Enrique Granados (1867-1916)

Series

Episode

Title

First
Broadcast

Repeated

Comments

2011

The Maja And The Nightingale

20110411

Granados grew up in Barcelona in tumultuous but exciting times, as the city became an industrial and commercial powerhouse, and a distinctively Catalan cultural centre. But the composer drew as much from the art of Madrid as from his home city, in particular the paintings of Goya and the majas and majos - streetwise, brazen, dashing men and women - that populate them. Donald Macleod looks at aspects of Granados' early life, including his piano studies in Paris, and some of the major influences on his work.

Donald Macleod explores the influence on Granados of the art of Goya.

2011

The Flirtations

20110412

As the structure of Barcelona changed and spread out from the gothic quarter and the harbour at the end of the 19th century, new organisations blossomed in the city, and concert life flourished. Granados played his part, starting new performance groups and organizing concerts, but his greatest achievement was the founding of a music college, the Academia Granados, in 1901. Donald Macleod looks at the ethos of the college, Granados' teaching style, and his attractiveness to his mostly female students - to hear him speaking in class was 'sheer poetry', according to one of them.

Donald Macleod explores Granados's work as a teacher and performer.

2011

Dialogue At A Window

20110413

Granados was drawn to the work of Goya at a time when Spain was searching its past for great figures, and struggling to redefine herself in the wake of military defeats. The fifth of Goya's Caprichos inspired the opening movement of Granados' masterpiece, the piano cycle Goyescas. The composer himself sketched the subject of the second movement, in which a man and woman are having a private conversation through a screen - the real-life inspiration behind this piece may have been Clotilde Godo, with whom Granados was having an intense affair.

Donald Macleod explores Granados's masterpiece, the piano cycle Goyescas.

2011

Love And Death

20110414

Granados' opera Goyescas, based closely on the piano cycle, was premiered in New York in 1916, and won him a warm reception there. The closing scene of the opera was inspired by Goya's Capricho El amor y la muerte, Love and Death, depicting a woman holding a dying man in her arms, which proved to be a premonition of his own death: as Granados and his wife made the journey home by sea, their ship, the Sussex, was torpedoed in the English Channel. A friend witnessed their tragic deaths: 'He embraced his wife, and they disappeared forever beneath the waves. In the panic and confusion, no one thought to or was able to help them.' Donald Macleod explores the genesis of Granados' opera, which proved to be both the climax and the conclusion of his career.

Donald Macleod on the climax and conclusion of Granados's career - the opera Goyescas.

2011

05 LAST

The Ghost's Serenade

20110415

When Granados and his wife were returning home to Spain after the premiere of his opera Goyescas in New York, their ship, the Sussex, was hit by a German torpedo in the English Channel. The composer's tragic death became an international incident. Donald Macleod examines the fallout, and explores Granados' legacy.

Donald Macleod focuses on the fallout from Granados's tragic death and his legacy.

2016

Sketches Of Spain

20160321

20170814 (R3)

Few musical voices are as evocative of Spain as that of Enrique Granados; and in this series of programmes Donald Macleod traces the life and career of this visionary, mercurial, and passionate musical personality. As a child, Granados's musical imagination was first fired by hearing the sound of a harp through the wall of his parents' Barcelona flat; and trying to mimic those sounds on the piano, he quickly mastered the instrument well enough to play in local cafes. Growing up into a society where formal public music making was still in its infancy, he went on to play a vital role in defining what a Spanish composer might be.

El fandango de candil

from Goyescas, piano suite

Eric Parkin, piano

La maja y el ruiseကor (Goyescas)

Sylvia Schwartz, soprano

Malcolm Martineau, piano

Allegro vivace

Douglas Riva, piano

Preludio

Alicia de Larrocha, piano

Miel de la Alcarria

Orquesta Filharmonica de Gran Canaria

Adrian Leaper, conductor

Piano Quintet

LOM Piano Trio

Goyescas: Book 1 No.1: Los requiebros

Alicia de Larrocha, piano.

Donald Macleod begins an exploration of the life and work of Enrique Granados.

