LDV73

25 JEAN-PHILIPPE COLLARD Like the Iberia of Albéniz, written at almost the same time, around 1910, and completely emancipated from Hispanic folklore, Goyescas suddenly appeared in Granados’s output, on an incomparably higher level than the rather modest, salon-type pieces he had written up to then. Even if the two cycles are very different in nature, how do you view this double mystery in the history of the piano, even more striking in that occurred in the same country? Granados’s admiration for Albéniz, and especially for Iberia , was boundless. Indeed, he encouraged his students to work on this immense epic of a cycle. So it’s easy to imagine that he was driven by the desire to compose such a huge piece himself. If we add that his career as a solo performer was extremely intensive at that time, we can see why the composer was going to ask the pianist to surpass his limits in order to win over his listeners.