Mompou Piano Works
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Federico Mompou
Label: Hyperion
Magazine Review Date: 9/1997
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 77
Mastering:
Stereo
DDD
Catalogue Number: CDA66963
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Cançons i danses, Movement: Cançó: Petiteta l'han casada; Dansa: La dansatersol (1921) |
Federico Mompou, Composer
Federico Mompou, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
| Cançons i danses, Movement: Cançó: El noi de la mare; Dansa: Sardana origi |
Federico Mompou, Composer
Federico Mompou, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
| Cançons i danses, Movement: Cançó i dansa: original (1952) |
Federico Mompou, Composer
Federico Mompou, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
| Cançons i danses, Movement: Cançó: Muntanyes regalades; Dansa: L'hereu Rie |
Federico Mompou, Composer
Federico Mompou, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
| Cançons i danses, Movement: Cançó: El testament d'Amelia; Dansa: Un pobre946) |
Federico Mompou, Composer
Federico Mompou, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
| Cançons i danses, Movement: Cançó: Rossinyol que vas a França; Dansa: or48) |
Federico Mompou, Composer
Federico Mompou, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
| (12) Preludes, Movement: I (1927-28) |
Federico Mompou, Composer
Federico Mompou, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
| (12) Preludes, Movement: V (1930) |
Federico Mompou, Composer
Federico Mompou, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
| (12) Preludes, Movement: VI (1930) |
Federico Mompou, Composer
Federico Mompou, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
| (12) Preludes, Movement: VII, 'Fireworks' (1931) |
Federico Mompou, Composer
Federico Mompou, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
| (12) Preludes, Movement: IX (1943) |
Federico Mompou, Composer
Federico Mompou, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
| (12) Preludes, Movement: X (1944) |
Federico Mompou, Composer
Federico Mompou, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
| (5) Cants magics |
Federico Mompou, Composer
Federico Mompou, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
| (6) Charmes |
Federico Mompou, Composer
Federico Mompou, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
| (3) Variations |
Federico Mompou, Composer
Federico Mompou, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
| (2) Dialogues |
Federico Mompou, Composer
Federico Mompou, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
| Paisajes |
Federico Mompou, Composer
Federico Mompou, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
Author: Lionel Salter
“Une grande innocence”, says Arkel of Melisande. The same quality could be said to invest the music of Federico Mompou. At first it may appear to consist of little more than charming, delicately scented but dilettantish salon near-improvisations with no development, almost no counterpoint and with marked overtones of Erik Satie (though without his faux-naif mockery – Mompou is fundamentally uncynical, with the candour of childhood but an adult depth of emotion); but it is significant that his earliest works (in the 1920s) are imbued – beyond their mere titles (Magic chants and Charms) – with a sense of mystery and wonder. Later he was to progress from an ingenuous lyricism (in the Songs and dances – if we may avoid the confusing mixture of Catalan and Spanish titles, the result of intervention by the publishers) to a profounder contemplation and mysticism, to greater harmonic and keyboard complexity (Dialogues) and finally, in the 1946-60 Paisajes (“Landscapes”), to a more experimental, less tonal idiom that increasingly approaches St John of the Cross’s ideal of “the music of silence”.
In the hands of an imaginative pianist like Stephen Hough this other-worldly, almost eremitic quality becomes revelatory in the Scriabinesque Prelude No. 9, the Debussian “The lake” (No. 2 of the Landscapes) and, particularly, the starkness of “Galician carts” (No. 3 of the same set). Hough’s command of tonal nuance throughout is ultra-sensitive, he catches Mompou’s wistful moods to perfection, and on the rare occasions when the music lashes out, as in Prelude No. 7, he is scintillating. In the more familiar Songs and dances he is tender in the (mostly melancholy) songs and suitably intense in No. 5, and exhilaratingly crisp rhythmically in the dances – the sardana of No. 3 positively bounces with joy. He treats the “Testament d’Amelia” in No. 8 with a good deal of flexibility, and because Mompou declared (and demonstrated in his own recordings) that “it’s all so free”, he takes the fullest advantage of the marking senza rigore in No. 5, which reflects Mompou’s lifelong fascination with bell-sounds.'
In the hands of an imaginative pianist like Stephen Hough this other-worldly, almost eremitic quality becomes revelatory in the Scriabinesque Prelude No. 9, the Debussian “The lake” (No. 2 of the Landscapes) and, particularly, the starkness of “Galician carts” (No. 3 of the same set). Hough’s command of tonal nuance throughout is ultra-sensitive, he catches Mompou’s wistful moods to perfection, and on the rare occasions when the music lashes out, as in Prelude No. 7, he is scintillating. In the more familiar Songs and dances he is tender in the (mostly melancholy) songs and suitably intense in No. 5, and exhilaratingly crisp rhythmically in the dances – the sardana of No. 3 positively bounces with joy. He treats the “Testament d’Amelia” in No. 8 with a good deal of flexibility, and because Mompou declared (and demonstrated in his own recordings) that “it’s all so free”, he takes the fullest advantage of the marking senza rigore in No. 5, which reflects Mompou’s lifelong fascination with bell-sounds.'
Mompou Piano Works
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