Catalonian pianist
Jordi Masó's complete cycle of
Federico Mompou's piano music has consistently displayed the quiet subtlety that is the key to
Mompou, and any of the albums in the set can be recommended. This, the sixth and presumably final volume, consists of early, unpublished
Mompou pieces that were part of
Mompou's personal library and of a collection at the Biblioteca de Catalunya. They were composed in the early and middle 1910s when
Mompou was in his early twenties. This clearly isn't a place to start with
Mompou (the first volume, containing
Mompou's late masterpiece Música callada [Music That Has Fallen Silent]) would be a reasonable choice). But those hooked on this unclassifiable composer will find much of interest in this collection of short pieces. Some of them were rejected parts or have some other connection with
Mompou's early published compositions, but the majority were little experiments in which
Mompou pushed against his models. Those included
Fauré, and many of the pieces begin with a pure
Fauré melody that is diverted into an economical treatment of itself, an entirely delightful effect;
Mompou does not so much reject his teacher as quietly comment on him. Another influence, not much discussed by
Mompou but apparent in multiple places here, is
Erik Satie.
Mompou is enamored of parallel harmonies that contain fine shades of color, and check out "Petit cementiri a la tarda" (Little Cemetery in the Evening), track 10, the last of the Five Impressions of 1918, which greatly resembles
Satie's neo-medieval pieces. If it was not a question of direct influence, it may have at least involved common inspiration. An interesting appendix all in all to
Masó's fine set.