GRANADOS : Goyescas (Suite for Piano) (Douglas Riva) (1999) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Any new release of Goyescas faces unavoidable comparison to Alicia de Larrocha’s standard-setting interpretation (her 1976 Decca version is the finest of her four recordings). Happily, Douglas Riva’s persuasive playing stands up well to such formidable competition. Having prepared a critical edition of Granados’ piano works, Riva knows this music cold, and dispatches its colorful, multi-leveled textures and idiosyncratic figurations with fluent elegance. True, he doesn’t command De Larrocha’s wide vocabulary of articulations, nor her fearless dynamism. Yet his stylish, clear-cut playing benefits from engineering that’s superior to Decca’s tubby sonics. As a bonus, Riva includes the previously unrecorded “Serenata goyesca”, a slight, rather inconclusive piece that may have formed part of Goyescas’ first draft. Riva provides his own excellent, informative annotations. A highly recommended release. by Jed Distler 

More about this recording

Enrique Granados (1867-1916)

1-4    Goyescas, Book 1
5-6    Goyescas, Book 2
7    El pelele ( The Straw Man)
8    Serenata goyesca (Serende in the Style of Goya)

Douglas Riva - Piano