Composer: Federico Mompou
Performer: Stephen Hough
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Hyperion
Catalogue: CDA66963
Release: 1997
Size: 199 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Canción y Danza No. 7
02. Prelude No. 1
Cants Màgics
03. I. Energic
04. II. Obscur
05. III. Profond: Lent
06. IV. Misteriós
07. V. Calma
08. Canción y Danza No. 5
09. Prelude No. 5
Charmes
10. I. … pour endormir la souffrance
11. II. … pour pénétrer les âmes
12. III. … pour inspirer l’amour
13. IV. … pour les guérisons
14. V. … pour évoquer l’image du passé
15. VI. … pour appeler la joie
16. Canción y Danza No. 8
17. Prelude No. 7 “Palmier d’étoiles”
3 Variations
18. Theme. [Untitled]
19. Var. 1. Les soldats
20. Var. 2. Courtoisie
21. Var. 3. Nocturne
22. Canción y Danza No. 3
23. Prelude No. 9
Dialogues
24. I. Plaintif
25. II. Modéré
26. Canción y Danza No. 1
27. Prelude No. 10
Paisajes
28. I. La fuente y la campana
29. II. El Lago
30. III. Carros de Galicia
31. Canción y Danza No. 9
32. Prelude No. 6
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 Magics, Charmes but these titles can also be unhelpful, implying order when none is meant; the Cancions 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.