Positive Feedback

This 3-volume set is a genuine gift for anyone who values solo piano music of elegance, intimacy, and refined craftsmanship. Dedicated to the works of Santiago de Masarnau, a little-known yet significant figure in nineteenth-century Spanish music, the set brings to life the music of a composer who helped transmit European Romanticism to Spain. That these are world-premiere recordings is astonishing; it is hard to believe music of this quality has gone unrecorded until now.

The music feels fresh and alive, shimmering with wit and vitality. Certainly one hears echoes of other composers, but they are so seamlessly absorbed that they register less as imitation than as acknowledgement—part of Masarnau’s emergence into a distinctive voice.

Gonzalo Noqué, recording engineer and founder of Eudora Records, has once again produced a sonic benchmark. Captured in the Auditorio de Zaragoza—Princesa Leonor (Sala Mozart), the 1957 Steinway Model D is rendered with striking naturalness and resolution, offering wide frequency extension, a convincing sense of air, and a beautifully developed bloom of harmonic overtones. In this Pure DSD 256 release, the sound is exceptionally transparent and unforced—free of compression and artifacts, and faithful to the instrument’s character.

The result is sound that communicates directly, without intrusion. His command of piano recording remains, quite simply, in a class of its own.

Rushton Paul - Source