Albeniz - Iberia [Larrocha]I bought this set in late 1992, and played it quite extensively, i must admit i don't play it as often today, but i fell in love with these very Spanish pieces, and Larrocha being a native, has for years been the leading interpreter in this music.
Larrocha was born in Spain, she died last September, these recordings come from the late eighties, she was in her mid sixties when she recorded them, i must admit the sound is not ideal, it's somewhat blunted and dull sounding, there isn't that distinctive ring in the treble.
The front cover is excellent, the photo is by Christian Steiner, a nicely lit subject, with a jet black background, Alicia really stands out, and very pleasing writing, very well done Decca!.
One of the things i notice about Iberia, is the fact that all the pieces sound fairly similar, it's hard to pick out individualism amongst the twelve, but on this listen i did like track 2 'El Puerto', and track 5 'Almeria', with El Puerto just edging it, it's actually the shortest piece of the set at just over 4 minutes, a happy skipping tune, but there's some tumbling involved here and there, there's a slightly dissonant episode in the middle [1:33-1:56], the piece is very free-wheeling, towards the end there's a very reflective moment [3:21-3:41], the piano plays in the higher registers, and slower/quieter, very nice, which turns into a slow coda of sorts [3:42+], but fun has the last word as the piece ends on two 'irreverent' bass notes! [4:06], it's like a mischievous child.
Here's Alicia De Larrocha playing El Puerto on YouTube.
