Search - Mompou, Maso :: Piano Music

Superb playing of rather tough music

G.D. | Norway | 09/04/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Naxos's cycle of the piano works of Mompou with Jordi Masó is an important one, but I would hesitate to recommend this installment to anyone not already familiar with Mompou's music. True, this is mature Mompou, and the music here displays his personal style in full, but it is in general so bleak and desolate that listening to this disc straight through will tax even the most ardent listener. `Musica Callada' means (roughly) `Music without sound', and the four books totaling 28 pieces seem to underline the paradox in the title; for the most part, these are (post-)impressionistic pieces of sparse textures and slow, meditative reflections on, well, silence. Only intermittently are there interruptions of agony and irony, and few or no flickers of light shining through the clouds of the desolate landscape. These are echoes of memories and impression set in crystal, and whereas the skill and level of invention in the writing is never in doubt, the end result is pretty unapproachable - there is no doubt that the two earlier pieces that fill out the disc brings some longed for relief.



Some pieces remind one of the meditative nature of later Liszt, but in general the pieces do not sound like anyone else. But Masó is clearly well-immersed in the idiom and plays all the works with a commitment, delicacy and lightness of touch which is nothing short of admirable. The sound is generally good, and if you are interested in these works you will not be disappointed by this issue. Yet the final verdict must be that this disc is first and foremostly for the specialist."