Alicia de Larrocha is one of the true aristocrats of the piano, and her Lincoln Center recital in March reconfirmed the position of this "first lady of the piano." In a program of mainstream European works by Beethoven and Chopin--a far cry from the Spanish repertoire with which she is so closely associated--she performed with Classical purity and polish, conveying passion but always with fitting restraint.
Her full Spanish name is Alicia de Larrocha y de la Calle, an awe-inspiring verbal fanfare for a performer so diminutive in height and unpretentious in bearing. Most of her life has been spent in Barcelona, where she directs the Marshall Academy. She made her first solo appearance as a young girl of five, and at twelve performed as a concerto soloist with Madrid Symphony Orchestra. In her twenties she began touring internationally, although strong commitments to her family kept her in Spain most of the time. Debuts in London (1953) and the USA (1955) introduced her to a larger audience, but it was with her recordings of Spanish works by Granados and Albeniz that her international reputation took off.
Since then, she has gone on to become one of the world's most recorded artists, and the prizes and awards she has received for these recordings fill several crowded trophy shelves. She has the distinction of two Grammies in a row (1974, for the complete Iberia, and 1975, for the Faure Fantaisie and both Ravel piano concertos, including the fiendishly difficult work for left hand alone). King Juan Carlos of Spain, one of her many, many "fans" (if it is not disrespectful to speak of a king as a "fan"), presented Madame de Larrocha with the country's Medalla de Oro al merito en las Bellas Artes (Gold Medal of Merit in the Arts) in 1982. A few years later, the USA joined the chorus of praise by naming her Musical America's "Musician of the Year."
For better or for worse, Madame de Larrocha has been linked with the music of her native Spain; it was her recordings of Granados, Albeniz, and more modern Spanish composers that first introduced her to a worldwide audience, and these still are her most popular releases. But, as Madame de Larrocha told this reviewer, Mozart was her first love, and she still enjoys most of all the Classical European works that form the basis of our Western tradition. It is almost unfortunate, she said, that people sometimes think she can only play such works as Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain or Ritual Fire Dance. It's a bit like an actor being typecast by physical build or accent, or, in this case, place of birth, and being restricted to one kind of role throughout his life.
Spanish pieces and Madame de Larrocha may be inseparable in the public mind, but critics have been unanimous in praising her performances of the Classical repertoire. Her beloved Mozart heads the list, of course, but later Viennese composers are also beautifully interpreted, and even some of the thundering Romantic works receive strong readings at the hands of this dainty-looking virtuoso.
The first half of Madame de Larrocha's Avery Fisher Hall recital was devoted to two early Beethoven sonatas, the Sonata No. 5 in C minor and Sonata No. 6 in F, both from the Opus 10 set that was written for Countess von Browne. These are among the first of Beethoven's mature works--even the key of C minor already tips us off to the fact that deeper thoughts are stirring in his brain than a purely Classical composer would have
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