Impessiones Intimas

This album is dedicated to the compositions of Federico Mompou i Dencausse (1893-1987), a composer and pianist of profound sensitivity. Born in Barcelona, Mompou exhibited an early inclination for the piano. However, inspired after a concert of Gabriel Fauré, he decided to dedicate himself to composition. Like many of his generation, he went to Paris to further his studies. Upon returning to his homeland, he continued his profoundly personal approach to the piano, exploring its most poetic facets as a composer and interpreter. Despite his innate introversion, the unique voice of his music soon gained recognition. His contemplative and poetic music mirrors his life, one of introspection, in which music was used as a medium to connect to his spiritual world.

Música Callada (Music of Silence) is a very special work, one of the most beautiful and elusive in the entire piano repertoire. It is extremely difficult to perform. On the one hand, there’s the temptation to stretch each piece out hypnotically, if monotonously, while quicker speeds preserve the music’s melodic essence at the expense of much of its atmosphere and harmonic richness. For although much of the music is indeed quiet, and none of it moves quickly, it is all meaningful. Mompou himself found the perfect balance between incident and repose, and of all the pianists since, Jenny Lin arguably comes closest to doing the same, only in much better sound. It’s not so much that her tempos match Mompou’s own (she’s actually not copying him–it would hardly be possible in a work containing 28 individual pieces), but rather that her phrasing and sense of timing let the music breathe and sing with its own special poetry. To take just one example, consider the sadness that Lin finds in the fourth piece, “Afflitto e penoso”, by allowing the piece’s harmonic color time to speak simply and eloquently.

Limited Edition 41-CDs set presenting Alicia de Larrocha’s complete Decca & American Decca recordings.
Including previously unreleased recordings of Grieg and Albéniz. Includes discs of bonus material: 2 CDs of de Larrocha’s early Hispavox (EMI/Warner) Madrid recordings of piano encores. Includes recordings with Pilar Lorengar, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, André Previn, Sir Georg Solti, Riccardo Chailly, Zubin Mehta and David Zinman. Greatly respected by her peers, not least Arthur Rubinstein, Gina Bachauer, Van Cliburn, Claudio Arrau and Vladimir Horowitz, if you wanted to witness a Who’s Who of New York City-based keyboard luminaries gathered in one place, you simply had to purchase a ticket for an Alicia de Larrocha recital..

In 2000 Richie Beirach surprised the jazz world in his guise as "Bartók’s nephew from New York". Those who have heard the pianist in concert with violinist Gregor Huebner and bassist George Mraz, or on the critically acclaimed CD "Round About Bartók" (ACT 9276-2), have also heard how the three effortlessly improvised around themes from Alexander Scrijabin and Zoltán Kodály. Thus it should come as no surprise that Beirach has discovered he has relations with other modern classical composers. "Discovered" in the narrower meaning of the word, for the band of admirers of Federico Mompous’s resolutely unspectacular music is still small; yet it is music that makes you sit up and take notice once you have heard it.

Música Callada – The Music of Silence. Is this a provocation? A challenge? Or perhaps a stylistic exercise? For Mompou, none of all that was the case. He was simply reacting against his time, taking refuge from it, and he considered this solo piano cycle to be his most accomplished work. His universe is based on the mystical framework he constructs around one of the verses of the Spiritual Canticle of St John of the Cross: ‘Night stilled at the awakening of dawn, hushed music, echoing solitude…’ ‘With this fascinating world as the starting point,’ explains Guillaume Coppola, ‘I wanted to reflect it in the mirror of more “music of silence”: partly by choosing works by composers whose influence Mompou had personally acknowledged, partly by freely associating other pieces that seem to share this world and to respond to each other.’