Adventure and Fate

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Spanish composer-pianist Enrique Granados whose evocations of Spain helped create a new musical identity for his country.

In 1916, with the Great War at its height, Spanish composer Enrique Granados and his wife found themselves on a boat crossing the Atlantic. Granados was the first Spanish composer to be accorded the honour of a production at New York's Metropolitan Opera House, where Goyescas - his series of piano pieces inspired by Goya had now morphed into an opera - was being premiered. Despite some slightly ill-advised remarks by Granados to the Press, the visit was a great success, and the composer and his wife set off for home with praise ringing in their ears, and more money than they'd ever known. And then disaster struck....

Spanish Dance in E minor
Pablo Casals, cello
Nikolai Mednikoff, piano

Goyescas: Tableau II
Maria Bayo, soprano (Rosario)
Ramon Vargas, tenor (Fernando)
Orfeon Donostiarra
Orquesta Sinfonica de Madrid
Antoni Ros Marba, conductor

Allegro de concierto
Alicia de Larrocha, piano

Dante e Virgilio (Dante)
Orquesta Filarmonica de Gran Canaria
Adrian Leaper, conductor

Reverie
Enrique Granados, piano

Epilogo (Goyescas)
Alicia De Larrocha, piano.