Spanish Romanticism proved an indelible influence on Enrique Granados. With typically Romantic exclusiveness he took only what he wanted from this inspiration. He ignored the satiric violence and turmoil which are so often the other side of the Romantic coin and focused instead on a world of decorously induced passion and sublimated love. The
Valses poéticos (1887) are the reverse of Granados’s masterpiece
Goyescas (music which gave Ernest Newmann ‘the voluptuous sense of passing the fingers through masses of richly coloured jewels’) and are of an almost classic cut and economy. Yet the opening bunny-hop dance in rapid duple time is enlivened with a typically piquant dissonance, and the full-circle return to the first beguiling waltz is one of many surprises that make you wonder why this music is not in the repertoire of many more pianists.
from notes by Bryce Morrison © 2006
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