Link to review – Review in Revista Musical Catalana. Santi Riu – Granados’ music is the focus of the new album that Catalan pianist Alex Alguacil has just released on Solfa Recordings. While the magnum opus featured is the Goyescas, the recording—which runs for around eighty minutes—includes for the first time all the pieces in which the Lleida-born composer drew inspiration from the Goyaesque universe. Also worth noting is the article written by the pianist himself in the booklet accompanying the CD, entitled Goyescas or the Laments of Granados, which analyzes the works, reviewing the themes and leitmotifs that emerge in the suite, along with some interesting ideas of his own that will help us better understand the album. Alguacil offers a romantic and elegant performance, without losing its meaning, with an evocative and seductive vision, imbued with sensitivity and elegance along with a careful sound and a wide tonal palette. He is able to narrate in detail this colorful and melancholic world with a measured use of the pedal and a light touch. From Los Requiebros of beautiful melodic and rhythmic flair that do not shy away from rubato, the pianist offers a romantic vision, with clear ornamentation based on the jota, where Granados transports us with luminosity and vitality to 18th-century Madrid. Subtlety, poetry, and evocativeness stand out in Quejas or La maja y el ruiseñor with carefully crafted timbre and luminous trills. From an almost improvised introduction, Alex Alguacil draws us into El amor y la muerte, a darker version imbued with drama and pain, with a contrasting performance as elegant and sublime as it is passionate. The album closes with an extroverted version, without excesses, but imbued with energy and a frenetic rhythm, of El pelele, which rounds out a recording made at the Josep Carreras Auditorium in Vila-seca last January. If you want Goyescas without gimmicky effects, with refined sound planes, subtleties, and a beautiful rhythmic and melodic sense, this is a great option, which will also be presented in concert soon in both Catalonia and Japan. Read full review