Jose Iturbi's Gorgeous Spanish Recital

Columbia 33CX 1734
Spanish Piano Music by Albeniz and Granados

Albeniz:

Asturias (No. 5 of "Suite española")

Sevillañas (No. 3 of "Suite española")

Cadiz (No. 4 of "Suite española") (Sérenade espagnole, Op. 181)

Tango in D major, Op. 165 No. 2

Córdoba (No. 4 of "Cantos de España", Op. 232)

Granados: 

Allegro di Concierto in C sharp major

Spanish Dance No. 5 in E minor ("Andaluza")

Spanish Dance No. 10 in G major

Spanish Dance No. 12 in A minor

José Iturbi, piano

Matrix numbers: XLX 705 21C / 794 21F

This is a truly delightful recital of popular Spanish piano music from Spanish-born pianist, conductor, harpsichordist, and actor José Iturbi (1895-1980). I have to admit, until I discovered Iturbi's recordings for Columbia, I was not familiar with his name or work. I found a web site dedicated to Iturbi that provides a pretty detailed account of his life and work (joseiturbi.com). If you're interested in learning more about this multi-talented artist, I encourage you to check it out.

Released in 1961, this album in its stereo UK pressing (SAX 2391) is extremely rare and almost always fetches a lot of money on the used LP market (median price $187, maximum $766 USD according to Popsike). There is also the original French Columbia stereo release (SAXF 106), also quite valuable, and well as the US Angel stereo (S35628), which can be found pretty readily for quite cheap. Since this is a solo instrumental recording, I figured I'd give the mono UK version a try since that was far less expensive than the SAX and I didn't think I'd be sacrificing that much in terms of sound quality. The mono pressing uses French Pathé matrices. My copy came with a leaflet advertisement from Columbia, which I photographed above.

Iturbi performs these Spanish works beautifully and with aplomb. He plays with such a lovely tone and really makes the melodies in each piece sing. I was familiar with most of the Albeniz pieces but less so with the Granados compositions. Granados' Allegro di Concierto was a new and welcome discovery for me, and Iturbi's virtuosity here was a marvel. In mono, the sound of the piano was reproduced with warmth and a richness and resonance to the lower registers. Someday, I'd love to hear how the stereo version sounds!

Excerpt from Asturias:

Excerpt from Tango in D major:

Excerpt from Allegro di Concierto:

This recording garnered some strong praise from The Stereo Record Guide, Vol. 3 (1963), which gave it three of three stars *** and a demonstration "D" (demonstration-worthy on first-class equipment):

"In this first-class collection Iturbi offers his best record for some years. The performances are finely pointed and the Spanish idiom is beautifully projected. A crisp piano image, with a firm bass makes for a very enjoyable recital."

Interestingly, Iturbi was featured in popular media and culture in more ways than music. He appeared in several Metro-Goldyn Mayer films in the 1940s, including Thousands Cheer, Music for Millions, Anchors Aweigh, Holiday in Mexico, That Midnight Kiss, and Three Daring Daughters (in which he played the lead role), often playing himself! In A Song to Remember, the biopic about Chopin, they asked Iturbi to play the piano music for the soundtrack.

Here is a clip from the movie Holiday in Mexico (1946), in which Iturbi shows he can also play the boogie-woogie. Fun fact: the two girls beside him are his actual granddaughters, and the woman also playing the piano is his sister, Amparo (also a concert pianist)!

Here is another clip of Iturbi playing himself in the movie The Midnight Kiss (1949):

And here is in Anchors Aweigh (1945), leading an 18-person piano ensemble in Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody #2: