Albeniz: 4-Hand Piano Music

Albéniz's distinctive musical vocabulary, with its sensual harmonies, rich melodic lines and characteristic rhythmic figures, has ensured lasting popularity, not least in his music for the piano. This album of four-hand piano music reveals the composer's love of Spain's regional music traditions, whether in the glittering sweep of the Suite española No. 1 or in the Rapsodia española where a hypnotic dreamscape meets dramatic outbursts. Two movements from Iberia - one of which is a rarely encountered arrangement by the great Spanish pianist Alicia de Larrocha - reveal a daring modernity that aligns Albéniz with Debussy and Ravel.