The Spanish pianist Javier Perianes was born on 24 September 1978 in Nerva. He graduated in piano studies from the Conservatorio Superior de Música in Seville and received additional guidance from Richard Goode, Alicia de Larrocha, and Daniel Barenboim.
Winning first prizes at the Concurso Internacional de Piano Premio Jaén and the Concurso de la Fundación Jacinto e Inocencio Guerrero launched his international career, and his Harmonia Mundi recordings have received critical acclaim.
To celebrate his birthday, let us take the opportunity to sample his recording of Música Callada by Catalan composer and pianist Federico Mompou.
Federico Mompou: Música callada, Vol. 1 (Javier Perianes, piano)
The Inner Silence
Javier Perianes
In an interview published by Miami Clásica on 10 October 2011, originally in Spanish, Perianes was asked how he approached Mompou’s Música Callada. “It is music based on silence, which is the great accomplice of musicians.” Mompou took the term from a poem by St. John of the Cross, and it basically means “music that does not sound.”
“To approach it, you need inner silence and to be free of prejudices. It seems easy, static, but the concentration of emotion is devastating. The recording was made in one day, in a single sweep, which is how I believe it should be approached.”
Mompou is best known for his solo piano music, characterised by elegance, direct melody, and the deep, haunting emotions of folk music. The meditative qualities of his music seem to conjure ritual and ancient mystery.
Federico Mompou: Música callada, Vol. 2 (Javier Perianes, piano)
A Weak Heartbeat
Federico Mompou, 1955
Música Callada, which roughly translates as “Music of Silence,” is a cycle of 28 short piano pieces organised in four books. Composed during the 1950s and 1960s, it was Mompou’s last work for solo piano, and the composer considered it a high point of his career.
A key to understanding this music is a poem by the Spanish-Christian mystic St John of the Cross (1542–1591), published in his Cántico Espiritual.
The quiet night,
before the break of dawn,
the music of silence,
the resounding solitude,
the meal that refreshes and awakens love.
De la Cruz provides commentary on the passage reading, “This is silent music, for it is quiet and still knowledge, without an audible voice; and thus, in it, one enjoys the sweetness of music and the tranquillity of silence. The soul says that the beloved is silent music.”
These thoughts are echoed by Mompou, who explained, “This music has neither air nor light. It is a weak heartbeat. One cannot ask it to travel more than a few millimetres through space, but it has the task of penetrating the deepest recesses of our soul and the most secret regions of our spirit.”
“This music is silent because it is heard inwardly. Restraint and reserve. Its emotion is secret and takes sonic form only in its resonances beneath the great cold vault of our solitude. I hope that my Música callada, this newborn child, will bring us closer to a new warmth of life and to the expression of the human heart, always the same and always renewing itself.” (Fundació Frederic Mompou)
Federico Mompou: Música callada, Vol. 3 (Javier Perianes, piano)
Making Silence Audible
Javier Perianes, Música callada
In his 2006 recording, Javier Perianes approaches this music with extraordinary delicacy but without grand sentimentality. His performance has an emotional directness that suits the ephemeral character and lets the poetry emerge silently.
It almost sounds like Perianes is making silence itself perceptible, as if making listeners aware of the space from which the sounds emerge. The clarity of his playing uncovers the tension beneath the surface. As such, it has been suggested that Perianes evokes the music’s spiritual dimension with great consistency.
Under Perianes’ hands, Música callada becomes purely contemplative music, aiming to convey the point of indifference between the music and the listeners.
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Federico Mompou: Música callada, Vol. 4 (Javier Perianes, piano)
