The Complete Solo Piano Music

"Miguel Baselga was born in Luxemburg of Spanish parents in 1966. He has been playing since the age of six and I was interested to see that he studied with Eduardo del Pueyo, a notable Spanish pianist who is virtually forgotten today. Baselga presented de Falla's complete piano music in Madrid in 1996, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the composer's death, having set it all down in the studio a few months earlier. Since then he has begun a complete Albeniz cycle for Bis which has now reached its fifth volume.

De Falla was a slow developer and the Four Spanish Pieces, written when he was in his early thirties and had moved to Paris to broaden his experience, may be considered the threshold of his maturity. Not all the earlier pieces were published and the self-critical composer did not wish them to be so, but in all truth he had nothing to be ashamed of. At least as Baselga plays them they have charm, droll humour - in The March of the Dwarfs – and frequent poignant touches which sound at least a little Spanish. The Canción begins like a spare Gymnopédie, though the Satie-like simplicity is slightly lost later. Less interesting than these, I'd say, is the more ambitious Allegro de concierto, not really the sort of piece de Falla was born to write.

Altogether a most interesting and excellently recorded programme. Unless you prefer to have the ballet transcriptions – but the music sounds better still on the orchestra – this is the obvious disc for those wanting to get to know de Falla as a composer for the piano"
(MusicWeb May 2007)