# Mompou recording recommendations



## quisby (Aug 19, 2017)

Hello all!

Does anyone have any favorite and/or recommended recordings for exploring Mompou's solo piano work?

I am a total ignoramus when it comes to Mompou and his works. I've noticed a few references on here and am interested in branching out a bit.

Thanks in advance!


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## Josquin13 (Nov 7, 2017)

I just made a bunch of recommendations for Mompou's solo piano works on the "What piano music floats your boat?" thread. I hope that you & others won't mind, but I'd like to simply reprint what I wrote there, since it included some valuable You Tube links to sample & compare various pianists' Mompou recordings (plus, I've added several more You Tube links for this post). I'll then finish my post here with some further, additional Mompou recommendations. This is what I wrote,

I'm not surprised that the Catalan composer Federico Mompou has been mentioned, and specifically the Book 4 of his Musica Callada, or "Silent Music", which was inspired by the poetry of St. John of the Cross. The partial recording by Alicia de Larrocha is exceptional, I agree. She was a friend of the composer's, & he dedicated Book 4 to her. (Though I wish she'd recorded the other three books, and probably didn't do so out of deference to Mompou, who had recorded the Musica Callada himself.) Mompou also named his "Preludio VII a Alicia de Larrocha" after her: 



. De Larrocha used to play the Prelude as an encore: which was how I first encountered Mompou's music, at one of her recitals in New York City (& for me, it was the highlight of the concert).

It's also essential to hear Mompou's own recordings of the Musica Callada and the rest of his solo piano works: which he recorded in their entirety. In addition to the Mompou & De Larrocha recordings, I'd also recommend Rosa Sabater's recording of the 6 Impresiones intimas: 



. (I don't know if Sabater ever recorded the Musica Callada, does anyone know?) Sabater, Mompou, & De Larrocha all played the 6 Impresiones intimas exceptionally well. De Larrocha actually recorded it twice, early in her career among her very first recordings in Spain (now available on both Eloquence & in DG's "The Liszt Legacy" box set), and secondly, digitally, for Decca, on the same recording as her Musica Callada, Book 4: 



. The same three played Mompou's Cançons i danses (or Songs & dances) exceptionally well, too, and I'd recommend their recordings. Here's a link to Sabater's Cançons i danses: 



, and to De Larrocha's (released on both RCA & Newton): 



.

https://www.amazon.com/Cancons-I-Dan...s=music&sr=1-2
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...dm_ws_sp_ps_dp
https://www.amazon.com/First-Recordi...s=music&sr=1-2
https://www.amazon.com/Spanish-Songs...sr=1-1-catcorr

Among digital era surveys, the Catalan pianists Adolf Pla and Josep Colom have both specialized in Mompou's music. Their sets of the complete solo piano works are available on individual CDs or together in a set. Pla's set was sponsored by the Fundació Federico Mompou, & is highly regarded. He is also an authority on Mompou and has written a valuable book entitled "Mompou, el eterno recomenzar": or in English, "Mompou, the eternal restart".

--Pla: 
https://www.amazon.com/Mompou-Comple.../dp/B00FR0M7E0
https://www.adolfpla.com/book-cd-mompou
Here's an interview with Pla: https://www.factsandarts.com/music-r...ays-repertoire





--Colom:
https://www.amazon.com/Mompou-Comple.../dp/B00005JHH5





There's also a complete survey on Naxos from pianist Jordi Masó that I've not heard.

In addition, the pianist Marcel Worms has made several excellent Mompou recordings, including an especially valuable addition to the Mompou catalogue of the composer's 'unpublished' piano works (as well as the Musica Callada):










If you're looking to hear or sample even more versions of Musica Callada, there's also a good, if slightly less idiomatic recording on the Steinway & Sons label, played by Jenny Lin, which comes in audiophile sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLMt...TM9OpwcTXpXv4M. & for a slightly more modern take on Mompou, Herbert Henck has recorded the Musica Callada on ECM: https://www.amazon.com/Mompou-Música...=UTF8&qid=&sr=. One of Colom's former students, Javier Perianes has also recorded the Musica Callada for Harmonia Mundi: 



.

