Stephen Hough’s Spanish Album

Soundbite 60

Here we write a short précis of a CD or DVD giving you a concise summary in a sixty-word soundbite

0 of 5 stars

The Spaniards:
Soler
Sonata in F sharp minor, Rubio 90
Granados
Valses poéticos
Albéniz
Iberia – Evocación [Book I]; Triana [Book II]
Mompou
Impresiones íntimas – Pájaro triste; La barca; Secreto; Gitano
Longas
Aragón
The Frenchmen:
Debussy
Estampes – La soirée dans Grenade
Préludes – La sérénade interrompue [Book I]; La Puerta del Vino [Book II]
Ravel
Pièce en forme de Habanera [arr. Domesnil]
The Others:
Albéniz/Godowsky
Tango
Scharwenka
Spanisches Ständchen, Op.63/1
Niemann
Evening in Seville
Hough
On Falla


Reviewed by: Colin Anderson

Reviewed: December 2006
CD No: HYPERION CDA67565
Duration: 72 minutes

Soler offers joyous welcome, Granados insouciant pleasure; Albéniz is mysterious and sultry, Mompou dreamy and refined. Longas lets the (Spanish) sunshine in. Debussy is the consummate painter and (Spanish) linguist, Ravel the precise fantasist. Godowsky adds twists to Albéniz’s Tango; Scharwenka serenades with a Spanish lilt. Niemann romances, and Mr Hough is a master impersonator. Wonderful playing; wide-ranging sound. Maravilloso!

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