Hyperion Records

Albéniz left two works unfinished at his death: Azulejos (‘Tiles’), which was completed by Enrique Granados, and Navarra, which was first completed by Albéniz’s pupil Déodat de Séverac. Unusually, however, Marc-André Hamelin plays here the more thorough completion of Navarra by William Bolcom (b1938); whereas de Séverac wraps up Albéniz’s music to bring it to a satisfactory conclusion, Bolcom makes a more substantial and stylistically convincing work with a recapitulation of Albéniz’s opening material and a coda (Bolcom’s completion commences at 4'51''). Albéniz had originally intended to include Navarra in the last book of Iberia, but then he decided that it was ‘shamelessly cheap’ and did not belong there; he composed ‘Jerez’ as a substitute. From our perspective, Navarra seems more than worthy of inclusion in Iberia, as it exhibits the same masterful exposition and development of folkloric themes in the context of sonata form.

from notes by Walter Aaron Clark © 2005