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04/01/2023
Federico Mompou: Música callada
Stephen Hough (piano)
Recording: St. Silas the Martyr, Kentish Town, London, England (October 22‑24, 2020) – 68’26
Hyperion CDA68362 – Booklet in English, French and German
 
During the COVID lockdown, plenty of opportunities were offered to Stephen Hough, including his reflections and recordings of Schumann, Chopin and Schubert. Federico Mompou’s somewhat idiosyncratic passages summed up the essence of isolation and wide planes of vagaries at hand. Interestingly enough, M. Hough was quoted in the liner notes of the 2016 “Dream Album”, “I knew Mompou before I knew Mozart.” With this musical anchor, compounded by the Englishman’s polymath acumens, it’s comes as no surprise that this connection would be a timely and profound occasion.
Percipient as he is, Stephen Hough succinctly describes the Catalonian compositions as “the music of evaporation”: music seems to appear and resolve without absolute conclusion. Mompou’s music, at times, sharply vague, implies broad brushes of thought flittering through aberrant forces of gravitational resolve. “Música callada”, literally translated, “Quiet music”, cogitates ambiguities that occasionally land softly while others are positioned in quixotic hardness. The range of motions forever toggles on an even fulcrum of temperaments.
Federico Mompou was described as “awkwardly shy”, introverted and incapable of public dealings. His family’s Dencausse bell foundry gave an interesting framework to his œuvres in this CD. The use of ostinato (ref: American jazz pianist Keith Jarrett) accentuates Mompou’s emotions, be it direct or polite in control. With this, Stephen Hough dissects the introspective musical minutiae and the barcelonés’ range of feelings with punctilious élan.
The feathered “feelings” evoked by Mompou’s works are laden in reserve...so descriptive are M. Mompou’s passages: calm, tranquil, slow, moderate and rigid/serious. The Catalan-native’s dominion pushes beyond Impressionistic avenues with channels into modernistic 20th century auras. Digressive as it initially reveals, Federico Mompou’s cerebral music is rather tidy, efficient and filled with lasting impact. It searches the soul, it’s even-tempered and it percolates into another realm. Yet most importantly, it helps resolve ensuing tensions, settle trauma and assuage conflicts at hand. Perhaps panaceas for the tumultuous world we live in?
We leave having Stephen Hough ironing out the assortment of details...clarity and illustrious understanding is revealed.
Steven Hough’s Website
Christie Grimstad
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