I wish I could recommend Jean-François Heisser’s comfortable, idiomatic way with Granados’ Goyescas. But I can’t, because this 1996 recording suffers from close-up, airless, drab engineering that compromises the music’s wide dynamic range and reduces the composer’s dark, smoldering colors to pleasant black and white etchings. The 1991 Granados recital containing the 12 Danzas españolas and six Escenas románticas benefits from slightly fuller sound and more inspired piano playing. For example, in the Escenas Heisser projects the Mazurca’s recurring theme with subtle and meaningful variations in timing and inflection, while the organic push and pull of his rubatos in the Allegro appassionato underscore the piano writing’s Schumannesque turbulence and canonic inner voices. Heisser’s memorable moments in the Danzas españolas include the heel-kicking momentum of Andaluza’s guitar-like repeated phrases and Valenciana’s superb rhythmic characterization. However, Heisser shapes Orientale’s dreamy outer sections too perfunctorily and drags the middle section to sleep. Let’s hope Warner Classics’ Apex line will revive Heisser’s terrific Albéniz Iberia, formerly accredited to Joyce Hatto!
