Classical reviews: Granados and various artists

Alessio Pianelli: A Sicilian Traveller

Rubicon RCD1051

★ ★ ★ ★★

Alessio Pianelli is a cellist with a vision – of a magical mosaic of all the musical influences which have infused the culture of his native Sicily. And this CD is his attempt to realise that mosaic in sound. He and his accompanists, the Avos Chamber Orchestra, begin with a sequence of songs and dances by the Georgian composer Sulkhan Tsintsadze, one of which, “Suliko”, was Stalin’s favourite song. Then come five songs and dances by the great Armenian composer Komitas, each collected from folk sources around the turn of the twentieth century. Two Negro Melodies by the English composer of African origin Samuel Coleridge-Taylor then follow, and after them Bartok’s Romanian Folk Dances, one of the high points of his song-collecting achievement. After some folk dances by the Greek composer Nikos Skalcottas, Pianelli rounds off his collection with some variations of his own on a Sicilian folk theme. His taste is impeccable: every track on this CD reflects a love of music rippling with convivial pleasure.

Granados: Goyescas, Allegro de Concierto, Ochos Valses Poeticos, Zapateado

Xiayin Wang, piano

Chandos CHAN 10995

★ ★ ★ ★☆

The piano music of Enrique Granados combines a Spanish brand of Romantic tone-poetry with exceptional virtuosity, and nowhere more so than in his masterpiece, Goyescas. Inspired by the painter Goya’s Caprichos, Granados’s suite reflects his love for that series of etchings, with their majos and majas – young men and women from the old quarter of Madrid – embodying the pains and pleasures of city life. The first piece – Los requiebros, (The Greetings) – sees two tunes meet and meld in a spontaneous-seeming effusion of colour and texture ornamented with filigree embellishments, while the second, Coloquio en la reja – a musical encounter between a boy and his girl separated by the bars of his prison window – reaches a peak of ardour before the boy with his guitar sadly retreats back into the shadows.  

Xiayin Wang’s approach may be cooler than that of Alicia de Larrocha, who brought a pulsating warmth to this work, but her shading and control of effects is beautifully calibrated. Everything on this CD is super-refined in its delivery – even the rather ordinary “poetic waltzes”. The Zapateado is springy and exuberant, and the Allegro do concierto dazzles as a conservatoire firework should.