Composer: José F Vásquez
Performer: Vladimir Curiel
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Toccata
Catalogue: TOCC0693
Release: 2023
Size: 503 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Impresiones for Piano: First Series
01. I. Romanza
02. II. Barcarola
03. III. Melodía
Impresiones for Piano: Second Series
04. I. Nocturno
05. II. La oración de la tarde
06. III. Elegía
Impresiones for Piano: Third Series
07. I. Reverie
08. II. Impromptu
09. III. Berceuse
Impresiones for Piano: Fourth Series
10. I. Preludio
11. II. Hoja de álbum
12. III. Plegaria
Impresiones for Piano: Fifth Series
13. I. Madrigal
14. II. Serenata
15. III. Intermezzo
Jose F. Vasquez (1896‒1961) – composer, pianist, conductor and educationalist – was one of the leading figures in Mexican classical music from the 1910s to the 1950s, but since many of his scores were lost after his death, his star soon sank from the sky. Four decades of research by his son, the writer Jose Jesús Vasquez Torres, have recovered much of the missing music, allowing a re-assessment of his father’s standing. These five books of Impresiones for piano (from c. 1922‒27) – fifteen predominantly slow, introspective miniatures – reveal a debt to French Impressionism, Debussy in particular, with occasional nods to Schumann, Liszt and Brahms, and some harmonies that suggest Wagner. Vasquez was a fine pianist himself, but the textures here have a surprising simplicity, throwing the emphasis on tonal colour.