IMOGEN COOPER
Iberia y Francia: works by Mompou, Debussy, Albéniz, Ravel, de Falla
Chandos CHAN 20119
Imogen Cooper, who is most often associated with core Austro-German repertoire, takes us on a journey back and forth across the Pyrenees here, with Iberian-influenced works by French composers (Debussy, Ravel) and sort-of echt items from Spanish musicians who lived in France (de Falla, Albéniz, Mompou). As fans might expect, her approach is unforced, restrained, and more Apollonian than Dionysian. It works beautifully for Ravel’s famous Pavane and pieces by Debussy (La soirée dans Grenade, La Puerta del Vino): the pedalling is heavenly, the phrasing languorous. But in Albéniz and de Falla, what elsewhere appears unforced and restrained becomes – oh, whisper it not – bland. Like buses arriving at once, another disc of…
