The two books of ‘Goyescas’ constitute Granados’ best and most durable as well as his best-known, music. Subtitled ‘Los majos enamorados’ (Young men in love), they are highly imaginative transcriptions into music of the tapestries and pictures of Francisco Goya (1746-1828), the wild and demonic genius who with Velasquez is usually thought of as one of the […]

Two ‘Phase 4’ recordings reappear in their entirety on this double-CD of violin bon-bons. Josef Sakonov’s is of virtuoso violin pieces (including Sarasate’s ‘Zigeunerweisen’) and sentimental miniatures by Godard, Tchaikovsky, Ponce and others. This is the first international release of the complete original LP on CD. Erich Gruenberg’s recording centres around Fritz Kreisler – as […]

Although she disliked being typecast as a Spanish music specialist, there’s no doubt that Alicia de Larrocha’s way with this music is in a class by itself. No matter what the repertoire for a recital she gave, regardless of whether it included Spanish music, she was often called upon by her audiences to provide at […]

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos’s 1965–66 recording of Spanish orchestral favourites was a huge success in its time, not only for the orchestra and conductor’s sense of colour, flamboyance and rhythmic acuity, but also for the sheer panoramic sound-spectrum with the fabled ‘Decca Sound’. Bringing together works both Spanish in origin as well as of Spanish […]