It is surprising that this is the only version of Suite espanola, or even of its familiar and very engaging ''Sevilla'', to be available locally. The opening ''Granada'' is a lazy succession of good tunes in effective settings and the other movements are similar, at various tempos, their appeal direct yet rarely facile. The toccata-like ''Asturias'' is something of an exception, yet just as telling. None of the eight movements is difficult music—try the simple and seductive middle section of ''Cadiz''—and Alma Petchersky plays them with ease, grace, and a good sense of style.
The other two works are far more difficult. Granados's Allegro de concierto has some good themes along with the fireworks, but, although this performer meets the demands, she does not quite make a whole of it. Falla's is easily the best music here, and this new interpretation does not match Alicia de Larrocha's magisterial force, idiomatic fire, or sense of the Fantasia betica's shape and direction (Decca SXL6683, 4/75). Petchersky does some fine playing but appears not to sense, among other things, the meaning of the music's numerous abrupt contrasts, and in her hands this seems a smaller piece. It is in this superb composition that the cassette's inferiority to the LP is most apparent, but the tone in general is thinner and harder.'