CKD 355 Also available by Artur Pizarro on Linn Records CKD 244 Beethoven piano sonatas CKD 225 Beethoven last three piano sonatas CKD 336 Beethoven piano concertos 3, 4 & 5 with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra & Sir Charles Mackerras CKD 248 Chopin reminiscences CKD 250 Chopin sonatas opp.35 & 58, barcarolle op.60, variations op.12 CKD 290 Ravel the complete piano works volume 1 CKD 315 Ravel the complete piano works volume 2 CKD 293 Rimsky-Korsakov piano duos with Vita Panomariovaite DISC ONE Enrique Granados 1867-1916 Goyescas q I. Los Requiebros 9.46 w II. Coloquio en la reja 13.33 e III. El Fandango del Candil 5.41 r IV. Quejas, ó la Maja y el Ruiseñor 8.05 t V. El amor y la muerte 14.55 y VI. Epilogo 7.40 Isaac Albéniz 1860-1909 Iberia u Book 1 – 1. Evocación 6.24 i Book 1 – 2. El Puerto 4.10 Total Running Time 70.33 DISC TWO Iberia q Book 1 – 3. Fête-Dieu à Seville 9.23 Artur Pizarro piano Book 2 – 4. Rondeña 7.04 w Recorded at Julius Blüthner Pianofortefabrik GmbH, Leipzig, Germany e Book 2 – 5. Almería 9.55 from 2–6 September 2009 r Book 2 – 6. Triana 5.24 Produced and engineered by Philip Hobbs t Book 3 – 7. El Albaicín 7.29 Post-production by Julia Thomas, Finesplice, UK y Book 3 – 8. El Polo 7.05 Design by John Haxby u Book 3 – 9. Lavapiés 6.55 Photography by Sven Arnstein i Book 4 – 10. Málaga 5.23 Piano Technician – Tsuyoshi Yamazaki page two Artur Pizarro plays a Blüthner concert grand piano o Book 4 – 11. Jerez 10.48 (serial number 151893, born on September 1 2009) Book 4 – 12. Eritaña 6.24 a Artur Pizarro’s Worldwide Management – Total Running Time 75.52 Tom Croxon Management: www.tomcroxonmanagement.co.uk page three My travels through the Spain of Albéniz and Granados Campos Coelho. He, in turn, passed this information not only to his students, but also to publishers such as Durand, who acknowledge him in the preface Some of the earliest memories I have of listening to piano music are of to their new Urtext edition of the preludes of Debussy. Such was the rich repertoire by Spanish composers. In the apartment building where my atmosphere in which my first contact with the piano occurred. maternal grandparents, my parents and I lived, my grandmother, Berta da Nóbrega, kept her two pianos. There she practised, taught and rehearsed The second phase of my piano studies began when I was five years old and with Evaristo Campos Coelho, her piano duo partner. Many different works accepted as a student of José Carlos Sequeira Costa. His first gift to me was by Albéniz, Granados, Turina, Maláts and others were not only played an LP he had recorded in Prague of Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit (which I have but taught to the numerous students with whom my grandmother and also had the pleasure to record) and four movements of Iberia (‘El Puerto’, Campos Coelho shared teaching hours. Most repeated among these works ‘Triana’, ‘Malaga’ and ‘Eritaña’). That LP, which was very quickly worn out on were ‘Requiebros’ and ‘Quejas, ó la Maja y el Ruiseñor’ from Goyescas by both sides, was my first contact with those two works and have been part of Granados. I can honestly say that I have known these works all my life. my musical world ever since. I must admit I had to physically grow up before I was able to play either, but the time waiting was spent listening, reading and Campos Coelho, one of the leading pianists and teachers of his day, counted researching all I could find on those works. Sequeira Costa, who was also amongst his pupils – in addition to my grandmother and myself – the composer a pupil of José Vianna da Motta, later studied with Mark Hambourg and António Victorino d’Almeida and the pianist Maria João Pires. He was never Edwin Fischer, and in Paris with Marguerite Long and Jaques Février. The given the support or the opportunity by any Portuguese organisation or latter two of these great pianists and pedagogues were intimately linked with promoter to perform Goyescas in public, a work he mastered. I was privileged the musical and intellectual circles in which Albéniz and Granados moved. to hear one of his private performances of Goyescas at his home surrounded Albéniz dedicated his work Navarra to Marguerite Long. I think it is also of by his students and friends. The importance of mentioning him is simply that interest to note that Albéniz dedicated the work La Vega from his incomplete he came specifically from the world that Granados and Albéniz frequented. Suite Alhambra to José Vianna da Motta, making my links to these works and He studied firstly in Portugal with José Vianna da Motta and then in Paris composers more and more convoluted! with Isidor