dazzling virtuosity. The album opens with Shostakovich’s imposing Piano Quintet, one of the composer’s most popular chamber works. Granados evokes a ‘Ghost’s Serenade’ with guitar-like effects in the exuberant finale to his Goyescas, while Prokofiev’s Four Études are among the most complex and technically challenging works of their kind. Malinin’s own inspired fantasy The Pearl Fishers, based on Nadir’s Romance from Les Pêcheurs de perles, serves as a fine encore, reimagining Bizet’s original in daring, compelling style.

Granados: Spanish Dances (Orch. Ferrer)

Granados, E.: 12 Spanish Dances