Lastly, I'd also recommend the Mompou playing of Luis Fernando Pérez, on Mirare: https://www.amazon.com/Federico-Mom...z+mirare+mompou&qid=1617005123&s=music&sr=1-2









But, best of all, IMO, are Mompou's own solo piano recordings (then De Larrocha), which were originally released by the Spanish label, Ensayo, and have since been reissued in a 4 CD box set by Brilliant Classics as a discount set (presently it's $17.51 "new" on Amazon US, which is a fantastic bargain). I'd strongly recommend this set (unless you want digital sound), especially since once it goes out of print it's likely to get pricey and hard to find, I'd imagine:





https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Pian...K29RVRRB826BVB

EDIT: One additional CD that I forgot to mention in my above post is the Volume One of a projected Mompou piano works cycle by pianist, Artur Pizarro, on the Collins label: https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8023442--mompou-piano-works-vol-1. On this CD, Pizarro plays the Cancons i danses, & 6 Impresiones intimas, and he plays very well (even if I do slightly prefer some of the other Catalan pianists that I mentioned above): 



. But unfortunately, the Collins label went out of business and Pizarro wasn't able to finish his survey. At least, I don't think there was ever a Volume 2, but I'm not absolutely certain of it.

The pianist Arcadi Volodos has also recorded a popular CD of Mompou's piano music for Sony, which was generally well reviewed. However, in my view, Volodos is a big, showy virtuoso type of pianist, and while he certainly plays impressively, I don't think his more extroverted style of playing is exactly right for Mompou's gentle, simple, quiet, deeply introspective music. However, there are 70 5-star reviews on Amazon that strongly disagree with me!, so you may too: https://www.amazon.com/Volodos-play...swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1616994961&sr=1-1

Otherwise, to add further to my recommendations, the pianist Marcel Worms and his fellow Dutch musicians have recorded an excellent, single CD of Mompou's complete chamber music, which I wouldn't consider absolutely essential, but I expect fans of Mompou's music will want to hear it (& I wasn't disappointed that I bought the CD):





https://www.amazon.com/El-Pont-Cham...o+mompou+songs&qid=1616993723&s=music&sr=1-13.

Lastly, Mompou wrote some surprisingly beautiful, engaging songs or melodies, which should be better known than they are (& some of the piano writing in these songs is fascinating). The great soprano Victoria de los Angeles sang some of them in concert, with either Alicia de Larrocha or the composer accompanying her on the piano, at different times:






Here too is Victoria de los Angeles singing the orchestral version of the same song on an EMI recording (though the orchestration isn't by Mompou), accompanied by the Orchestre de la Societe des Conceerts du Conservatoire, conducted by Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos: 



. .

& here she is with de Larrocha in concert (in what frustratingly sounds like a poor bootleg recording): 



. In the following recital, she likewise sings the same Mompou song, "Cantar del alma" at age 70, with a different pianist, and in better sound: 



.

To compare, here's soprano Montserrat Caballé singing Mompou's "Damunt de tu només les flors", also accompanied by Alicia de Larrocha at the piano: 



.

Until recently, I had only ever seen one CD devoted to Mompou songs or melodies, and the performances are surprisingly good (considering that I had never heard of the soprano, Carmen Bustamente, or the pianist, Carlos Cebro, before I bought the recording): https://www.amazon.com/Federico-Mom...mompou+melodies&qid=1616994019&s=music&sr=1-1.

EDIT: Interestingly, on tube, I see that Carmen Bustamente also made recordings of Mompou songs with the pianist, Carmen Bravo, who was Mompou's widow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJq-muntJ3o; as well as recordings with pianist, Miguel Zanetti (but I don't know if these performances are on CD or not?):










However, since that CD release, soprano Marta Mathéu and pianist Jordi Masó have recorded Mompou's complete songs for Naxos in two volumes. I haven't heard these recordings myself, but would like to. Here's a link to their Volume 2 on You Tube:





https://www.amazon.com/Mompou-Compl...s+naxos&qid=1617003448&s=music&sr=1-5-catcorr
https://www.amazon.com/Mompou-Compl...s+naxos&qid=1617003448&s=music&sr=1-3-catcorr

Lastly, if there is any orchestral music by Mompou, I'm not familiar with it. Perhaps others will know more than I do.


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## quisby (Aug 19, 2017)

Wow thank you Josquin! I should have searched the forum a little more. These will keep me busy for a little while. I love that clip of de Los Aneles singing Damunt de tu nomes les Flors. I'm looking forward to listening further. I appreciate it!


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## Josquin13 (Nov 7, 2017)

quisby writes, "I love that clip of de Los Angeles singing Damunt de tu nomes les Flors."

