 Manuel Espona est né à Saint Feliu de Torelle, en Catalogne en 1714 et mort en 1779. Ce contemporain de Scarlatti étudia sous la houlette du Père Vincenç Pressiach entre 1724 et 1733 au monastère de Montserrat. Cet emplacement était un des haut-lieux de l’enseignement et de la pratique musicale espagnol du XVIIIe siècle, de telles sortes qu’Espona se forgea un formidable répertoire. Il obtint ainsi le poste de Maitre de Chapelle, lui permettant la composition des vingt-sept sonates qui nous concernent. Salué par la critique internationale comme virtuose aux multiples talents, Melani Mestre est chef d’orchestre, arrangeur mais surtout un grand pianiste, qui nous interprète avec excellence l’œuvre de Manuel Espona dans un premier volume (contenant les quatorze premières sonates). Dans une lecture d’une grande délicatesse (parfois féminine), cet « hombre » originaire de Catalogne et élève de la merveilleuse Alicia De Laroccha, nous délivre ces sonates avec une densité, une richesse telle une andalouse voluptueuse qui cache derrière son éventail la passion contenue, qui éclate sous les doigts du pianiste. Vous l’aurez compris cette musique est à consommer sans modération: laissez-vous emporter !!! En attendant le volume deux ! (Jean-Luc Pernel) A Catalan contemporary of Scarlatti, Manuel Espona (1714-1779) is known now, if at all, as the teacher of Antonio Soler, one of the fathers of Spanish keyboard literature. Melani Mestre’s recording, the only modern album dedicated to this composer, reveals that Espona was a fine composer in his own right. Like Soler, he composed in both sacred and secular genres, but much less of his work has survived. He lived and worked at the famous monastery of Montserrat, having taken holy orders there in 1733. He shared the post of maestro de capilla at the monastery’s renowned choir school (which Soler would in time direct) with Benet Esteve. There are 27 surviving single-movement sonatas for keyboard, which Melani Mestre has edited for publication, and selected 14 of them for this new recording. Mestre’s sonatas are notably individual in nature, leaving behind the typical Italian-influenced tradition of the first half of the 18th century, as exemplified by Joan Baptista Cabanilles. This is reflected not only in the way Mestre develops a highly original musical discourse, but also in his choice of key for each sonata, his modulations, his painstaking and elaborate ornamentation, his innovative rhythmic textures and a whole host of personal touches that lift these sonatas above the keyboard music of his contemporaries. Like many of those written by Soler, Espona’s sonatas are characterised by their galant style, without foregoing moments of virtuosity, brilliance and restrained lyricism. Espona’s own instrument would have been the harpsichord, but the modernity of his idiom translates well to the modern piano, according to Melani Mestre: ‘the piano allows the whole range of dynamics, articulations and ornamentations that make up the Espona style and brand to be heard in even sharper focus.’ A pupil of Alicia de Larrocha, Melani Mestre is a distinguished exponent of the Catalan piano tradition who has performed many little-known concertos by native composers. In 2009 he discovered, completed and performed the sketches for a concerto left by Enrique Granados, later making a recording as part of Hyperion’s much-acclaimed ‘Romantic Piano Concerto’ series.
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