On 19 January 1977, Federico Mompou (1893-1987) performed live at the Fundación Juan March, playing one of his most important piano works: the fourth and final book of Música callada (Silent Music), a kind of meditation in sound. Four decades later, having been meticulously restored, the only live recording Mompou ever made of this work is presented here. The other work on the programme at that historic concert was the composer’s Cinq mélodies sur des textes de Paul Valéry, sung by its dedicatee, soprano Montserrat Alavedra (1945-1991). When performing Mompou’s music Alavadra embodied his idea of the human voice, her natural, unadorned style reminiscent of that of plainchant. This recital reveals the central strands of Mompou’s creative world: the resonance at the heart of his poetics, the silence that guides us along a road of bareness, and the pursuit of the sound that exists between one note and the next.

PERSONNEL:

• Montserrat Alavedra (soprano)
• Federcio Mompou (piano)

Live at teh Federico Juan Mach, january 19, 1977

TRACKS:

• 01. XXII. Molto lento e tranquillo
• 02. XXIII. Calme, avec clarté
• 03. XXIV. Moderato
• 04. XXV. Quarter Note = 100
• 05. XXVI. Lento
• 06. XXVII. Lento molto
• 07. XXVIII. Lento
• 08 La fausse morte
• 09 L’insinuant
• 10 Le vin perdu
• 11 Le sylphe
• 12 Les pas
• 13 Jeunes filles au jardin, from Scènes d’enfants
• 14 Damunt de tu, només les flors, from Combat del somni