Nights In The Gardens Of Spain

This was Alicia de Larrocha’s finest account of Nights in the Gardens of Spain, fully capturing the Andalusian atmosphere of this evocative score. After all, it’s not a work about landscapes and flowers – it’s about love. Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos does a superb job of drawing perfume and color out of an English orchestra.

The music of Ravel is especially close to Alexandre Tharaud’s heart. Now, in partnership with the Orchestre National de France and conductor Louis Langrée, he has recorded both the composer’s piano concertos, pairing them with Noches en los jardines de España (Nights in the Gardens of Spain), Manuel de Falla’s sumptuous work for piano and orchestra. “Ravel’s Concerto in G major is fresh and Mozartian in its colours, while his Concerto for the Left Hand is haunted by dark shades and suppressed fears,” says Tharaud. Both concertos were premiered in 1932. “Characteristically for Ravel, they are simultaneously unique and alike.

"Alicia de Larrocha was the undisputed doyenne of the Spanish piano repertoire, and her performance brings a flexibility and richness that perfectly complements that of the work itself, striking a balance in the climaxes between power and overbearing brutality, and bringing the most delicate filigree to the work where it is called for. And Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos again provides himself to be an ideal conductor for his compatriot, conjuring a sultry palette of colors from his British players."

Martin Cotton, 1001 Classical Recordings you must hear before you die

Martha Argerich’s Ravel G major was for so long a reference recording that it’s easy to forget how idiosyncratic it actually is. I wouldn’t actually blame anyone who found it too garish in its colouring, with its volatility giving diminishing returns and its rubato too predictably appassionato for a sensibility as dapper as Ravel’s. Such a person might well find exactly what they want in Steven Osborne’s account, which is masterful in its own way but essentially self-effacing.