A fundamental characteristic of Manuel Ponce’s music is the range of styles and techniques he used throughout his career. The expressive Romanza de amor is a sublime example of his Romantic phase, while his huge contribution to Mexican nationalist music is represented in the folk music that appears in Rapsodia Mexicana I and II. Moods of melancholy and nostalgia are evident in the Mazurkas as well as more modernist works such as the Intermezzo (no.3). This is the fourth volume in Álvaro Cendoya’s critically acclaimed series of Ponce’s complete piano works.

Álvaro Cendoya started his piano studies at his local conservatory in San Sebastián, and at the age of 25 he moved to Buenos Aires, where he studied with Bruno Leonardo Gelber, and later relocated to London for further tuition with Peter Feuchtwanger. In 1989 he won the prize for the best interpretation of Spanish music at the Concurso Internacional Premio Jaén Piano. In 1996 he made his London debut at Wigmore Hall. He went on to give recitals at St Martin-in-the-Fields, St John’s Smith Square and again at Wigmore Hall in 1998. He is a professor at Musikene, the Higher School of Music of the Basque Country.

Álvaro Cendoya is currently recording the complete piano music of Manuel M. Ponce across eight albums.