LDV73

22 GRANADOS_GOYESCAS Howwould you characterise Granados’ style of pianowriting in Goyescas ? What difficulties does it pose? Does it require a special technique to master its rhapsodic aspect, its capricious virtuosity, of which the varied ornaments and the multitude of expression marks for a piano that sometimes seems to ‘speak’ form such an essential part? Granados’s pianistic virtuosity was quite flabbergasting. Thanks to a few rare surviving recordings on piano rolls, we can hear how infinitely free and exceptionally fast his playing was. Technically, one needs unusual resources to tackle Goyescas . First of all, you require considerable flexibility that enables you to grasp the full dimension of the keyboard, then a particularly agile left hand, as well as the ability tomaster very full, complex chords.We’re dealing herewith an almost unreasonable type of pianowriting, which is easy to perceive as being permanently at the mercy of expressive feeling, whatever the technical obstacles. What is striking when you listen to Granados’s playing is the sort of ‘double vision’ it inevitably engenders. In the first place, you’re listening to the work itself, rich in colourful episodes, possessing a very high degree of inspiration, but you’re also listening to the composer’s interpretation of it. After producing the cycle, one has the impression he is now recomposing or even, in this case, repainting it! The rhapsodic aspect is multiplied tenfold, the limits are pushed back and the path of freedom on which he points us assumes the dimensions of infinity.