Notes and Editorial Reviews
Brazilian pianist Clélia Iruzun has delighted critics over the years with her performances and recordings of music by Villa Lobos, Granados, Ginastera, Mignone and Marlo Nobres among others. We were therefore, very glad of the opportunity of embarking with her on a series of recordings selected from Federico Mompou’s large piano œuvre, the first of which is now available.
Born in Barcelona, Catalan composer and pianist Mompou gave his first concert at the age of 15. However, his shy and reticent nature kept him away from the concert platform and he was far happier becoming a composer, especially after hearing Gabriel Fauré perform his Quintet. He thus, travelled to Paris with a letter of recommendation from
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Granados to study with Isidor Philipp and Motte-Lacroix. He was inevitably influenced by the French impressionism of Debussy and Satie. In 1921 he settled in Paris where he remained for 20 years, becoming a respected composer. In 1941 he settled permanently in Barcelona. He was made a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government, elected to the Royal Academy of San Jorge in Barcelona and was made Honoris Causa at the University of Barcelona.
Mompou’s modest, retiring temperament is reflected in his music. He was predominantly a composer of lyric songs and piano miniatures and his music is imbued with the colours, sounds and images of his beloved Catalonia in a style ranging from elegant impressionism to simplicity and minimalism, even to the point of dispensing with key signatures and bar lines.
Our CD opens with a collection of six of the 13 Cançons i Danses written for the piano between 1921 and 1979, beginning with the earliest (1921) and ending with V and VI (1942). Earlier than these are Mompou’s Pessebres (Créches: Nativity Scenes) composed between 1914 and 1917. Earlier still in Mompou’s output, are the nine individual pieces which make up the Impresiones Intimas (1911 – 1914), showing the late teenaged composer boldly striding out for himself with the first of these, a piece with no time-signature, and very few irregular bar-lines. This is gentle music for all that, dedicated to Mompou’s friend Agustin Quintas. Several of the other pieces are dedicated to other of the composer’s friends. The final work in our programme is Variaciones sobre un tema de Chopin, the theme taken from Chopin’s Op. 28 Preludes in A major. Several of the twelve variations are in the nature of studies or character pieces.
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Works on This Recording
1.
Cançons i Danses (Songs and Dances): 1. by Federico Mompou
Performer:
Clélia Iruzun (Piano)
Period: Modern
Written: 1942-1962
Venue: Church of All Saints, Childs Hill, Londo
Length: 4 Minutes 2 Secs.
2.
Cançons i Danses (Songs and Dances): 2. by Federico Mompou
Performer:
Clélia Iruzun (Piano)
Period: Modern
Written: 1942-1962
Venue: Church of All Saints, Childs Hill, Londo
Length: 3 Minutes 39 Secs.
3.
Cançons i Danses (Songs and Dances): 3. by Federico Mompou
Performer:
Clélia Iruzun (Piano)
Period: Modern
Written: 1942-1962
Venue: Church of All Saints, Childs Hill, Londo
Length: 3 Minutes 54 Secs.
4.
Cançons i Danses (Songs and Dances): 4. by Federico Mompou
Performer:
Clélia Iruzun (Piano)
Period: Modern
Written: 1942-1962
Venue: Church of All Saints, Childs Hill, Londo
Length: 4 Minutes 12 Secs.
5.
Cançons i Danses (Songs and Dances): 5. by Federico Mompou
Performer:
Clélia Iruzun (Piano)
Period: Modern
Written: 1942-1962
Venue: Church of All Saints, Childs Hill, Londo
Length: 4 Minutes 13 Secs.
6.
Cançons i Danses (Songs and Dances): 6. by Federico Mompou
Performer:
Clélia Iruzun (Piano)
Period: Modern
Written: 1942-1962
Venue: Church of All Saints, Childs Hill, Londo
Length: 4 Minutes 4 Secs.
7.
Pessebres, for piano by Federico Mompou
Performer:
Clélia Iruzun (Piano)
Period: Modern
Written: 1914-1917
Venue: Church of All Saints, Childs Hill, Londo
Length: 7 Minutes 0 Secs.
8.
Impresiones intimas (9) by Federico Mompou
Performer:
Clélia Iruzun (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1911-1914; Paris, France
Venue: Church of All Saints, Childs Hill, Londo
Length: 15 Minutes 37 Secs.
9.
Variations on a theme by Chopin by Federico Mompou
Performer:
Clélia Iruzun (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1938-1957; Spain
Venue: Church of All Saints, Childs Hill, Londo
Length: 20 Minutes 36 Secs.
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