Peter Donohoe's discography is wide-ranging and richly inclusive. From Beethoven to Tippett, Mozart to Dominic Muldowney. Chopin to Messiaen etc . Happy to set on record the widest diversity of music, his performances are united by a common denominator; an unswerving and proudly declared belief that true musicianship or quality occurs when a balance is maintained between composer and performer, between creator and recreator with the bias very much towards the composer; the composer knows best. I am assuming that for him Jorge Bolet's declaration that he went to hear Josef Hofmann in Beethoven, not Beethoven played by Josef Hofmann, suggests a back to front lack of perspective. I am also assuming sympathy for Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's disdain for Vladimir Horowitz when in a single appearance with the pianist he instinctively sensed Horowitz's wish to dominate, a love of the lime light that insured there would be no partnership pf equals. Again, and turning from performer to composer, I also assume that Ravel's cold response after a sentimental and exaggerated performance of his Pavane, ' it is sufficient to play my music,' represents an attitude after his own heart. So, musical honesty and transparency above all.
Many years have passed since Donohoe's triumph in Russia's 1982 Tchaikovsky Competition, for me a distant but indelible memory, and also of a magisterial, indeed awe-inspiring performance of the Busoni Piano Concerto at the 1990 Proms. And so, I have felt the need to place his most recent recording in some form of context. And I should start by saying that it is rare for any performer, be they pianist, singer, actor , to excel equally in every composer or author(the stage is littered with actor's who unwisely took on the role of 'Hamlet' only to end in despair and critical disparagement). And so, to Chandos's selection from the twin masterpieces of Spanish keyboard music, Albeniz 'Iberia' and Grandos 'Goyescas.'
This in a sense places the record outside comparison with other complete cycles of both works, which, despite being exotic outposts of the repertoire, have been frequently recorded. The demands of both radically different works('Iberia' is largely devoted to the deep south, to Andalucia, the land of flamenco, the gypsy Spain, the other to the paintings of Goya and the urban environment of Madrid) are savage(Albeniz feared that pianists would find 'Iberia' unplayable) and Blanche de Selva was a courageous lady when she gave the first performance. The complete cycle was also played throughout Spain early in Artur Rubinstein's career. His success was wildly celebrated by the Spanish who travelled from city to city to hear him, astonished at his natural empathy for music far remote from his Polish nationality. Rubinstein never recorded a complete 'Iberia' conscious that his emendations to the score('Albeniz needed a helping hand here and there') might provoke purists who wanted every teeming note to be heard. Yet if 'Iberia's demands are extreme at one level they are still greater at another. The spirit of the music is elusive and difficult if not impossible to enter for other than Spanish pianists, for those in touch with very essence or soul of Spain. More generally, Faure was lost in admiration for Albeniz. Debussy came to 'recognise the atmosphere of Spanish evenings, scented with carnations and brandy' while for Ernest Newman 'one has (in the 'Goyescas') the voluptuous sense of passing one's fingers through masses of richly coloured jewels—it is pianoforte music of the purest kind.' For Messiaen Albeniz was 'parmi les etoiles.' Yet both cycles positively cry out through an elaboration the reverse of economy for an imagination and subjectivity above and beyond the teeming notes. Having greatly admired Donohoe's command and unstinting musical honesty in his recent Chopin and Rachmaninov album I now find him, like so many others, miscast. I missed the sultry undertow in the opening 'Evocacion'(a poetic alternative to Albeniz original title, 'Prelude'). 'El Puerto' is heavy going(try Benjamin Grosvenor's recording made when he was still a teenager where the music positively dances off the page). There is greater success in the wild jubilation, in the massive carillon of bells in 'Fete Dieu a Seville Corpus Christi en Sevilla' though the sensuous magic of the central section is smoothed over almost as if its insinuating poetry was indiscreet. The girl from Ronda('Rondena) has put on weight since we last met her. Once blithe and flirtatious she now heads towards middle age and, to quote from Schumann's 'Kinderszenen,' is 'almost too serious.' Donohoe's generalised musicianship becomes a slim virtue in 'Almeria' and there is a notably tame start to the 'Pas Doble' of 'Triana.'
Turning to the 'Goyescas' there is again, though to a lesser extent in music where urbanity replaces the heated world of 'Iberia,' more sense than sensibility. There is greater freedom and elasticity in 'Coloquie en la reja,' but the 'El Fandango die candil' needs sharper rhythmic definition(it is marked 'con ritmo') and the 'Quejas o la maja et ruisenor('(The maiden and the nightingale) is too literal to be romantic or magically evocative.
My overall feeling is of a pianist offering one thing when he should be offering another. There are too many hurdles strenuously rather than exuberantly negotiated. Impetus and joi de vivre are in short supply. You will hear more of the qualities outlined above from Benjamin Grosvenor(he offers the whole of Book 1 making you long for him to return to Spain and complete 'Iberia'), Yuja Wang has more of the spirit of the thing in 'Triana.' while Alicia de Larrocha remains incomparable in both works(her first 'Iberia' and Decca recording of 'Goyescas.') Chandos sound is superb and there are excellent notes by NIgel Simeone and by the pianist himself.
Bryce Morrison