Cuentos de Amor

When we play music, we listen to the passages that inspire us, and we listen for emotion. These passages sometimes stay with us in the form of indelible memories, if we hear them at the right time and in the right place. Through experiences like these, music speaks to us and becomes part of our lives. For Waldo Geuns, one such unforgettable musical work is Goyescas by the Spanish composer Enrique Granados. He gives voice to love in all it's joyful and challenging moments in this, his greatest piano suite. Granados uses the titles and the scenographic notes in the score to illustrate how two lovers make overtures to each other as they dance, how their relationship blossoms even as it weathers darker days, until fate ultimately takes it's toll and one of the lovers passes away, leaving the other behind with beautiful memories. Granados, like Rachmaninov, was one of the last great pianist-composers. His mastery of the piano can be heard in his exceptional virtuosity and lyricism.