Esteban Sánchez - Albeniz: Iberia, Euceros de viaje, Sonata No. 5 (2021)

Tracklist

01. Iberia, Cahier 1: Evocación
02. Iberia, Cahier 1: El Puerto
03. Iberia, Cahier 1: Corpus Christi en Sevilla
04. Iberia, Cahier 2: Rondena
05. Iberia, Cahier 2: Almería
06. Iberia, Cahier 2: Triana
07. Piano Sonata No. 5 in G-Flat Major, Op. 82: I. Allegro non troppo
08. Piano Sonata No. 5 in G-Flat Major, Op. 82: II. Minueto del Gallo
09. Piano Sonata No. 5 in G-Flat Major, Op. 82: III. Rêverie. Andante
10. Piano Sonata No. 5 in G-Flat Major, Op. 82: IV. Allegro
11. Pavana-Capricho, Op. 12
12. 2 Danzas espagnoles, Op. 164: No. 2, Tango in A Minor
13. 12 Piezas características, Op. 92: No. 12, Torre Bermeja
14. Iberia, Cahier 3: El Albaicín
15. Iberia, Cahier 3: El Polo
16. Iberia, Cahier 3: Lavapiés
17. Iberia, Cahier 4: Málaga
18. Iberia, Cahier 4: Jerez
19. Iberia, Cahier 4: Eritana
20. Recuerdos de Viaje, Op. 71: No. 1, En el Mar
21. Recuerdos de Viaje, Op. 71: No. 2, Leyenda - Barcarola
22. Recuerdos de Viaje, Op. 71: No. 3, Alborada
23. Recuerdos de Viaje, Op. 71: No. 3, En la Alhambra
24. Recuerdos de Viaje, Op. 71: No. 5, Puerta de Tierra
25. Recuerdos de Viaje, Op. 71: No. 6, Rumores de la Caleta
26. Recuerdos de Viaje, Op. 71: No. 7, en la Playa
27. Espana, Op. 165: I. Preludio
28. Espana, Op. 165: II. Tango
29. Espana, Op. 165: III. Malaguena
30. Espana, Op. 165: IV. Serenata
31. Espana, Op. 165: V. Capricho Catalan
32. Espana, Op. 165: VI. Zortzico
33. Suite Espanola No. 1, Op. 47: No. 5, Asturias
34. Cantos de España, Op. 232: No. 4, Cordoba
35. Suite Espanola No. 1, Op. 47: No. 4, Cadiz
36. Suite Espanola No. 1, Op. 47: No. 1, Granada
37. Suite Espanola No. 1, Op. 47: No. 7, Castilla
38. Suite Espanola No. 1, Op. 47: No. 8, Cuba
39. Mallorca, Op. 202
40. Suite Espanola No. 1, Op. 47: No. 3, Sevilla
41. La Vega

Classic accounts of Spanish piano masterpieces by a major if undervalued pianist from the 1960s and 70s.

The French piano luminary Alfred Cortot declared Esteban Sánchez Herrero (1934-1997) to be a ‘musical genius’. Clara Haskil numbered among their colleagues who thought likewise, and Daniel Barenboim wrote: ‘How is it possible? How can Spain have hidden away a performer of this class?’ But Sanchez, born in Badajoz in 1934, shrank from the limelight even after winning several prestigious piano competitions. Having settled back into his native province as a teacher at the Badajoz conservatoire from 1978, he rarely travelled abroad, leaving a series of recordings made in Barcelona between 1968 and 1974 as his most lasting musical legacy.

The highlight of that legacy is widely recognised to be Sanchez’s recording of Iberia, that quintessential masterpiece of Spanish pianism. While Alicia de Larrocha’s name remains indelibly associated with Albéniz’s cycle and its post-Lisztian evocations of folk legends and urban life, Sanchez brought to this music an unrivalled sense of fantasy as well as muscularity. The booklet for this reissue includes an outline of Sanchez’s career, a detailed essay on Iberia and a critical appreciation of both his pianism and its harmonious match with the music of Albéniz.

‘The Catalan composer’s great music is always a personal expression,’ writes the veteran critic Luis Gago, ‘whether it is the memory of a landscape, the perception of a rhythm, or an experience which he could not forget.

Such subjective music needs, almost demands, a performer who will let it breathe freely as its own entity. And this is exactly what Esteban Sánchez does, perhaps in a way no other pianist does.’

Beyond Iberia, Sánchez also recorded several other smaller but still intensely picturesque and evocative cycles by Albéniz such as the Suite española. They are also compiled here, making this set an ideal introduction both to the composer and to the art of a pianist still too little appreciated outside his own country.
‘[Iberia] blazes with what I can only describe as a dark sun. Everything is experienced the raw, without a care for received wisdom, custom or convention. Is this how Albéniz himself sounded?’ Gramophone, June 2012