Me, too!!! I wonder if that recording was made in Mompou's living room? It looks like it! As heartfelt and beautiful as Victoria de los Angeles singing is, along with Mompou's magical piano playing, it makes me sad that such special artists are no longer with us. (Alicia de Larrocha, too...)


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## staxomega (Oct 17, 2011)

Josquin13 said:


> I just made a bunch of recommendations for Mompou's solo piano works on the "What piano music floats your boat?" thread. I hope that you & others won't mind, but I'd like to simply reprint what I wrote there, since it included some valuable You Tube links to sample & compare various pianists' Mompou recordings (plus, I've added several more You Tube links for this post). I'll then finish my post here with some further, additional Mompou recommendations. This is what I wrote,


Great post @Josquin13 , Josep Colom and Mompou's own recordings have been my long time reference for Mompou's complete piano music. 

Have you heard Josep Colom's second recording of Musica Callada on Euroda? I've listened to it a few times and prefer his first recording on Mandala. There is also a ringing quality to the sound of the piano on the Euroda which isn't present on his first recording which sounds gorgeous.


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## Josquin13 (Nov 7, 2017)

staxomega said:


> Great post @Josquin13 , Josep Colom and Mompou's own recordings have been my long time reference for Mompou's complete piano music.
> 
> Have you heard Josep Colom's second recording of Musica Callada on Euroda? I've listened to it a few times and prefer his first recording on Mandala. There is also a ringing quality to the sound of the piano on the Euroda which isn't present on his first recording which sounds gorgeous.


No, I've not heard Colom's 2nd recording of the Musica Callada. I'm surprised to hear that the sound quality is worse on hybrid SACD than CD, but Mandala's sound engineering is exceptional, I agree. Good to know.

I agree that Colom's complete survey is excellent, though I've been reaching for Adolf Pla's complete survey more in recent years. Though I won't claim it's better, since I've never compared them side by side. But Pla's set is very, very good & I wouldn't want to be without it. Here's a youtube link to sample his set, which I wasn't able to provide above,






However, my own 'reference' recordings are Mompou's 1974 Ensayo recordings (now boxed by Brilliant) & Alicia de Larrocha's various recordings. I wouldn't want to be without either. 

Most recently, I bought an HMV/EMI mono recording by pianist Carmen Bravo and Gonzalo Soriano. Bravo was Mompou's wife & she's a fine pianist, having studied in Paris with both Magda Tagliaferro and Lazare Lévy. I've never encountered a pianist that studied with either of those two great teachers whose playing I didn't like enormously and Bravo is no exception. While Soriano used to accompany soprano Victoria de los Angeles. Here's a link,









Gonzalo Soriano, Carmen Bravo, Federico Mompou - Mompou - Piano Music - Amazon.com Music


Gonzalo Soriano, Carmen Bravo, Federico Mompou - Mompou - Piano Music - Amazon.com Music



www.amazon.com





But, with that said, I consider Larrocha's Decca CD above to be more essential, considering that Mompou dedicated both his Preludio no. 7 and Book 4 of the Musica Callada to her (& not his wife). I'd also consider Marcel Worms' CD of the "unpublished" Mompou to be more essential, too, since it includes top tier music by the composer that isn't in the 'complete' surveys (see the youtube link in my previous post).

Lastly, I'd like to hear Rosa Sabater's Musica Callada one day. I hope we'll get a box set of her inexcusably out of print recordings someday soon...


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## staxomega (Oct 17, 2011)

Josquin13 said:


> No, I've not heard Colom's 2nd recording of the Musica Callada. I'm surprised to hear that the sound quality is worse on hybrid SACD than CD, but Mandala's sound engineering is exceptional, I agree. Good to know.
> 
> I agree that Colom's complete survey is excellent, though I've been reaching for Adolf Pla's complete survey more in recent years. Though I won't claim it's better, since I've never compared them side by side. But Pla's set is very, very good & I wouldn't want to be without it. Here's a youtube link to sample his set, which I wasn't able to provide above,
> 
> ...


I think the ringing on Colom's second recording either occurred in recording or they added it in digitally. It basically just sounds a bit more resonant than I'd like. The performances are sort of similar to the first one, but there is a certain special quality in the first recording that is slightly missing in the second.

I agree with you on Alicia de Larrocha as well in Mompou, I would have loved to hear her record all four books. I was recently comparing her (Decca) and Rafael Orozco against Marc-Andre Hamelin in Iberia and de Larrocha and Orozco were much better.


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