2016

Home And Away

20160322

20170815 (R3)

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Enrique Granados; a composer who, as much as any, presented a vision of Spain to the modern world

A quickly sketched caricature by one of history's greatest opera singers: of dark languid eyes, and a fine drooping moustache. This was how Enrico Caruso portrayed Enrique Granados. In today's programme Donald Macleod finds Granados meeting his wife to be - a story of pauper and princess if ever there was - and finding his musical voice through improvisation, public performance, and research tours across the Spanish countryside.

Tonadillas, Nos 1-7

Bernarda Fink, mezzo-soprano

Anthony Spiri, piano,

El pelele (Goyescas)

Enrique Granados, piano

Valenciana (Spanish Dance No.7)

Spanish Dance No.1

Alicia de Larrocha, piano

Danza triste (Spanish Dance No.10)

Andres Segovia, guitar

Escenas romanticas

Uta Weyand, piano.

Donald Macleod on how Granados met his wife-to-be, and how he found his musical voice.

2016

Interesting Times

20160323

20170816 (R3)

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Spanish composer-pianist Enrique Granados whose evocations of Spain helped create a new musical identity for his country.

Enrique Granados lived in interesting times. He was able to enjoy the friendship of brilliant contemporary colleagues such as the cellist Pablo Casals and pianist Ricardo Viကes, and he witnessed a cultural and physical renaissance of his home city of Barcelona. But the infrastructure of music-making was still flimsy, and Granados often struggled to make ends meet for his family. His career encompassed teaching, playing and composing, and much travel across Spain in search of opportunities. One such trip to Madrid in 1894 yielded one of Granados's greatest successes - his Piano Trio - and today Donald Macleod's narrative includes a rare opportunity to hear it.

Intermezzo (Goyescas)

Philharmonia Orchestra,

Herbert von Karajan, conductor

Prelude to Maria del Carmen

Enrique Granados, piano

Madrigal for cello and piano

Piano Trio Salzburg

Miel de la Alcarria

Douglas Riva, piano

LOM Piano Trio

La maja de Goya

Julian Bream, guitar.

Donald Macleod focuses on Granados's friendships and the renaissance of his home city.

2016

Barcelona In Mind

20160324

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Spanish composer-pianist Enrique Granados whose evocations of Spain helped create a new musical identity for his country.

Although Enrique Granados is widely regarded as being a Spanish composer, he was first and foremost a Catalan. He had the extraordinary good luck to grow up in Barcelona, just as the vision of architects such as Gaudi was transforming it into a unique and vibrant cityscape. Today Donald Macleod looks at how a dynamic new city, home to Granados for most of his life, exercised a powerful influence on the composer.

A la cubana

Thomas Rajna, piano

Violin Sonata

Piano Trio Salzburg

Libro de horas

Salve Regina

Coro Cervantes

Carlos Fernandez Aransay, Director

Tansy Castledine, organ

Serenata goyesca

Douglas Riva, piano

Valses poeticos

Uta Weyand, piano.

Donald Macleod on how Granados's home city of Barcelona had a powerful influence on him.

2016

05 LAST

Adventure And Fate

20160325

20170818 (R3)

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Spanish composer-pianist Enrique Granados whose evocations of Spain helped create a new musical identity for his country.

In 1916, with the Great War at its height, Spanish composer Enrique Granados and his wife found themselves on a boat crossing the Atlantic. Granados was the first Spanish composer to be accorded the honour of a production at New York's Metropolitan Opera House, where Goyescas - his series of piano pieces inspired by Goya had now morphed into an opera - was being premiered. Despite some slightly ill-advised remarks by Granados to the Press, the visit was a great success, and the composer and his wife set off for home with praise ringing in their ears, and more money than they'd ever known. And then disaster struck....

Spanish Dance in E minor

Pablo Casals, cello

Nikolai Mednikoff, piano

Goyescas: Tableau II

Maria Bayo, soprano (Rosario)

Ramon Vargas, tenor (Fernando)

Orfeon Donostiarra

Orquesta Sinfonica de Madrid

Antoni Ros Marba, conductor

Allegro de concierto

Alicia de Larrocha, piano

Dante e Virgilio (Dante)

Orquesta Filarmonica de Gran Canaria

Adrian Leaper, conductor

Reverie

Enrique Granados, piano

Epilogo (Goyescas)

Alicia De Larrocha, piano.

