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Through the direct juxtaposition of works by Robert and Clara Schumann, Judith Jáuregui traces their intimate artistic connection – a trusted companionship of reciprocal inspiration.

Robert and Clara Schumann had to fight hard for their love. Yet despite the resistance and hurdles that initially stood in their way, their marriage blossomed into a private and artistic partnership of equals, characterised by mutual inspiration. For her new album The Romantic Soul (Die romantische Seele) for ARS Produktion, Spanish pianist Judith Jáuregui has compiled four works that reflect the Schumanns’ intimate collaboration as both composers and performers. 

Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 alongside the Orquestra Simfònica Camera Musicae and its chief conductor Tomàs Grau acts as the anchor point of the album, that is completed with solo works by Robert and Clara. In “Quasi variazioni. Andantino de Clara Wieck”, Schumann skilfully builds a fantastic musical scene around a previously unpublished theme of Clara’s and in her own Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Op. 20, Clara Schumann uses a theme from the first of her husband’s five Bunte Blätter, Op. 99. The predominantly minor keys of the first works are elevated by the lightness of the final piece on Judith Jáuregui’s album: Arabesque in C major, Op. 18.

Judith Jáuregui’s first musical love was Robert Schumann. His Album for the Youth accompanied her throughout her initial years of piano study and she has felt a deep connection to the tonal and emotional world of both Robert and Clara Schumann ever since. In words of the artist: “it is impossible to imagine Robert without Clara, just as it is impossible to imagine Clara without Robert. It is for this reason that I wanted to bring their music together and reflect their trusting communion with a selection of works that were born of mutual inspiration. Their lives and work are a true embodiment of 'the romantic soul'".

Jáuregui discovers a deep-seated melancholy in all its sparkling brilliance, which shines through on this album again and again. In short, the pianist identifies herself here as Schumann’s soul mate with the finest touch, paired with elegance and delicacy
Audio Klassik

The performance is impressive; her interpretation speaks to the refined nature of the writing while remains passionate and honest… Jáuregui’s playing is elegantly restrained yet emotive, highlighting the romantic themes prevalent throughout the music
The Classic Review

Finesse and great sensibility
Piano News

Listening to this new album by Judith Jáuregui is, above all, a discovery of a leading artist, who plays without borders and finds her truth in musical power, but also in an overwhelming interiority
Mediapart

Jáuregui’s sound is simply beautiful: a festival of polyphony and fluidity…sobriety and elegance and a rare intelligence of contrast and nuance. A big crush
Audiophile Magazine

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Recorded live from the Imperial in concert series organised by Bösendorfer in Vienna, this CD came into being as a tribute concert played in 2018 to mark the centenary of the death of the French composer, and it is conceived now in album form as a journey through the works of Debussy and of composers intimately linked to him.

Pour le tombeau de Claude Debussy begins with Falla's work of the same name, a tribute that the Spaniard wrote on occasion of the French composer’s death. It is a funeral march to the rhythm of a Habanera, which relates the strong relationship of mutual influence and admiration maintained between the two composers. This piece is followed on the album by Ballade no. 2 by Liszt, one of Debussy's predecessors, who established a crucial bridge between Romanticism and what is known as Impressionism, of which Debussy would be the maximum exponent. And so we reach the mid-point in the album, where we come across two pianistic jewels by Debussy: the Estampes and L’isle joyeuse. In Estampes we find the magic, the perfume and the exotic notes of the Debussyian soul and in L’isle joyeuse we discover a brilliance and extrovert nature which are most unusual in his catalogue. From there we arrive at another of Debussy's great points of reference, Frédéric Chopin, with his Andante Spianato et Grande Polonaise Brillante op. 22, a grand dance which, while heroic, is always elegant, full of spirit and bravura. The Andante reflects the lyricism which so captivated Debussy during his years of study at the Paris Conservatoire. As a farewell to this journey, the childhood memory that was always present in Debussy appears in last place on the album, in the form of the delicious Jeunes filles au jardin by Federico Mompou, another of the composers whose works are fundamental in the life and career of Judith Jáuregui.

This album is the first collaboration between Judith and the German label ARS Produktion.

