Selected Piano Works

• The works of the Spanish composer Federico Mompou are barely present in the CD catalogues - some time ago Ensayo released two CDs with some of the composer's own performances of his piano music, called "Mompou plays Mompou", rather bad sounding recordings made in the 50s, which nevertheless were a great success in certain parts of the world. We therefore think that a modern DDD recording with a real good piano sound should arouse a lot of interest everywhere!

• Some or the greatest pianists of our times (artists like Alicia de Laroccha among them) have included Mompou on their recital programs, but so far none of them has ever been allowed to devote a complete CD to these wonderful works, let alone a double CD set as we present now.

• Mompou was the only Spanish composer ever who was a true successor to the French impressionism of Debussy and he was also highly intluenced by the music of Erik Satie - some people even call him the "Spanish Satie". His piano works are of an extraordinarily haunting, exquisitely melancholy elegance and some of them sound almost like improvisations.

• Each of the works recorded here consists of several separate movements: CD 1 has 16 titles in total and CD2 no less than 19. Altogether they present an almost complete view of Mompou's piano music from 1911 to 1951.

Paul Komen made his debut at the age of 13 with a radio recording of works by Bach and Scriabin. He then studied at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam with Jan Wijn. During his studies he took part in several master classes, which resulted in 1978 in his first gramophone recordlng. In 1981 he made his English debut at the Wigmore Hall in London. In 1982 Paul Komen finished his studies at the Sweelinck Conservatory cum laude and received a grant from the German Academic Exchange Services to continue his studies with Professor Hans Leygraf in Hanover. In 1984 he made his debut at the Amsterdam Concert-gebouw as soloist with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sergio Comissiona. In 1985 he finished his studies in Hanover with the Solisten-Diplom, again cum laude. In 1986 he received a grant from the Dutch government to study with György Sandor in New York and with György Szebök in Bloomington, lndiana. In 1988 he was invited to perform at the prestigious International piano festival of La Roque d'Anthéron in France. In 1989 Paul Komen made his American debut at Carnegie Hall in New York and at the National Gallery in Washington.