Enrique Granados - Piano Music, Vol. 2 (Douglas Riva)

Information

Composer: Enrique Granados

• Goyescas
• El pelele
• Serenata goyesca

Douglas Riva, piano

Date: 1999

Label: Naxos

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Review

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.

— Jed Distler

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Enrique Granados (27 July 1867 – 24 March 1916) was a Spanish composer and pianist from Catalonia. A student of Felipe Pedrell, he rose to prominence with his Danzas españolas and soon established himself as one of Spain's foremost pianists. In addition to his celebrated piano works, Granados also composed several operas and founded a piano academy in Barcelona. Deeply influenced by 18th-century and Spanish artistic traditions, he created the renowned Goyescas, inspired by the paintings of Francisco Goya. Granados's life ended tragically when the Sussex was torpedoed during his return voyage from New York.

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Douglas Riva is an American classical pianist renowned for his expertise in Spanish music, particularly of Enrique Granados. He began studying piano and flute at nine and started his professional career as principal flautist with the El Paso Symphony at sixteen before focusing solely on piano. Trained at Juilliard and NYU under Adele Marcus and Eugene List, he later studied in Barcelona at the Academia Marshall. Riva has performed internationally, including at the White House and Carnegie Hall. As a scholar, Riva is the Assistant Director of the 18-volume critical edition of the Complete Works for Piano of Granados.

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