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.
Another secret of her success is the splendid equilibrium between
left and right hands. The treble gleams, bell-like, while the sonorous
bass lines carry the music right through the many pauses, aided in no
small degree by discretely timed use of the pedals. “Secreto”, from the
early Impresiones intimas, makes the perfect encore and rounds out the
program in a most satisfying way. If Música Callada represents Mompou’s masterpiece, then this beautifully engineered disc must be its finest
modern recording. It deserves a home in every serious piano music
collection. (David Hurwitz / Classics Today)
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