Your favourite three pieces from Iberia, by Albéniz

[ChamberNut]

Vote for up to three of your favourite pieces out of the twelve from Albéniz's monumental and marvelous piano suite, Iberia.  A work I am just familiarizing myself with through different means (original piano, guitar, orchestral).

Too early to say which are my own favourites, but many have made immediate impacts such as Rondeña, Evocación and El Corpus en Sevilla.

[ChamberNut]

Feel free to share your votes and recommendations of recordings in any format (piano, guitar, orchestral or other transcriptions).

[ritter]

I am big fan of Iberia, which I consider a pinnacle not only of Spanish music, but also of the piano repertoire from any place and of any period.

My absolute favourite is, by a wide margin, Rondeña (from Book II). In this old post I try to explain why.

Next is the following piece in Book II, Almería. The development of the thematic material is simply stunning, and there are some moments where the music almost dissolves into hin air the I find simply magical.

Choosing a third favourite is not so easy (there's so many marvels i the whole suite), but the rhythmic complexity of El Albaicín is very appealing to me.

[ChamberNut]

Of course I expected you to chime in @ritter 

[ritter]

Of course I expected you to chime in @ritter 

My pleasure. And now you get me in full agitprop mode : here go my personal recommendations.

I know it's very typical on GMG to say that the best recording of a work is one that is long OOP (and had very limited distribution to start with), but that unfortunately applies, in my case, to Iberia. I've always been an admirer of French pianist Claude Helffer (a man with a very varied repertoire, but who focused mainly on French and avant-garde music). His Iberia was recorded by the obscure Club Français du Disque label in 1963, and reissued on CD on Accord (a French division of Universal) in 2005 (very limited pressing AFAIK).



Masterful phrasing, beautiful touch on that Steinway, superb use of dynamics. Wonderful! I know our @Karl Henning knows the recording, perhaps he can give a more sober opinion of it than me! 

It's available on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=claude+helffer+iberia). Here's Book II (including the best Almería I have ever heard).

Another long-time favourite is homegrown pianist Rafael Orozco's 1992 recording on Auvidis (also OOP, alas):



This pianist died much too young just four years after this was released. In Spain, he is revered, and his recording very highly regarded.

The dark horse in my list of favourite recordings of Iberia (in the original piano version) is Olivier Chauzu Calliope. Another French pianist (of Spanish descent in this case) that does a great job in this masterpiece. This is easier to obtain.



And then, there's the classic Esteban Sánchez recording, originally on the Spanish label Ensayo (with so-so sonics), but reissued by Brilliant Classics, in a set containing other Albéniz pieces played by Sanchez, including a superb La Vega):



I'm not crazy about Alicia de Larrocha (but am clearly in a minority here). For recent recordings, I was very impressed by Nelson Goerner on Alpha (sampled on YouTube). So much so, that I'm thinking of getting the CD (but do I really need an umpteenth Iberia in my collection?).

For the orchestral version, my clear recommendation is Jesús López-Cobos with Cincinnati on Telarc (a label that apparently has collapsed). It has the compete thing, the five pieces orchestrated by Arbós, and the rest later by Surinach).



Jean Morel on Decca / Eloquence is fine (again, the whole suite), with a certain quaint charm, but the sonics are poorer and it's perhaps a tad too polite.

Interesting is the partial orchestration by Spanish avant-garde composer Francisco Guerero (truncated by his premature death). It is available on a Glossa CD:



Note that the orchestral version on Naxos is yet another different orchestration. I was not impressed when I sampled it, and would avoid it.