Michael Schulman has reviewed Charlotte Hu’s Goyescas for the Canadian magazine The WholeNote, and the verdict is clear: her recording is riveting listening throughout.
Schulman opens with the story behind Granados’s suite, inspired by the paintings of Goya, and walks the listener through its six movements: the flamenco serenade of Los Requiebros, the intimate dialogue of Coloquio en la Reja, the pulsating dance of El Fandango del Candil, the heartbroken love song Quejas o la Maja y el Ruiseñor, the sombre drama of El Amor y la Muerte, and the eerie fantasia of the Epílogo. In Hu’s hands, he writes, the bar lines seem to disappear and consecutive measures are rarely in the same tempo. He finds her phrasing unpredictable and remarkably flexible, and he welcomes the two Danzas españolas she adds as encores, No. 2 “Oriental” and No. 5 “Andaluza”, closing the review with a heartfelt “Brava!”
Goyescas was released on 5 June and pairs Granados’s complete Goyescas suite with these two Danzas españolas.
Read the full review in The WholeNote, October & November 2026 issue.