Josep Colom is always an immense artist, especially when he comes to Debussy, Mompou, spanish authors, Brahms or Chopin. I had the big chance to play several times for him and receive his advices.
Terrific performance by Colom, an underrated pianist performing an underrated piece. I have his recording of Mompou's Musica Callada, and it's great. Colom does a magnificent job on the minor 9th/major 9th section (around 5:00 in this clip), and the ending, which if played too fast just sounds like a pile of notes.
most performances of the fantasia beatica are played way too fast for my taste. colom's is the first recording i've heard that let's the fantasia actually breathe and allows the hidden voices embedded in the score - especially the base and mid range - to appear. this performance actually evokes falla's vision of what the ancient roman province of baetica might have been.
Agree. This is a great performance. The main section is marked "Allegro moderato", not "Allegro molto". Colom plays it at the correct tempo IMHO, which allows him to bring out the lyrical moments in the piece so it doesn't just feel like a speed run.
