Pianist Returns To Spokane

Mention piano playing in a roomful of classical music enthusiasts, and chances are you will get an earful about the latest recital of Garrick Ohlsson or the most recent recordings of Richard Goode or, perhaps, recollections of Horowitz and Rubinstein.

But piano playing, even great piano playing, is not the exclusive province of males. The century has produced some outstanding women of the keyboard, among them Gina Bachauer, Guiomar Novaes and Myra Hess in the older generation and Martha Argerich, Ursula Oppens and Mitsuko Uchida of the younger set.

Alicia de Larrocha is one of the truly great 20th-century pianists, unsurpassed in playing the music of her native Spain and equally outstanding in a vast repertoire from Mozart to Ravel.

Friday, de Larrocha will return to Spokane after a 15-year absence to perform Schumann’s Piano Concerto with the Spokane Symphony. The program will also include Smetana’s symphonic poem “The Moldau” and Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra. Fabio Mechetti will conduct.

De Larrocha, born in 1923, gave her first public performance at the World’s Fair in Barcelona, her home town, when she was 5 and made her orchestral debut with Orquesta Sinfonica de Madrid when she was 11. Her principal teacher was Frank Marshall, an English pianist who had achieved mastery of the Spanish style in his studies with the Spanish composer-pianist Enrique Granados.

De Larrocha’s international piano career did not begin until after the Second World War. The ravages of the Spanish Civil War forced her to lead what she calls “a quiet and inconspicuous existence.” She married the pianist Juan Torra, and they raised a family in Barcelona, where Torra headed the music academy founded by Granados.

The American conductor Alfred Wallenstein heard de Larrocha when he was conducting in Spain invited her to make her American debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1955. Since then, her career has spanned the world. Her appearances have garnered critical acclaim, and her numerous recordings have earned her four Grammy Awards and recognition from record critics in Europe.

In addition to her solo career, de Larrocha formed a duo with Spanish cellist Gaspar Cassado in the 1950s and recorded songs with soprano Victoria de los Angeles. Recently, she recorded Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos and his Sonata for Two Pianos with pianist-conductor Andre Previn.

Physically, de Larrocha might seem an unlikely pianist. She’s small. “I used to be 4-foot-7,” she told an interviewer recently. “Now I am 4-foot-6 or 4-foot-5.” Her height compels her to turn toward or away from the audience when she plays at the extreme ends of the keyboard. And she claims that her hands no longer have the flexibility to stretch large intervals easily.

Such physical limitations have never affected the repertoire she performs or her ability to produce the quantity of sound required by the virtuoso works of the 19th century. (Her last performance in Spokane included stunning performances of Brahms’ Second Concerto and Falla’s “Nights in the Gardens of Spain.”)

At 72, de Larrocha is busy as ever, with more than 50 performances a season and completing recording projects such as a complete set of Mozart’s piano concertos. She divides her time among her official home near Geneva, Switzerland, and apartments in New York and Barcelona.

Margie May Ott, one of Spokane’s most distinguished piano teachers, will present a pre-concert talk on Friday’s music in the Opera House auditorium at 7 p.m.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: SYMPHONY The Spokane Symphony and pianist Alicia de Larrocha will perform Friday at 8 p.m. at the Opera House. Tickets are $27, $22, $17 and $12, available at the symphony ticket office (624-1200) and at G&B Select-a-Seat outlets, or by calling 325-SEAT or (800) 325-SEAT (credit cards only).