The rhythmic vitality of the Dances and the tender dissonance with which Mompou and Bonet sprinkle their scores are rendered by the pianist Ester Pineda – who knew both Catalan composers – with a commendable concern for balance and economy in order to better translate their aesthetic affinities.
The pianist’s gesture is as elegant as the instrument and the melodies that escape from it. The magic of the piano singing under Ester Pineda’s precise and skilful gestures bewitches the whole room, which does not want to leave its reverie. “Music begins where the power of words stops” said Wagner. Ester Pineda and his piano seems to be the perfect illustration of this quotation. A simply beautiful moment.
(…) “Even if with the exception of Alicia de Larrocha one sees few Spanish pianists on the international scene, there is a very good school, very close to France, which has produced great virtuosos. Among these, one can find today Maria Luisa Cantos, Ester Pineda, Josep Colom, Joaquin Achúcarro and many others.”
(…) “She has character and sensitivity. And there is a richness in her touch which is the mark of great pianists. Falla’s Nights in the Spanish Gardens didn’t do justice to that night in the beautiful Ephrussi gardens, which was enriched by the sounds of Ester’s piano”.
«Turina’s compositions find in Clara Bonaldi and Ester Pineda, two sensitive performers for the art vibrant, warm and subtle of the composer. We have to congratulate and to thank the music editor to allow discophiles know such an original work of one of the most important Spanish music composers that the shadow of Albéniz, Granados and de Falla have partially eclipsed».
(…)From the very first notes Ester Pineda becomes at one with a public charmed by the finesse of her interpretation and her masterful playing”.
(…) “Turina should be better known. The proximity of Albéniz and de Falla has unfairly kept him in the dark. The recording of Clara Bonaldi and Ester Pineda repairs this.
The works are very attractive and the playing, with no complaisance, suits perfectly the atmosphere requiered in chamber music. Balance between both instruments, which is essential, provides us besides the pleasure of discovery, the satisfaction of the performance of these musicians that do not try to glow by themselves but to serve, and truly serve, Turina’s music.»
(…) “Ester Pineda reveals herself as a pianist full of possibilities face to a demanding repertoire that requires not only sufficient technique, but a very special state of mind. Thus, for example, she gently undertakes the brevity, the expressive concentration of Frederic Mompou’s Cançons i Danses and does not lose the sense of construction in this regard towards nature and beyond in the Liszt Valley of Obermann.”