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4.5
This disc is a re-release of a 1965 recording by famed Spanish pianist Alicia De Larrocha, featuring the best known work from Andalusian composer Joaquin Turina, the Danzas Fantasticas, along with some of his lesser-known output. The performance is very good, as you’d expect from De Larrocha, a strong pianist who is particularly successful in Spanish and French repertory. De Larrocha plays fluently and musically, and has rapport with the music.Although Turina continued to compose into the 1930s, the bulk of the music here comes from earlier in his career. A short add-in, the “Zapateado” is the earliest composition (1912), with the Danzas Fantasticas dating from 1919 and the Sanlucar de Barameda from 1921. One of the pieces here I liked best, the short “Sacromonte,” is the last written, dating from 1930. If I had to describe Turina’s style using comparisons with his contemporaries, I’d say that he works in a post-impressionistic idiom, with Spanish touches and slightly spiced up harmonies. Is this great music? I don’t think so, but my favorite works from this De Larrocha collection – the Sacromonte and the finale of the Danzas Fantasticas, the “Orgia” – are enjoyable and worth repeated hearings. I found the Danzas Fantasticas the most interesting composition overall, and also enjoyed the middle movement, the “Ensueno” (Dream), an evocative instance of post-impressionistic piano writing, quite a bit.The criticism I’d make of De Larrocha is her decision to program the Sanlucar de Barameda, essentially a sonata, which I found tepid. The title refers to a resort for rich people outside of Turina’s native, Seville, and there is something a tad dutiful and uncommitted about the whole thing. A gifted pianist himself, Turina wrote quite a bit of solo piano music, and I have my doubts that the Sanlucar is a premier selection from this body of work. Turina ends the sonata in Beethoven-like fashion with a melded third and fourth movement constructed around, despite my overall reaction, an attractive fugue. Though the ending works, this isn’t a memorable composition.As the CD is a pure re-release of a vinyl LP, it is fairly short, with about 45 minutes of music. I found the sound engineering lackluster, with some brittleness and thinness in the sound. This is a pretty good introduction to Turina’s art, and De Larrocha makes the best possible case for it.
