Customer Reviews

Spanish Songs & Dances

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I could not disagree more with the previous reviewer. This is one of the favorite CD's in my collection. While not being very familiar with all Mompou's opus, I have come to love these refreshing melodies and Alicia DeLarrocha's execution of them.

As a Catalan playing the music of a Catalan, Alicia has special insight into this music. It is possible that there is music that is more difficult to play, but difficulty does not always guarantee greatness. In this case the color, humor and inventiveness are utterly charming. We are accustomed to hearing Ms. DeLarrocha excel in works by other Spaniards, but in this case Barcelona's closer proximity to France and the musical influences of the North provide us something unexpected from a "Spanish" composer.

I especially appreciate the songs and dances because Mompou has simultaneously achieved inventiveness and simplicity. Alicia DeLarrocha's playing tempts me to both sing and dance to them!

I was familiar with some of Mompou's music from earlier recordings by Alicia de Larrocha, including several of the "Songs and Dances." (This was the Decca recording another reviewer mentions.) Much of the music was therefore familiar to me, but this more recent recording was a revelation! There was a far more convincing shaping and overall feel for the melodies, played with great freedom but also with secure, elegantly-shaped interpretation. I'm afraid I cannot fathom why any listener would favor the earlier recording above this one!

I have many other Mompou recordings, including the composer's own recordings (uneven - some wonderful moments, and many stilted ones) and some performances by Carmen Bravo (Mrs. Mompou, a fine pianist in her own right). There is much to enjoy and appreciate in Mompou's unique music, but there really is no better recording of these pieces than Alicia de Larrocha's RCA Red Seal "Songs and Dances." Wonderful stuff! I so love what she does with this music that I obtained permission to arrange several of these pieces for carillon (for my own recitals only), so deep was the impression this music - and playing - made on me.

As an aside, there is a wonderful Mompou piece that Alicia has apparently not recorded - "Variations on a Theme of Chopin" If you can find it, seek out the recording by Josep Colum (which is part of a recording of the complete Mompou piano works - but his Songs and Dances are not up to Alicia's renditions).

The subtle nature of true artistry abounds on this recording of seemingly simple music. Her sense of pulse and tasteful rubato makes this the one I come to time and time again. There is nothing vaguely indicative of a "faltering technique" mentioned by another reviewer......fast is easy...pulse is not.She has an understanding of this genre second to none.

If you can find Alicia de Larrocha's recordings of Mompou on London/Decca, they are far more preferable to this RCA recording.

Most of the Songs and Dances is wonderful music; the Preludes are interesting, but I could have done without these. Why couldn't she instead have recorded Mompou's "Variations on a theme of Chopin", a wonderful 20-minute work which is virtually unknown?

Technically, this music is not terribly difficult, but Larrocha's slowly faltering technique make her tempos sound cautious, and interpretively the magic of her previous renditions on London/Decca is missing.

Also, RCA's typically hard-toned piano sound is unattractive. This is typical of so many of RCA recordings; I've noticed that the same problem afflicts virtually all of the Rubinstein and Horowitz recordings for this label.

Nevertheless, I'm a die-hard fan of this pianist, and I'll keep buying whatever she records.