The reason I really like this recording is for the extraordinary tone quality (of course, since we're dealing with a piano, I should really say tonal balance!) which Block has the rare skill to project. If you hear this recording, I'm sure you'll notice it in comparison to other recordings. For some reason, Block played a lot of Albeniz/Granados repertoire, and always with, as I said, extraordinary results - his magnificent recording of Albeniz' Iberia (originally available in the US only on the Connoisseur Society label) seems to be available now only in France on an EMI boxed set which contains other less compelling performances (IMHO) by other pianists of other Spanish repertoire. (And for some strange reason, many of the dealers there refuse to export this album to the US - go figure!) I'm basing my comments on the Connoisseur Society LP's, since I haven't heard the EMI CD reissue.
Getting back to Yoonie, her recordings of the Goyescas pieces are also available on uTube, so you could sample the performances before you commit to buying the album. I've been listening to them while I've been typing this post, and they do sound good to me - maybe a note here and here I don't agree with - LOL! I must also observe with approval that some of the uTube videos show that Yoonie is a proponent of the Yuja Wang school of concert attire - at least as far as the exposed thighs are concerned! ;-)
Finally, I would like to warn you that my own performance of the most famous of the Goyescas pieces, Quejas, o La maja y el ruisenor - The Maiden and the Nightingale (on a beat-up godforsaken upright piano in a Berkeley church), is available (I think) on CD Baby and (maybe) iTunes. This album resulted from a concert I did with a singer who released these performances without my approval or knowledge. An occupational hazard, I guess!
Yoonie Han in the Yuja Wang school of concert attire
