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Title: Disappointing Mompou from Larrocha
Review: If you can find Alicia de Larrocha's recordings of Mompou on London/Decca, they are far more preferable to this RCA recording.Most of the Songs and Dances is wonderful music; the Preludes are interesting, but I could have done without these. Why couldn't she instead have recorded Mompou's "Variations on a theme of Chopin", a wonderful 20-minute work which is virtually unknown?Technically, this music is not terribly difficult, but Larrocha's slowly faltering technique make her tempos sound cautious, and interpretively the magic of her previous renditions on London/Decca is missing.Also, RCA's typically hard-toned piano sound is unattractive. This is typical of so many of RCA recordings; I've noticed that the same problem afflicts virtually all of the Rubinstein and Horowitz recordings for this label.Nevertheless, I'm a die-hard fan of this pianist, and I'll keep buying whatever she records.
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