Arcadi Volodos - Volodos plays Mompou (2013)

This is my first encounter with Volodos, though not with Mompou. My first acquaintance with the music of this most mystical of 20th Century composers was via the fine interpretations of Alicia de Larrocha and Herbert Henck, respectively. With Volodos, however, we enter an entirely new realm of artistry. Whereas de Larrocha and Henck give sympathetic renderings of this music, Volodos seems to have direct access to the mind of the composer. Call it channeling or Vulcan Mind-Meld, from the first ethereal note of this recital to the last (and the last is, in fact, the most diaphanous note I have ever heard issuing from a percussion instrument), Volodos seems to disappear into the music. Volodos manages to convey, without calling attention to himself, the paradoxical combination of spare, outward fragility and massive, inward strength that continuously haunts these remarkable pieces. One scarcely notices the extraordinary technical mastery or control of keyboard tone and color, so thoroughly does Volodos follow the composer (and at least this listener) into the Cloud of Unknowing.

This is extraordinary music and equally extraordinary playing. Nothing more need, or should be said, except to note that the recording quality is fully the equal of the artistry.