Iturbis: The “Second” Round of Solo and Duo Piano

The ninth, tenth, and eleventh CDs in Sony Classical’s sixteen-CD collection entitled From Hollywood to the World: The Rediscovered Recordings by Pianist and Conductor José Iturbi offer the “second” collection of piano music performed by José Iturbi. As was the case in the first collection, several of the performances are duos that José performed with his sister Amparo. In this collection, however, none of the tracks present solo performances by Amparo.

Note, however, the scare quotes around the adjective “second.” The recording sessions for the fourth, fifth, and sixth CDs took place between 1950 and 1952, while the three CDs being discussed here were recorded between 1933 and 1949. This left me wondering how much thought was put into the planning of this collection with any consideration for allowing listeners to appreciate how the Iturbis approached their repertoire when they were working in recording studios, rather than in the presence of an audience. This includes the fact that Amaparo’s presence in this “second set” is far more diminished than it had been in the first.

The good news is that the ninth CD provides the first opportunity to listen to José’s approach to two Mozart sonatas, K. 331 in A major and K. 332 in F major. These are probably the most familiar of Mozart’s solo piano sonatas, and I would not be surprised it that was also the case in the Thirties. José’s interpretations may not have been as “historically informed” as performances became during the last quarter of the last century. Nevertheless, he endows each of the two sonatas with his own “brand” of engaging rhetoric. I might even go as far as to say that he was more comfortable playing Mozart than he was in satisfying the more compelling preferences for the solo piano music of Frédéric Chopin (particularly those of shorter durations).

Isaac Albéniz playing the piano for his daughter Laura (photographer unknown, from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

Of far greater interest is the Hispanic side of the repertoire on the tenth and eleventh CDs. The list of composers in the chronological order of their birth years is an impressive one: Domenico Scarlatti (born in Italy in 1685 but spending almost the last 40 years of his life on the Hispanic peninsula), Pietro Domenico Paradies (1707), Isaac Albéniz (1860), Enrique Granados (1867), Manuel de Falla (1876), Manuel Infante (1883), and Iturbi himself (1895). My guess is that most listeners will find the music of at least some of those composers to make for an engaging journey of discovery. For all intents and purposes, Michael Feinstein’s introductory essay says almost nothing about this “Hispanic legacy,” which puts those most interested in listening to the performances in this collection at a disadvantage.