12 Spanish Dances

On 24 March 1916, Granados, aged 48 and at the height of his career, died tragically when a German submarine torpedoed the boat on which he was crossing the Channel to France. He attempted to save his wife from drowning, but they both perished. A gifted pianist, Granados wrote extensively for the piano, most famously Goyescas (1911), a suite of six pieces inspired by the paintings of Francisco Goya, and the 12 Spanish Dances Op. 37 (“Danzas españolas”, c. 1883-90), divided into four books of three pieces. Listeners had already been afforded a taste of Spain in such delights as Bizet’s opera Carmen (1875), Chabrier’s España (1883) and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio espagnol (1887), but here at last was the authentic item. Titles vary widely according to the edition used (Granados headed several compositions simply “Spanish Dance”), but each one is imbued with seductive melodic radiance and rhythmic flair, encapsulating his insistence that “my inspiration is founded above all in the singing of the people”.