Donald Macleod discusses Granados's final years and his unfortunate death at sea.

Episodes

Series	Episode	Title	First Broadcast	Repeated	Comments
2011	01	The Maja And The Nightingale	20110411		Granados grew up in Barcelona in tumultuous but exciting times, as the city became an industrial and commercial powerhouse, and a distinctively Catalan cultural centre. But the composer drew as much from the art of Madrid as from his home city, in particular the paintings of Goya and the majas and majos - streetwise, brazen, dashing men and women - that populate them. Donald Macleod looks at aspects of Granados' early life, including his piano studies in Paris, and some of the major influences on his work. Donald Macleod explores the influence on Granados of the art of Goya.
2011	02	The Flirtations	20110412		As the structure of Barcelona changed and spread out from the gothic quarter and the harbour at the end of the 19th century, new organisations blossomed in the city, and concert life flourished. Granados played his part, starting new performance groups and organizing concerts, but his greatest achievement was the founding of a music college, the Academia Granados, in 1901. Donald Macleod looks at the ethos of the college, Granados' teaching style, and his attractiveness to his mostly female students - to hear him speaking in class was 'sheer poetry', according to one of them. Donald Macleod explores Granados's work as a teacher and performer.
2011	03	Dialogue At A Window	20110413		Granados was drawn to the work of Goya at a time when Spain was searching its past for great figures, and struggling to redefine herself in the wake of military defeats. The fifth of Goya's Caprichos inspired the opening movement of Granados' masterpiece, the piano cycle Goyescas. The composer himself sketched the subject of the second movement, in which a man and woman are having a private conversation through a screen - the real-life inspiration behind this piece may have been Clotilde Godo, with whom Granados was having an intense affair. Donald Macleod explores Granados's masterpiece, the piano cycle Goyescas.
2011	04	Love And Death	20110414		Granados' opera Goyescas, based closely on the piano cycle, was premiered in New York in 1916, and won him a warm reception there. The closing scene of the opera was inspired by Goya's Capricho El amor y la muerte, Love and Death, depicting a woman holding a dying man in her arms, which proved to be a premonition of his own death: as Granados and his wife made the journey home by sea, their ship, the Sussex, was torpedoed in the English Channel. A friend witnessed their tragic deaths: 'He embraced his wife, and they disappeared forever beneath the waves. In the panic and confusion, no one thought to or was able to help them.' Donald Macleod explores the genesis of Granados' opera, which proved to be both the climax and the conclusion of his career. Donald Macleod on the climax and conclusion of Granados's career - the opera Goyescas.
2011	05 LAST	The Ghost's Serenade	20110415		When Granados and his wife were returning home to Spain after the premiere of his opera Goyescas in New York, their ship, the Sussex, was hit by a German torpedo in the English Channel. The composer's tragic death became an international incident. Donald Macleod examines the fallout, and explores Granados' legacy. Donald Macleod focuses on the fallout from Granados's tragic death and his legacy.
2016	01	Sketches Of Spain	20160321	20170814 (R3)	Few musical voices are as evocative of Spain as that of Enrique Granados; and in this series of programmes Donald Macleod traces the life and career of this visionary, mercurial, and passionate musical personality. As a child, Granados's musical imagination was first fired by hearing the sound of a harp through the wall of his parents' Barcelona flat; and trying to mimic those sounds on the piano, he quickly mastered the instrument well enough to play in local cafes. Growing up into a society where formal public music making was still in its infancy, he went on to play a vital role in defining what a Spanish composer might be. El fandango de candil from Goyescas, piano suite Eric Parkin, piano La maja y el ruiseကor (Goyescas) Sylvia Schwartz, soprano Malcolm Martineau, piano Allegro vivace Douglas Riva, piano Preludio Alicia de Larrocha, piano Miel de la Alcarria Orquesta Filharmonica de Gran Canaria Adrian Leaper, conductor Piano Quintet LOM Piano Trio Goyescas: Book 1 No.1: Los requiebros Alicia de Larrocha, piano. Donald Macleod begins an exploration of the life and work of Enrique Granados.
