Musica Callada (Music of Silence) [Pure DSD]

Amongst all of the albums I've heard by Josep Colom, this album has most attracted me. Both musically and sonically. (...) And for the sound? I think this 2021 recording is possibly Gonzalo Noque's best solo piano recording thus far. And if you've experienced any of his exceptional recordings, you will know that this places it at a very high level of excellence, indeed.

Eudora’s newest album features Spanish pianist Josep Colom in a series of 28 ‘Silent Music’ miniatures written between 1951 (1959) and 1967 by the emblematic Catalan composer, Frederic Mompou.

Música Callada is the perfection of silence in music that some may describe as ‘Zen’. In its simplicity, it shares some of a French friend’s minimalist approach, though at a completely different and incomparable spiritual level.

In this kind of repertoire, Josep Colom is one of the best interpreters to go for, and not only for Mompou fans but also for all those new to this composer. The liner notes are more of an essay, written by Adolf Pla, shedding lots of interesting details of Mompou and his intellectual visions.

And the sound? Need I say more than that Gonzalo Noqué always goes for the best and as natural as it is.

The 28 miniatures of Musica Callada (Silent Music) are one of the most important works by Federico Mompou (1893-1987) and are considered his musical testament. Josep Colom plays them not only meditatively, but cares for everything that this music needs.

The tonal purity that had marked Mompou due to the bells he had heard in his childhood, the many nuances, colorful and dynamic, and above all, the poetry. This ensures a delightful hour of music, the music of a weak heartbeat, as Mompou called it, on the one hand not doodle-mystical, on the other hand not cold-ascetic. Colom finds the right balance!

Mompou was inspired to his cycle by poems of the Carmelite Saint-Jean de la Croix, from whom he set one poem to music, Cantar del Alma, which is heard at the end of the program, performed very intimately by Colom and Cecilia Lavilla Berganza, the daughter of singer Teresa Berganza and pianist Felix Lavilla.

This is one of the most realistic recordings of a pianist that I have ever heard.