In a new feature for International Piano, pianist Charlotte Hu offers an intimate look into her PENTATONE recording of Granados’s Goyescas and two of his Danzas españolas, revealing her deep love of Spanish character and colour.
Hu traces her first encounter with the Goyescas back to her Juilliard years, when she was captivated by the work’s poetry, its vivid characters, and the emotional depth woven through its six movements. Inspired by the paintings of Francisco Goya, the suite brings to life the majos and majas of old Madrid, figures who, as Hu describes, “loved openly and suffered openly.” She speaks about treating the piano “as a singer,” giving each note “life and a soul,” and reflects on the emotional apex of the cycle, “El amor y la muerte,” the first movement she ever learned and one she fell in love with for its “searing, raw emotions.”
Read Charlotte Hu’s full feature in International Piano‘s website.
