Frederic Mompou: Música callada (2021)

It has been gratifying to those who love Mompou to see this recording of the Música callada, the composer's late masterpiece, mount the best-seller charts. The work is not often recorded, but pianist Lilit Grigoryan contributes a fresh and arresting reading. Mompou said of the work: "It is a weak heartbeat. It's not meant to reach any further than a few millimeters in space." Some pianists have taken him at his word, offering quiet, mystical readings. Grigoryan's performance is contemplative but also more forceful. It has ... Read More

It has been gratifying to those who love Mompou to see this recording of the Música callada, the composer's late masterpiece, mount the best-seller charts. The work is not often recorded, but pianist Lilit Grigoryan contributes a fresh and arresting reading. Mompou said of the work: "It is a weak heartbeat. It's not meant to reach any further than a few millimeters in space." Some pianists have taken him at his word, offering quiet, mystical readings. Grigoryan's performance is contemplative but also more forceful. It has been suggested that Mompou's family heritage of bell-making is audible in his compositions, and that's especially true of the religiously inspired Música callada. Grigoryan catches this, and there's an inward thread running through her entire performance of the four-volume work, one that unites its varied treatments of tonality and captures its gradually expanding scope and its awesomely pregnant minimal gestures. In short, this is a Música callada for those who don't know the work,... Read Less