Philipp. He formed a trio with two other Portuguese students in Paris and was one of many frequent guests at Princesse de Polignac’s soirées One more person I must mention in this recollection is Aldo Ciccolini where the trio often performed. Subsequently Campos Coelho studied with whom I had the pleasure and good fortune to work with in Paris from 1983 Ricardo Viñes in France and in Spain where his knowledge of the piano page four to 1984. I first worked on ‘Evocación’ and another great work of Granados, repertoire from this country became encyclopaedic. Ricardo Viñes had the Allegro de Concierto, with him. Ciccolini has left us many recordings of premiered many works of composers such as Debussy, Ravel, Albéniz and Spanish repertoire and one of the great recordings of Iberia and Goyescas; Granados and his first-hand information would have been invaluable to a truly inspiring artist whose style, technique and Latin temperament are page five so ideally suited to this work. Add to this his ability to inspire young piano International Pianoforte Competition later that year. I don’t think I could hopefuls to persevere, and you have an explosively exciting combination. imitate her, even if I had wanted to, as her interpretation is so thoroughly hers, emotionally, intellectually, and above all, physically. I have never been These are the artists to whom I owe direct gratitude. Others, whose influence afraid of listening to other people’s interpretations as it is a way to learn was maybe a little less direct but no less meaningful, are the ones who from and honour all their time and experience devoted to the music. The influenced me through their recordings or stage performances. Firstly, of fact that it is my body making the gestures (my hands with their different course, must come the one person without whom Spanish classical piano size and length or width of fingers; my age; my cultural background; my life repertoire would not be known nearly as well in the world, the greatly experience), the final result will be something entirely different but made missed Alicia de Larrocha. Her life experience with these works which she richer by all that has trickled through my ears to my brain. so generously shared through her three recordings of Iberia and at least two of Goyescas are the standard by which all are judged. Her recent edition I would like to give a brief explanation of my choice of piano for this recording. of the complete piano works of Granados in collaboration with Douglas I have, over the years, become more and more interested in the piano, not Riva has shed much new light on the multitude of problems – technical and only as the instrument I play and for which amazing repertoire exists, but musical – faced by pianists who, like moths, are attracted to the flame of rather the machine itself, what it can do, and why. This has led me to develop Goyescas. Similarly, I must also mention Antonio Iglesias and Guillermo very interesting relationships with a number of piano builders and without Gonzales whose editions of Iberia finally enabled me to have the courage the richness and variety of their instruments I would feel very limited and to take that work onto the stage and later into the recording studio. Other restricted. I own examples of various makes: Bechstein, Broadwood, Estonia, recordings that have been sources of inspiration are those by Rosa Sabater, Gaveau, Longman & Broderip, Petrof, and Steinway. I really would need Leopoldo Querol, Esteban Sanchez, Ricardo Requejo and Rafael Orozco. a rather large desert island… One of the makes I have probably had the Recordings of individual movements which have also influenced me include longest association with has been Yamaha. I am also charmed and in love Moura Lympany’s and an amazingly moving recording of ‘Quejas, ó la Maja with the sound and touch of Blüthner pianos who, in my opinion, may be the y el Ruiseñor’ by Myra Hess. makers who have been most true to their original sound without alteration. To play them is really to go back in time to the sound from the ‘Golden Age’ Through all the years listening and distilling the information given through of piano building between the World Wars. This was the departure point of those recordings, I heard Alicia de Larrocha’s voice in my head repeating: my choice. I wanted a piano with an action not too dissimilar to the pianos “You must not imitate me!”. She told me this personally when I had the Albéniz and Granados would have had contact with (mainly Gaveaus, Pleyels page six opportunity to hear her live in recital in Kansas City in 1990 and went to see and maybe Érards) and a slightly slimmer, bell-like sound.