Federico Mompou - Piano Music (Stephen Hough)

Information

Composer: Federico Mompou

1. Canción y Danza 7
2. Prélude 1
3. Cants Mágics: Energic
4. Cants Mágics: Obscur
5. Cants Mágics: Profond: Lent
6. Cants Mágics: Misteriós
7. Cants Mágics: Calma
8. Canción y Danza 5
9. Prélude 5
10. Charmes: ...pour endormir la souffrance
11. Charmes: ...pour pénétrer les âmes
12. Charmes: ...pour inspirer l'amour
13. Charmes: ...pour les guérisons
14. Charmes: ...pour évoquer l'image du passé
15. Charmes: ...pour appaler la joie
16. Canción y Danza 8
17. Prélude 7 'Palmier d'étoiles'
18. Trois Variations: Theme: [untitled]
19. Trois Variations: Variation 1: Les soldats
20. Trois Variations: Variation 1: Courtoisie
21. Trois Variations: Variation 1: Nocturne
22. Canción y Danza 3
23. Prélude 9
24. Dialogues I: Plaintif
25. Dialogues II: Modéré
26. Canción y Danza 1
27. Prélude 10
28. Paisajes: La fuente y la campana
29. Paisajes: El Lago
30. Paisajes: Carros de Galicia
31. Canción y Danza 9
32. Prélude 6

Stephen Hough, piano

Date: 1997

Label: Hyperion

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Review

“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.

— Lionel Salter

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Federico Mompou (16 April 1893 – 30 June 1987) was a Catalan Spanish composer and pianist. Trained in Barcelona and later at the Paris Conservatory under Isidor Philipp, he absorbed influences from Satie and Debussy while developing a distinct style rooted in Catalan musical idioms. After gaining recognition in Paris, he returned to Barcelona in 1941 during World War II. Mompou's recordings of his works for the Spanish label Ensayo are noted for their sensitivity and elegance. His music is widely performed and recorded by such pianists as Arthur Rubinstein, Alicia de Larrocha, Stephen Hough and many others.

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Stephen Hough (born 22 November 1961) is a British-born classical pianist, composer and writer. He studied at Chetham's School of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music, and also holds a master's degree from the Juilliard School. A prominent soloist, he is also a composer and transcriber, and often includes his own works in his recitals. Hough has recorded more than 60 albums, and is known for championing lesser-known composers. As a teacher, he is a visiting professor of piano at the Royal Academy of Music, and the International Chair of Piano Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music.

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