Mompou: Cancons I Danzas (Spanish Songs And Dances) (Newton Classics: 8802096) [CD]

This Newton cd is a reissue of the Mompou album de Larrocha recorded for RCA 1992-93 (Spanish Songs & Dances). It's filled with wonderful music - beguiling, poetic, atmospheric, moody, and exuberant at times too. I think Lionel Salter's comments in the November 1994 issue of Gramophone convey the essentials, and therefore will reproduce them here:

"As one who knew Mompou well and was the dedicatee of some of his pieces (including the Prelude No. 11--sometimes erroneously listed as No. 7--which was written as a wedding present for her in 1949), Alicia de Larrocha is in an almost unique position as an interpreter of his music, of which she again shows herself here a splendid champion. Being the artist she is, and like the best artists not content simply to repeat a previous interpretation without further thought, she offers readings noticeably different from her now nearly ten-year-old Decca performances of some of the Songs and dances. For the most part she adopts somewhat faster speeds, and as compared with the composer's own performances, recorded for the Musical Heritage Society, her approach is more direct, with more cohesive phrasing and without his habit (which becomes increasingly tiresome) of playing left-hand-before-right on almost every chord. In general she brings more vivacity to the Dance sections--markedly so in Nos. 7 and 8, though she is quieter and gentler in No. 10; she takes the 6/8 section of No. 4 with a charming lightness. Accentuation is sometimes different, as in No. 1 and in the bell-sounds of No. 5; but a compelling feature throughout this disc is her subtle tonal gradations. Larrocha's performances and the warm, natural recorded piano sound are both in the highest class."

Stephen Hough's Mompou album, which covers some of the same ground as de Larrocha's, has many fans (Mompou: Piano Music: Cants Magics; Charmes; Trois Variations; Dialogues I, II; Paisages; Cancion y Danzas 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9; Preludes 1, 5, 6, 7, 9,10), however, I never really warmed to his playing, and would recommend this new reissue as a perfect place to start with this gifted composer.