Federico Mompou. Selected Works for piano solo Vol. 2

“… so movingly and faithfully captured by Clelia Iruzun… wherever you turn you will find an unfailing lucidity and affection. Nothing is forced or exaggerated. Never for a moment do you hear the smart metropolitan aplomb of an over-seasoned concert pianist. It is as if she is sharing a special love with a small circle of intimate friends. To crown it all, Iruzun’s always apt and beautiful sonority is ideally captured by SOMM. A memorable issue”. Bryce Morrison, Gramophone.

A brief quote from Robert Matthew-Walker’s notes describes Mompou’s music  very aptly: “his music is not that of a heart-on-sleeve Romantic composer, for his creative heart lies elsewhere;  his is not music for every day, but it speaks to us all in our private moments, those moments of reflection and solitude.”  Mompou himself believed that his work might fall into three groups: the first being the essence of rural Catalan scenery: suburbs, distant scenes of children and Fiestas. The second group includes those pieces inspired more by human nature, perhaps secret and mysterious: charms, Chants Magics, essentially quiet music, and the music of the third group being linked directly to Catalan folklore: songs and dances.

Clélia Iruzun
With her combination of colourful Brazilian spirit and musicianship, London-based pianist Clélia Iruzun is one of the most exciting musicians to emerge onto the international scene in recent years.

Clélia studied at the School of Music at Rio de Janeiro Federal University and at the Royal Academy of Music graduating with the Recital Diploma and several prizes. She has also worked with prestigious pianists such as Nelson Freire, Jaques Klein, Stephen Kovacevich and Fou Ts’Ong and the prestigious Brazilian teacher Mercés de Silva Telles in Paris. Great Brazilian composers such as Francisco Mignone and Marlos Nobre have dedicated works to her. She has won major prizes in her native Brazil and in international competitions such as the Santander and Zaragoza in Spain.

Iruzun leads a busy international career as soloist having performed in almost all the major London venues, in Europe, the Americas and Asia, including concerts at the Grand Theatre in Shanghai, the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, Konserthusets in Gothenburg and Stockholm and appearances with the Poznan Philharmonic and in her native Brazil where she tours every year. She has featured several times on radio and television in several countries, including broadcasts for BBC Radio 3. Her wide-ranging discography extends from Latin American composers to the Mendelssohn Concertos, including Maconchy’s Concertino with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and piano music by Marlos Nobre and Ernesto Nazareth’s Portrait of Rio.