For pianism alone, Marc-André Hamelin’s effortless proficiency throughout Albéniz’s demanding Iberia suite sets new standards in this work. The composer’s elaborate textures never fail to emerge in breathtakingly clear perspective, such as Málaga’s thick, swirling chords, or the taxing chains of broken octaves in El Corpus en Sevilla. Aggressive grit and velvet nuance playfully mingle in El puerto and Jerez, while Triana’s dancing patterns rarely have sounded so nimble and debonair. Granted, I prefer Alicia de Larrocha’s more characterful depiction of the aforementioned El Corpus en Sevilla’s processional rhythms and her more direct, less rubato-laden interpretation of Evocación’s brooding subtext. Yet there’s no question that Hamelin realizes his conceptions to pluperfection.
The fillers showcase Hamelin’s lyrical gifts at their most fluent and communicative. For example, his multi-leveled control of soft sonorities and astounding double-note technique cast a riveting spell over the underrated and difficult-to-sustain large-scale La Vega. The performance is quite different from Miguel Baselga’s more volatile, impulsive reading on BIS, and equally convincing. Hamelin also offers William Bolcom’s completion of Albéniz’s unfinished Navarra, a longer, more worked out, and substantial solution than de Séverac’s more familiar and relatively perfunctory conclusion. In sum, Hamelin’s masterful artistry does Albéniz proud. Warmly recommended.
