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SUSANNE MEBES GUITAR RÉCITAL CATALAN Music from Catalonia and Valencia Isaac ALBÉNIZ Capricho Catalan & Cataluña Miguel LLOBET Tres Canciones Populares Catalanas Scherzo-Vals Federico MOMPOU Canción Vicente ASENCIO The Complete Works for Guitar (first complete recording) CD: LC 44201 LUISTER (Netherlands & Belgium) Selection of the month "10 of 10" AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE «... Mebes is testimony to a new generation of playing that is reclaiming the guitar's soul. She is not only the best female guitarist playing today; she is one of the greatest guitarists to be heard - period.» LUISTER (Netherlands & Belgium) Selection of the month "10 of 10 ('unique')" «... the complete ¦uvre for guitar by Asencio does not quite fill a compact disc, yet its rather more philosophical than folkloristic expressiveness exceeds the little silver disc by far. Through the hands of Susanne Mebes piece by piece emerge as intimate minitures which I cannot get enough of. 'Dipso', the second movement of the 'Suite mistica' and the only work Segovia ever confined to vinyl, is superior to any other interpretation whatsoever ...» FANFARE The Magazine for Serious Record Collectors (USA) «Mebes's Recital Catalan allows her to give her lyrical impulse free rein. The program contains a few comparative rarities... The music of Vicente Asencio has virtually dropped out of the catalogue (it was never very well entrenched to begin with). He was born in Valencia, but gave Catalan titles to almost all of his compositions for guitar (his favorite instrument, though he himself was not a player)... His music is often as ethnically colorful as that of Albéniz and Llobet, and wondrously idiomatic for the guitar. Hearing it for the first time, I am unable to understand why it is so poorly represented on disc. His musical language ranges from the wholly accessible ‹ the Sonatina in homage to Domenico Scarlatti... to the poignantly aphoristic and indeed, almost musically abstract Suite Mistica. Mebes's sensitive and probing performances will go a long way toward redressing a discographic grievance... Warmly recommended.» DIAPASON (France) ***** 5 sur 5 Diapasons attribués « C'est un beau moment de guitare que nous offre là Susanne Mebes. Dans ces pages de compositeurs cartalans et valenciens, ... la jeune néerlandaise se révèle une très fine interprète... Avec sa technique fluide et élégante, à l'opposé de tout tape-à-l'¦il, sa sonorité chaude et travaillée, il émane de son jeu une sensibilité qui s'accorde bien avec les ¦uvres romantiques de Llobet (dont elle restitue à merveille les dons d'écriture et d'harmoniste) et le talent si mystérieux du discret compositeur valencien Vicente Asencio, dont nous tenons ici l'intégralité des ¦uvres pour guitare... CD courageux, inventif, rempli de belle musique et offrant un programme d'une rare cohérence...» Technique: 8 / La guitare est rendue de façon naturelle AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE «Dutch new-comer Susanne Mebes, who blew me away with last year's Ponce disc (Léman Classics LC 42701) proves herself in a solid Catalonian recital. Llobet and Albéniz have enough elegance, wit, and rapture to sit proudly with Segovia's. And in a nod to the completist, Mebes has given us Vicente Asencio's entire guitar ¦uvre. A solid case is made by Mebes for re-assessing the Valencian composer (1908-1979) who is too often tossed aside in favor of better-known contemporaries such as Rodrigo. Asencio's music is subtler and more humane than Rodrigo's. Along with the expected nationalist threads are a serene and spiritual side that Mebes reads ideally...» more about Susanne Mebes... (coming soon)