A truly enriching lesson of Music
Kulturtipp

A fortunate album, with Jáuregui's wonderful touch and with works that sound here as if they were made for each other
Der Falter

Jáuregui shines with the necessary aplomb when required and paints wonderfully polychrome images on the keyboard, like in Debussy's Jardins sous la pluie. She does so with pianistic sovereignty and crystalline clarity
Klassik Heute

It is not only the impeccability of her performance that counts, but rather the impression of listening to a pianist who really has something to say
Piano News

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With X, her fourth album, Judith Jáuregui delves deep into the work of Russian composer Alexander Scriabin: a genius entrapped by delirium and ecstasy, one of arts’ most extravagant characters. To frame his figure, Jáuregui has chosen to include in the album works by one of Scriabin’s great inspirations, Frédéric Chopin, and to reflect the mark that his visionary art left on the 20th century, specifically through the piano of the young Karol Szymanowski. The CD therefore reveals the common ground shared by these three composers, absolute references for any pianist.

Scriabin wrote his famous Poem of Ecstasy between 1905 and 1908 when he was already steeped in the world of theosophy. Sonata no. 5, which is the starting point of X, is from that era and it links directly to the poem through a fragment included in the music sheet (“I call you to life, oh mysterious forces!” reads its first line). Together with this sonata, the Preludes Op. 15 and the Fantasy Op. 28 round off the works of Scriabin chosen for the album; and between these two we find Ballad no. 1 and Nocturne no. 20, Op. Posth. by Chopin, and the Preludes Op. 1 by Szymanowski.

Temperament, freshness and a musical vocation with fabulous prospects for the future... Jáuregui’s pianism has grown with the knowledge that comes from the passing of time without losing, for one instance, the joy in her fingers
Asier Vallejo Ugarte, Revista Scherzo

A brilliant Scriabin, violent at times, decisive... a brave and valuable piece of work that allows us to follow the career of one of our most promising pianists
Juan Berberana, Revista Ritmo

Art in capital letters
Javier Martínez Luengo, Revista Síneris

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Three composers, three nationalities and three historical periods united by a common style: Impressionism. Franz Liszt, Claude Debussy and Frederic Mompou are the protagonists of this journey in search of light and colour. This is the itinerary proposed by Donostian pianist Judith Jáuregui, consolidated as a brilliant reality on the music scene, in this new album which reveals her more intimate and bright side. In AURA, Jáuregui concentrates the essence of musical Impressionism through several of its stages: from the initial presage in Liszt, taking in the French splendour of Debussy, until reaching its subsequent evolution with Mompou.

After an initial homage to Alicia de Larrocha and to the Spanish piano tradition, this CD is the second item on the publication list of BerliMusic, the record label conceived by the artist herself in order to pursue artistic freedom.

Awarded the Melómano de Oro Gold Medal by Melómano Magazine

Eludes pretetiousness and shines on trough
Blas Matamoro, Revista Scherzo

Delicate touch, penatrating luminosity
Arturo Reverter, El Cultural

An introspective, intimate, delicate and ultimately seductive album
Juan Lucas, El Arte de la Fuga

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Second album by Judith Jáuregui, in which she pays tribute to the unforgettable Alicia de Larrocha. In “Para Alicia, inspiración española” the Basque pianist revisits some of the fundamental pieces of Spanish music that were played by the great Alicia all over the world. A universe that takes us from the Romanticism of the Poetic Waltzes by Granados to the folklore and modernity of Falla's Four Spanish Pieces and the brilliance of the Spanish Suite by Albéniz. A tribute paid by Jáuregui, with deepest admiration, to someone who is one of her most important references in terms of talent, strength and in life.

With this CD the pianist also launches her own record label: BerliMusic. The name comes from an anagram of the word ‘libre’ (free in Spanish), which is how she feels with music, about life and in this new journey she is now embarking upon, in which she will be free to create at her own will.

Awarded the Melómano de Oro Gold Medal by Melómano Magazine

Jáuregui has that extraordinary capacity to capture the essence and the popular undercurrent of those pieces of music, without ever falling into the trap of cheap effects or anything remotely vulgar
Rafa Banús, El Cultural

Intense versions, full of nuances and musicality
Jorge de Persia, La Vanguardia

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First solo album by Judith Jáuregui for the label Columna Música. Dedicated to Schumann, it includes three of the most important works by the brilliant German composer: Papillons op.2, Allegro op.8 and Fantasiestücke op.12.

The CD won the Best Classical Album prize at the 2011 Spanish Independent Music Awards.

Delicate, dreamy, virtuous and temperamental
Asier Vallejo, Revista Scherzo

Within Jáuregui, as within all pianists who have something to say, a formidable technique is put to the service of the "sound which has a sense" of the narration, of the building of a world
Santiago Martín Bermúdez, Concertonet