The music of multi-award-winning composer Vincent Ho has been described by The New York Times as 'brilliant and compelling', not least for his music's beauty and expressive breadth. Ho wrote The Twelve Chinese Zodiac Animals as a gift for his eight-year-old daughter, to enrich her musical education as she learned the piano and to introduce her to Chinese cultural themes and performance practices in pianistic form. The cycle presents the musical spirits of the animals with captivating musical caricatures in two books, the second of which is a selection of preludes and fugues for more advanced players. They are performed by Tony Yike Yang, one of Canada's finest young pianists and the youngest laureate in the history of the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw.

Joachim Raff was a largely self-taught composer whose style stands somewhere between the German traditionalism of Schumann and the newer school of Wagner. Raff composed seven Suites for Piano, a form he preferred to the sonata, and this provided him with greater freedom as a composer, resulting in his most substantial contribution to the piano literature. This is reflected in the Mendelssohn-like lyricism of the First Suite; contrasts between Baroque and Romantic styles in the Third Suite, a piece admired by Liszt; and more nationalist inclinations in the memorably melodic Fifth Suite.

Nino Rota's iconic score for The Godfather is typical of his neo-Classicism - or 'Classical modernist' language - a cosmopolitan and functional musical style inspired by his teachers Pizzetti and Casella. This second and final volume of Rota's solo piano music ranges from Ippolito gioca, an early piece celebrating Pizzetti's 50th birthday, to a large-scale Variations and Fugue on the name Bach that concludes with a four-part fugue. The psychologically expressive music Rota composed for Federico Fellini's film Il Casanova is also featured, alongside the piece Moliere from his music for the ballet Le Moliere imaginaire.

Award-winning Polish composer, Pawel Lukaszewski, is one of today's most distinctive creators of contemporary sacred music. The Nocturnes for piano, based on some of his own sacred pieces, are inspired by the cosmos, with each nocturne named after a newly discovered bright star in constellations including Vela, Scorpius and the Southern Cross. Lukaszewski takes the listener on a journey through the beauty of the night sky with these intimate and atmospheric sound paintings.

In this volume we discover how composers in England, Scotland, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries responded to the waves of jazz and syncopated dance music that had crossed the Atlantic and captivated European audiences. The album features a wide selection of famous and less well-known composers who each succeed in combining the authentic energising rhythms of foxtrots, tangos and shimmies with their own unique styles. Gottlieb Wallisch's seventh and final volume in this acclaimed series features many unknown gems and world premiere recordings. A digital EP of bonus tracks by Bliss, Schnitzler and Hijman (GP962DR) is also available for download and streaming.

A fundamental characteristic of Manuel Ponce's music is the range of styles and techniques he used throughout his career. The expressive Romanza de amor is a sublime example of his Romantic phase, while his huge contribution to Mexican nationalist music is represented in the folk music that appears in Rapsodia mexicana I and II. Moods of melancholy and nostalgia are evident in the Mazurkas as well as more modernist works such as the Intermezzo (No. 3). This is the fourth volume in alvaro Cendoya's critically acclaimed series of Ponce's complete piano works.

The enduring appeal of opera in the 19th century found a new and intimate expression in the realm of solo piano music. This recording reveals how the grandeur and expressive range of operas by Bellini and Verdi was brought from the theatre into private parlours and salons. The composers featured on this album preserve the spirit of the original works while reimagining the famous melodies and dramatic scenes as paraphrases, fantasies and variations. Awardwinning Italian pianist, Ruben Micieli, performs these dazzling pieces in his own unique way, making musical and structural adjustments to each transcription after studying the scores by Bellini and Verdi.

Vittorio Rieti won esteem for his orchestral music which was conducted by titans such as Toscanini and Stokowski, but the piano remained his greatest musical love. Rieti's vivid freshness can be appreciated in the selections in this volume, which ranges from the choreographed movement of his late works, including the Variazioni enarmoniche - an example of his elegance, humour and command of variational form - to the deliciously descriptive wit of his early works. Giorgio Koukl, whom The Art Music Lounge called 'one of the five or six greatest living pianists today', is once again joined by award-winning pianist, Virginia Rossetti - together they offer 'an object lesson in duo-piano balance' (Fanfare on Volume 2 in this series, GP938).

This album presents a selection of early piano works by six of China's most internationally lauded composers. The pieces explore elements of Chinese and Western traditions though most are rooted in a traditional national style derived from Chinese opera or folk music. They evoke characteristic Chinese instrumental sonorities, especially percussion - gongs, drums, chimes and bells - from a variety of source material including Beijing Opera and ballads. Pianist Kiu Tung Poon has performed internationally and is admired for her 'lively and authoritative' playing (American Record Guide) and for her 'lyrical and emotionally nuanced' interpretations (Woodstock Times).

