José F. Vásquez: The Complete Impresiones for Piano

José F. Vásquez (1896‒1961) – composer, pianist, conductor and educationalist – was one of the leading figures in Mexican classical music from the 1910s to the 1950s, but since many of his scores were lost after his death, his star soon sank from the sky. Four decades of research by his son, the writer José Jesús Vásquez Torres, have recovered much of the missing music, allowing a re-assessment of his father’s standing. These five books of Impresiones for piano (from c. 1922‒27) – fifteen predominantly slow, introspective miniatures – reveal a debt to French Impressionism, Debussy in particular, with occasional nods to Schumann, Liszt and Brahms, and some harmonies that suggest Wagner. Vásquez was a fine pianist himself, but the textures here have a surprising simplicity, throwing the emphasis on tonal colour.

Vladimir Curiel, piano