Composer: Federico Mompou
Performer: Jenny Lin
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Steinway & Sons
Catalogue: STNS30004
Release: 2012
Size: 205 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
01. I. Angelico
02. II. Lent
03. III. Placide
04. IV. Afflitto e penoso
05. V. Quarter Note = 54
06. VI. Lento
07. VII. Lento
08. VIII. Semplice
09. IX. Lento
10. X. Lento – cantabile
11. XI. Allegretto
12. XII. Lento
13. XIII. Tranquillo – tres calme
14. XIV. Severo – serieux
15. XV. Lento – plaintif
16. XVI. Calme
17. XVII. Lento
18. XVIII. Luminoso
19. XIX. Tranquillo
20. XX. Calme
21. XXI. Lento
22. XXII. Molto lento e tranquillo
23. XXIII. Calme, avec clarte
24. XXIV. Moderato
25. XXV. Quarter Note = 100
26. XXVI. Lento
27. XXVII. Lento molto
28. XXVIII. Lento
29. IV. Secreto (Secret)
Steinway & Sons is proud to announce this new release of piano music by Spanish composer Federico Mompou, delicately performed by a member of the “vanguard of young artists with interest in unusual repertoire and the technique to give it life” (Classics Today).
Featuring the mystical masterpiece Musica Callada, the 28 pieces on this disc highlight Mompou’s intimate, improvisatory style.
Jenny Lin, acclaimed for her “remarkable technical command” and “gift for melodic flow” by The New York Times, shines on thes deeply personal works by Mompou, which she describes as “pure, naked, delicate and undecorated, with nowhere to hide”.
Federico Mompou wrote the 28 brief piano pieces that make up the four volumes of his Música Callada (Silent Music) between 1959 and 1967, but they could easily be mistaken for a product of the first decade of the century. The influence of Satie and Debussy is pronounced, but the music has an idiosyncratic individuality that keeps it from being mistaken for the work of either of those composers. The composer traced his aesthetic in part to his memories of the sound of bells when he was a child, and it’s not hard to hear the influence of bell-like sonorities in Música Callada. The music doesn’t follow the conventions of traditional tonality, but Mompou is discreet in the use of dissonance and the result is very gentle music that is not always clearly directional but is easy on the ear. Each of the miniatures is beautifully structured and proportioned, and even though most of them are slow and quiet, Mompou finds infinite ways to create slow, quiet moods without sounding redundant. The set, which lasts about 70 minutes, should make for very pleasant listening for fans of pastel keyboard music flavored with touches of impressionism and gentle modernism. The performance by Jenny Lin tends to be on the loud side, with greater dynamic contrasts than are usual for the work. Just hearing her playing, without knowing the title of the piece, it’s doubtful that many listeners would guess Silent Music was an appropriate title. On some levels, Lin’s performance works on its own terms; her tone is lovely, and her phrasing supple and flexible. Her wide dynamic range, however, makes the piece sound more conventional than the composer seems to have intended; the aura of distant mystery that a very quiet performance can produce is missing, as well as the composer’s apparent intention to flout tradition by writing a work of this length within an unusually circumscribed dynamic range. The sound of the Steinway & Sons recording is immaculate, but a little on the bright side.