Positioned between Southern Europe and North Africa, Malta has long been an artistic crucible that forms one of the Mediterranean's most significant cultural crossroads. With it's intense pianistic colours, Charles Camilleri's African Dreams explores that continent's native rhythms and melodic lines, while Carmelo Pace and Carlo Diacono look towards the worlds of Liszt and Chopin. Josie Mallia Pulvirenti's rarely heard Impressione Sinfonica is a concert masterpiece of virtuosic majesty, steeped in the piano's Golden Age. Award-winning Maltese pianist, Charlene Farrugia, has done extensive research into the life and work of composers from her homeland.

Franz Xaver Mozart, who studied with Salieri and Hummel, was a composer-pianist like his father, Wolfgang Amadeus, but inevitably laboured under the weight of huge expectation. This album contains his largest work for solo piano, the Piano Sonata in G major - an assured, distinctive piece that balances dance with drive. His most virtuosic work is the exuberant Fantasy on a Russian Song and a Krakowiak, while his mischievous Variations on a Russian Theme and the variations on his father's Don Giovanni illustrate Franz Xaver's great gifts for elaboration and playfulness. Robert Markham, who has conducted research into the life and music of Franz Xaver Mozart, has been hailed as a performer of 'astonishing lucidity and coherence' by Musical Opinion.

Louise Farrenc's Rondos - heard here in world premiere recordings - were composed within the period of a decade, and are delicious examples of her art: graceful, elegant and expressive. Some of them are based on operatic themes or on songs, while others are simpler and intended for younger performers. Volumes 1 and 2 of this 6 album cycle can be heard on GP912-13 and GP934.

This four-disc collection brings together the highly acclaimed four individual volumes of Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s complete music for piano. A close friend of Shostakovich, who regarded Weinberg as one of the outstanding composers of the day, Weinberg is slowly being afforded his due as a figure of immense significance in the post-modern classical music idiom. A prolific composer, Weinberg’s music stylistically mixes traditional and contemporary forms, combining a freely tonal, individual language inspired by Shostakovich with ethnic influences and a unique sense of form, harmony and color. Pianist Allison Brewster Franzetti has received international acclaim from critics and audiences alike for her stunning virtuosity and musicality. An accomplished accompanist and chamber musician, Ms. Brewster Franzetti joined the faculty of Montclair State University, NJ in 2007.

Reviews of some of the recordings that make up this set:

Volume 1
Franzetti throughout proves a fine guide to this too-little-played music. If one enjoys the music of Prokofiev or Shostakovich, then one would also enjoy the music of Weinberg. In very fine performances here, and in adequate sound (a bit reverberant for my taste), this is a fine release.

– Fanfare

Volume 2
When it comes to sheer musicality Weinberg is up there with the great composers of the last century. Franzetti's faultless technique has enabled her to be a persuasive advocate of this endlessly fascinating and powerfully stated music by a composer whose works are emerging to take their rightful place in the annals of great piano works of the 20th century.

– MusicWeb International

Piano music is central to Valentin Silvestrov’s output. With its frequent allusions to lingering recollections of the past, this programme presents an overview of various creative periods. It begins with the composer’s reworkings of youthful sketches (Naive Musik), followed by Der Bote (The Messenger) with its beautiful Mozartian theme leading into a sonatina in the style of the 18th century. After recent works from Silvestrov’s self-defined ‘Bagatelle’ period, the recording concludes with the striking Kitschmusik, which engages with the music of Schumann, Chopin and Brahms. The Two Waltzes are dedicated to Elisaveta Blumina.

Always inventive and innovation-seeking, Erik Satie's earliest works show traces of Chopin as an influence but he soon came to reject virtuosity and tradition, choosing instead to remain with the quintessentially French traits of simplicity, clarity, precision, elegance and economy. Satie's hautingly beautiful floating melodies and modal tonalities are unforgettably compelling, combining bygone classical ages with Parisian sophistication. This landmark recording uses both a new and corrected edition of Satie' smusic and Cosima Wagner's own 1881 Erard piano, his instrument maker of choice. Recognized as a leading interpreter of Liszt's music, Nicola Horvath has in recen tyears become one of the most sought-after pianists of his generation. Holder of a number of awards, including First Prize of the Scriabin and the Luigi Nono International Competitions, he frequently organizes events and concerts of unusual length, sometimes over twelve hours, such as Philip Glass' complete piano music or Erik Satie's Vexations, and composers from a number of countries have written for him.