2016	02	Home And Away	20160322	20170815 (R3)	Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Enrique Granados; a composer who, as much as any, presented a vision of Spain to the modern world A quickly sketched caricature by one of history's greatest opera singers: of dark languid eyes, and a fine drooping moustache. This was how Enrico Caruso portrayed Enrique Granados. In today's programme Donald Macleod finds Granados meeting his wife to be - a story of pauper and princess if ever there was - and finding his musical voice through improvisation, public performance, and research tours across the Spanish countryside. Tonadillas, Nos 1-7 Bernarda Fink, mezzo-soprano Anthony Spiri, piano, El pelele (Goyescas) Enrique Granados, piano Valenciana (Spanish Dance No.7) Spanish Dance No.1 Alicia de Larrocha, piano Danza triste (Spanish Dance No.10) Andres Segovia, guitar Escenas romanticas Uta Weyand, piano. Donald Macleod on how Granados met his wife-to-be, and how he found his musical voice.
2016	03	Interesting Times	20160323	20170816 (R3)	Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Spanish composer-pianist Enrique Granados whose evocations of Spain helped create a new musical identity for his country. Enrique Granados lived in interesting times. He was able to enjoy the friendship of brilliant contemporary colleagues such as the cellist Pablo Casals and pianist Ricardo Viကes, and he witnessed a cultural and physical renaissance of his home city of Barcelona. But the infrastructure of music-making was still flimsy, and Granados often struggled to make ends meet for his family. His career encompassed teaching, playing and composing, and much travel across Spain in search of opportunities. One such trip to Madrid in 1894 yielded one of Granados's greatest successes - his Piano Trio - and today Donald Macleod's narrative includes a rare opportunity to hear it. Intermezzo (Goyescas) Philharmonia Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan, conductor Prelude to Maria del Carmen Enrique Granados, piano Madrigal for cello and piano Piano Trio Salzburg Miel de la Alcarria Douglas Riva, piano LOM Piano Trio La maja de Goya Julian Bream, guitar. Donald Macleod focuses on Granados's friendships and the renaissance of his home city.
2016	04	Barcelona In Mind	20160324		Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Spanish composer-pianist Enrique Granados whose evocations of Spain helped create a new musical identity for his country. Although Enrique Granados is widely regarded as being a Spanish composer, he was first and foremost a Catalan. He had the extraordinary good luck to grow up in Barcelona, just as the vision of architects such as Gaudi was transforming it into a unique and vibrant cityscape. Today Donald Macleod looks at how a dynamic new city, home to Granados for most of his life, exercised a powerful influence on the composer. A la cubana Thomas Rajna, piano Violin Sonata Piano Trio Salzburg Libro de horas Salve Regina Coro Cervantes Carlos Fernandez Aransay, Director Tansy Castledine, organ Serenata goyesca Douglas Riva, piano Valses poeticos Uta Weyand, piano. Donald Macleod on how Granados's home city of Barcelona had a powerful influence on him.
2016	05 LAST	Adventure And Fate	20160325	20170818 (R3)	Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Spanish composer-pianist Enrique Granados whose evocations of Spain helped create a new musical identity for his country. In 1916, with the Great War at its height, Spanish composer Enrique Granados and his wife found themselves on a boat crossing the Atlantic. Granados was the first Spanish composer to be accorded the honour of a production at New York's Metropolitan Opera House, where Goyescas - his series of piano pieces inspired by Goya had now morphed into an opera - was being premiered. Despite some slightly ill-advised remarks by Granados to the Press, the visit was a great success, and the composer and his wife set off for home with praise ringing in their ears, and more money than they'd ever known. And then disaster struck.... Spanish Dance in E minor Pablo Casals, cello Nikolai Mednikoff, piano Goyescas: Tableau II Maria Bayo, soprano (Rosario) Ramon Vargas, tenor (Fernando) Orfeon Donostiarra Orquesta Sinfonica de Madrid Antoni Ros Marba, conductor Allegro de concierto Alicia de Larrocha, piano Dante e Virgilio (Dante) Orquesta Filarmonica de Gran Canaria Adrian Leaper, conductor Reverie Enrique Granados, piano Epilogo (Goyescas) Alicia De Larrocha, piano. Donald Macleod discusses Granados's final years and his unfortunate death at sea.