Hyperion Records | Mompou: Piano music

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CDA66963

Recording details: July 1996
St George's, Brandon Hill, United Kingdom
Produced by Andrew Keener
Engineered by Tony Faulkner
Release date: August 1997
Total duration: 75 minutes 47 seconds

GRAMOPHONE EDITOR'S CHOICE
GRAMOPHONE AWARD WINNER
PENGUIN GUIDE ROSETTE
DIAPASON D'OR

'In the hands of an imaginative pianist like Stephen Hough this other-worldly, almost eremitic [music] becomes revelatory. He catches Mompou's wistful moods to perfection' (Gramophone)

'It's a rare thing for an artist's programme notes to vie in quality with his playing. There is simply no better description of this music, nor any more persuasive, imaginative and spiritually attuned performer of it. Fascinating, hypnotic, mystical. Commended' (BBC Music Magazine)

'In his skilfully planned and superlatively played programme Stephen Hough achieves a vivid sense of contrast, of temporal and spiritual reflection. His rare empathy for such music is reflected in Hyperion's cloudless recording' (BBC Record Review)

'Pianism of a very high order indeed, backed up by a recording of beautiful limpidity. Spellbinding music, immaculately performed' (Classic CD)

'Ce CD est une parfaite introduction à une oeuvre aussi passionante que difficile à cerner. La prise de son d'une qualité exceptionelle de rondeur et de naturel' (Répertoire, France)

'A real treat ... utterly compelling playing with a recording to match' (Gramophone)

'Altogether outstanding in every way' (Gramophone)

'Perhaps the most significant piano release of the year' (The Independent)

Federico Mompou (1893-1987)

Piano music

Stephen Hough (piano)

LISTEN TO ALL EXTRACTS

1		Canción y Danza 7 [2'36]
2		Prélude 1 [1'33]
		Cants Mágics
3		No 1: Energic [1'29]
4		No 2: Obscur [1'52]
5		No 3: Profond. Lent [2'01]
6		No 4: Misteriós [1'42]
7		No 5: Calma [2'29]
8		Canción y Danza 5 [3'26]
9		Prélude 5 [1'28]
		Charmes
10		No 1: …pour endormir la souffrance [1'32]
11		No 2: …pour pénétrer les âmes [1'27]
12		No 3: …pour inspirer l'amour [2'15]
13		No 4: … pour les guérisons [1'26]
14		No 5: … pour évoquer l'image du passé [1'14]
15		No 6: … pour appeler la joie [0'52]
16		Canción y Danza 8 [3'23]
17		Prélude 7 'Palmier d'étoiles' [2'33]
		Trois Variations
18		Theme: [untitled] [0'20]
19		Variation 1: Les soldats [0'46]
20		Variation 2: Courtoisie [0'49]
21		Variation 3: Nocturne [2'00]
22		Canción y Danza 3 [3'28]
23		Prélude 9 [2'01]
		Dialogues I, II
24		No 1: Plaintif [2'26]
25		No 2: Modéré [2'34]
26		Canción y Danza 1 [4'09]
27		Prélude 10 [1'37]
		Paisajes
28		No 1: La fuente y la campana [3'23]
29		No 2: El Lago [5'29]
30		No 3: Carros de Galicia [3'28]
31		Canción y Danza 9 [4'34]
32		Prélude 6 [5'25]

Without a spirit of childhood in the listener, the music of the Catalan Federico Mompou can seem almost infantile. The style the composer himself calls 'primitivista' involves no bar lines, key signatures or other such paraphernalia of 'organized' composition, and at first sight owes much to Satie. However the latter's cynicism here finds expression in genuine innocence and wonder. The titles of the four complete sets recorded here give some impression of what is to be expected: Cants Mágics, Charmes … but these titles can also be unhelpful, implying order when none is meant; the Cancións y Danzas are not part of a set as such, and the six examples here span some three decades. All of these miniatures (the longest is under six minutes) capture a world that is at once very real (Mompou describes his 'favourite place' as being the 'solitude of all large towns') and yet somehow set at a distance from the mundane through piano writing of plain and unpretentious vision.