Spanish Romanticism proved an indelible influence on Enrique Granados. With typically Romantic exclusiveness he took only what he wanted from this inspiration. He ignored the satiric violence and turmoil which are so often the other side of the Romantic coin and focused instead on a world of decorously induced passion and sublimated love. The Valses poéticos (1887) are the reverse of Granados’s masterpiece Goyescas (music which gave Ernest Newmann ‘the voluptuous sense of passing the fingers through masses of richly coloured jewels’) and are of an almost classic cut and economy. Yet the opening bunny-hop dance in rapid duple time is enlivened with a typically piquant dissonance, and the full-circle return to the first beguiling waltz is one of many surprises that make you wonder why this music is not in the repertoire of many more pianists. (Source Bryce Morrison)

The Allegro de concierto in C♯ major, Op. 46, is a virtuosic showpiece composed between 1903 and 1904. Its lyricism and technical brilliance, reminiscent of Franz Liszt, have made it one of the composer’s most popular works.

El pelele translates as ‘The straw man’. The influence of Scarlatti is especially marked here, in the sheer delight Granados takes in sensual virtuosity and irrepressible bonhomie. The pelele was a life-size straw man that young women enjoyed tossing up in the air, using a blanket that they held at the corners as a kind of trampoline. Goya portrayed the scene unforgettably in one of his tapestry cartoons, and the giddy exuberance of this music makes El pelele one of Granados’s most memorable compositions (Source Walter Aaron Clark)