Javier Perianes, Cuarteto Quiroga - Granados & Turina: The performances present both works in the best light

Granados: Piano Quintet; Turina: Piano Quintet; CaliopeJavier Perianes (piano), Cuarteto QuirogaHarmonia Mundi HMC 9022264

Piano Quintets, Granados, Turina
    
Artist: Javier Perianes, Cuarteto Quiroga, Enrique Granados, Joaquín Turina
Genre: Classical
Label: Harmonia Mundi

These two Spanish quintets are far enough away from the mainstream never to have featured among the three dozen or so piano quintet performances at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival. Although Granados has been called a Spanish Grieg, some of the tunefulness of this characterful quintet is more reminiscent of Dvorak.

The première of the Turina in Paris occasioned a meeting between Turina, Falla and Albéniz that was to herald a new kind of nationalism in Spanish music. The quintet, however, is Franckian in manner, though not as weighty as that adjective sometimes implies. The performances present both works in the best light.

url.ie/55ay

Michael Dervan

Michael Dervan

Michael Dervan is a music critic and Irish Times contributor