Albéniz / Mignone: Piano Concertos

The Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz is one of the many “one-hit wonders” of classical music. With his piano cycle Iberia, he created the ultimate embodiment of what people in the 19th century considered the “Spanish soul.” The score’s fame spread at breathtaking speed throughout Europe and across the “New World.” Arrangements for orchestra (also a worldwide success), guitar, and countless other solo and ensemble combinations followed. What was forgotten in the process was that Albéniz was also a gifted composer in other genres, and created many serious masterpieces for piano as a solo instrument in particular, which, unfortunately, are still rarely performed outside Spain to this day. The British label SOMM Recordings, traditionally known for unusual repertoire presented in first-class sound, has now taken up the cause of rehabilitating Albéniz’s passionate Piano Concerto, Op. 78, and has also included, as a “bonus,” two musical pictures from Albéniz’s popular Suite Espagnole. Almost in passing, we also discover on this highly exciting album the Brazilian composer Francisco Mignone (1897–1986), of whom, at least, I had never heard anything before. This is late Romanticism of the “Rachmaninoff” variety: highly virtuosic, passionate to the point of ecstasy, and featuring an expanded tonality that, in some passages, is indeed astonishingly similar to Rachmaninoff’s; at times, the opening of the Piano Concerto heard here even sounds like a direct quotation from Rachmaninoff’s world-famous Second Piano Concerto. This music, which is very much worth discovering, is performed on this exciting album by one of the world’s finest orchestras, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Soloist Clélia Iruzun and conductor Jac van Steen (former chief conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra and the Musikkollegium Winterthur) form a close-knit team, drawing everything they can from the RPO to give these largely unknown works the best possible showcase. A particular contribution to the latter comes from recording engineer Ben Connellan (who also works for, among others, Grand Piano, Toccata Classics, Chandos, and Hyperion), who has once again delivered a sonic highlight with a wonderfully velvety sound. This makes the recording a top recommendation for all lovers of lush, highly virtuosic late Romantic music. For piano fans, the album is an essential purchase anyway, as it represents a valuable addition to the repertoire in a successful interpretation.