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Iberia y Francia
Imogen Cooper (piano)
rec. 2019, Concert Hall, Snape Maltings, Snape, Suffolk
CHANDOS CHAN20119 [77:14]

The essence of this album is possibly best encapsulated by its well-chosen juxtaposition of Homenaje, Falla’s tiny memorial to Debussy with La soirée dans Grenade, the second piece of the French master’s Estampes to which Falla unabashedly refers. The Falla unfolds gravely, a melancholic fusion of death and life, of memory and respect, of France and Spain, the quotations at its end preceding a pause which could almost serve as a space for reflection within the same piece. The yearning melody at the centre of La soirée explodes with truly heartfelt nostalgia.

The reading of Ravel’s timeless Pavane pour une infante défunte with which Imogen Cooper opens this imaginatively planned and wonderfully executed recital is suffused with grace rather than languor. This is a deeply felt, stately account which contrasts neatly with Alborada del gracioso’s crisply articulated rhythms and repeated notes as well as its sprightly Iberian ribaldry, not too sprightly here, mind. She projects plenty of mystery in the enigmatic musings at its heart.

In her personal introduction to this recital, Cooper admits: “…. the connections here are more felt than proven, more fanciful than serious, and all generate from an inner amalgam of my French student past and my new love and knowledge of the Catalonian coast, to which I regularly return”. So it is that there seems to be an appealingly instinctive approach to all these pieces, and what comes across in spades (as is par for the course with this pianist) is an innate affection for music which has evidently been under her skin (and fingers) for aeons. All the more surprising then that she has waited until now to record this repertoire.

The other two Debussy Préludes included here are arguably the most Iberian in tone of the 24. Cooper dwells deliciously on the guitar allusions of both La Puerta del Vino and La Serenade Interrompue. The former lives or dies by its marked contradictions of brutish violence and passionate ardour, as Roger Nichols, the expert’s expert in this music, points out in another succinct and revealing essay, and Cooper draws out these contrasts in most alluring fashion, tempestuous and patient by turn. La Serenade’s collisions between conscious and unconscious thought are also tellingly conveyed. The repeated bass notes at its outset have been caught in incisively present sound by the ever impressive Rachel Smith, whose production skills seem to be a perfect fit for this pianist’s style and touch.

But it’s Cooper’s sultry, measured Albéniz which takes pride of place on this album. These generally longer pieces really do provide an opportunity for her to demonstrate her profound appreciation of their musical architecture. I commented in my review of her last disc (Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations - review) on Cooper’s inimitable ability to ‘layer’ extended pieces in a way that truly aids comprehensibility, and it’s here again in the selections from Iberia, as well as in Cooper’s ravishing account of Debussy’s L’Isle Joyeuse, an exquisite, diamantine reading which must rank alongside Bavouzet’s outstanding recording for the same label.

As for Albéniz, Cooper’s trip to El Albaicin seems simultaneously citric and sensual, its Moorish flavours cohering into something almost contemporary. The gipsy strumming at its outset is assertive and regular, while its balmy second subject seems somehow disconnected from the dissonant chordal sequences which follow and which seem way ahead of their time. Cooper’s playing may be instinctive, but it’s also rife with adventure. It’s odd to hear this piece from the third book of Iberia before the three pieces of Book 1, as in this context it strikes me as considerably more exploratory than its earlier siblings, despite the fact that it emerged only a year later. Rather serendipitously, I’ve been listening to the three pieces from Book 1 a lot recently (they cropped up in imaginatively fleet accounts in Andrew Tyson’s exquisite recent recital ‘Landscapes’- review); I must say Imogen Cooper’s accounts are as individual and atmospheric as any I know. The scents of Evocación linger in the still air, while in the townscape of El Puerto Cooper finds oases of calm among the hubbub. In the case of the magnificent El Corpus Christi en Sevilla, her coloration and storytelling reach a different level. Her layering of texture and dynamic in what is effectively an extended tone poem is exemplary. This is stunning, honeyed pianism, in Chandos’s most natural sound, and easily worth the price of the disc on its own. And there’s an extra in the guise of the wistful, nostalgic postcard Rumores de la caleta, more familiar perhaps as a guitar staple. This seems almost old-fashioned in comparison to the experiments of Iberia, but counter-intuitively it nestles comfortably in the weave of this recital. Cooper revels in its perhaps less subtle but no less delightful Iberianisms.

Finally there’s Mompou, whose music is often summarily and rather smugly compared to Satie. Imogen Cooper finds both space and sophistication in the two Canciones y danzas included here, in the campanological allusions of No 1, and the more reflective song and lively fandango of No 6 from 1947. This enigmatic diptych concludes a deeply enjoyable recital from a pianist who absolutely merits National Treasure status. Her own excellent monochrome photographs of Catalonia further enhance Chandos’s classy documentation.

If imogen Cooper seems to be releasing discs in relative abundance at present, I wonder if perhaps it is to compensate from what some have perceived to be her relative shyness of studio contexts across what has been an extensive and illustrious career. If this previously unsuspected prolificity isn’t a cause for celebration, I really don’t know what is.

Richard Hanlon
 
Contents
Maurice RAVEL (1874-1937) Pavane pour une infante défunte (1899) [6:24]
Alborada del gracioso (from Miroirs) (1904-05) [7:01]
Manuel de FALLA (1876-1946) Homenaje a Debussy (arr Falla - 1920) [3:20]
Claude DEBUSSY (1862-1918) La soirée dans Grenade (from Estampes) (1903) [5:39]
La Puerta del Vino (from Préludes - Book 2) (c 1911-13) [3:55]
La serenade interrompue (from Préludes - Book 1) (1910) [2:59}
Isaac ALBÉNIZ (1860-1909) El Albaicín (from Iberia, Book 3) (c 1907) [8:12]
Iberia, Book 1 (c 1906): Evocación [6:06]
El puerto [4:55]
El Corpus Christi en Sevilla [9:58]
Federico MOMPOU (1893-1984) Cancion y danza No. 1 (1924) [3:23]
Claude DEBUSSY L'isle Joyeuse (1904) [7:00]
Isaac ALBÉNIZ Rumores de la caleta (No. 6 from Recuerdos de Viaje, Op. 71) (1886-87) [4:21]
Federico MOMPOU Cancion y danza No. 6 (1947) [3:51]