Alicia de Larrocha (1923-2009)

No. 353 of the ongoing ITYWLTMT series of audio montages can be found in our archives at https://archive.org/details/pcast353

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I have two new montages planned for March – today’s and a “fifth Tuesday” montage in tandem with the Tuesday Blog. The late great Spanish pianist Alicia De Larrocha is our featured artist this week. She is a favourite of mine and as such has been featured in many of our past montages and Tuesday playlists.

Mrs DeLarrocha has a vast repertoire and varied discography as she was the leading Spanish pianist of her time, and widely considered the pre-eminent interpreter of two Spanish composers of the early 20th century: Isaac Albéniz and Enrique Granados; she had a natural advantage in native repertoire, since both her mother and her aunt had been pupils of Granados. Today;s podcast includes a complete performance of Albéniz’s Suite Española, movements of which are more often heard played on the guitar. Another Spanish composer De Larracha recorded extensively is Manuel de Falla, with his four Spanish pieces making the montage this week.

Falla, like so e other Spanish musicians spent time in Paris so to close the montage, I retained a short work for piano and orchestra from an all-French disc. Fauré’s Fantaisie was dedicated to Alfred Cortot, who had asked Fauré as far back as 1902 to write a concertante work for him. The first performance in Paris was given by Cortot on 14 May 1919 at a concert of the Société Nationale de Musique.

I think you will love this music too