Although Raff is remembered primarily as one of the foremost symphonists of his day, by far his largest output was for the piano. The three works recorded here date from his early years in Weimar, and include the newly discovered Fantaisie.

Winner of the 1900 Prix de Rome, Florent Schmitt stands alongside Debussy and Ravel as one of the most original French composers of his time. Schmitt's piano duos and duets are second only to Schubert in number and yet few have been recorded. The masterful Invencia Piano Duo seeks a redress of these grievances in this sensual and subtle release.

Using a new harmonic language referred to as “transtonality,” Brazilian composer Jose Antonio Rezende de Almeida Prado explores every kind of timbre the piano has to offer in his Cartas Celestes. These works were described by pianist Aleyson Scopel as “a heroically audacious cycle.” Young Scopel graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, and currently resides in Brazil where he frequently performs in the country’s most prestigious concert halls.

The works on this first volume of the complete piano works of Mieczysowski range from very early yet characterful Mazurkas and the remarkably intense Lullaby, his Opus 1, to the at times dissonant Piano Sonata No 1.

During his short life Erwin Schulhoff absorbed a wide range of musical styles. The jazz-inspired Partita includes witty takes on the tango, foxtrot and shimmy.

Stravinsky described Nikolay Roslavets as "the most interesting Russian composer of the 20th century," but after decades of suppression in the former Soviet Union his significance is still being assessed even today through newly discovered and reconstructed works. Although Scriabin's influence can be heard in earlier works, reconstructed works. Although Scriabin's influence can be heard in earlier works, Roslavets' constant experimentation with original and complex compositional techniques resulted in his "new system of tone organization" and "synthetic chords". Olga Andryuschchenko describes Roslavets' daunting piano music as "fire and ice!"

This Grand Piano release of the solo piano transcription of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring (arranged by Sam Raphling) is coupled with Maurice Ravel's own transcription of La Valse, plus George Gershwin's 3 Preludes as well as his own solo piano version of Rhapsody in Blue. French pianist Eric Ferrand-N'Kaoua, (pronounced Enkawa) claims an eclectic repertoire that allows him to blend Bach's Goldberg Variations, or the Berlioz-Liszt Symphonie Fantastique with jazz-inspired pieces on the same concert program.

This release from Grand Piano consists of folk-inspired works for piano duet and duo performed here by German pianists Caroline Weichert and Clemens Rave including Handel on the Strand Molly on the Shore Country Gardens Song from the Faroe Islands Harvest Hymn As Sally Sat a Weeping Lincolnshire Posy and Fantasy on Porgy and Bess.

The three works on this second volume of Raff's piano works come from the very pinnacle of his career. The 1871 Fantasie Sonata is a fascinating and richly imaginative hybrid, whilst the Variations on an Original Theme is marked by fertility of invention. The Four Piano Pieces exemplifies Raff's gift for lyricism and characterization.

This is the third and final volume of Türk’s keyboard sonatas.

Classical Music

Leopold Koželuch, the great Czech contemporary of Mozart, won enormous prestige in his adopted city of Vienna. His sequence of keyboard sonatas, written over a four-decade span, exemplifies the high-Classic style and comprises some of the greatest such works of their time. This volume focuses on the years 1788-89 by which time Koželuch’s command of form and texture proves as daring as his harmonic palette. There is rhythmic vivacity in the opening movements of Nos. 25 and 28 and the beautiful Siciliana of No. 27 shows the increasing profundity of his slow movements. The same sonata’s finale is a breath-taking rollercoaster of vitality.

The second volume of Weinberg's complete piano works ranges in date from 1950-55. Allison Brewster FranzettI 2008 GRAMMY-� Nominee for Best Instrumental Soloist without Orchestra for 20th Century Piano Sonatas on Naxos Records, Allison Brewster Franzetti has received international acclaim from critics and audiences alike for stunning virtuosity and musicality. "Allison Brewster Franzetti's impassioned and persuasive performance easily holds it's own in the select company of Gould, Perahia, Aimard, and Uchida" - Jed Distler, Classics Today.

Mozart’s esteemed contemporary and rival, Leopold Koželuch, was an early champion of the fortepiano. His keyboard sonatas are a treasure trove of late Kemp English, one of New Zealand’s leading artists, performs on copies of 1795 fortepianos and original instruments from the 18th and early 19th centuries, bringing the entire cycle of Koželuch’s 50 keyboard sonatas to life for the first time in a recorded format. “On L. Koželuch Complete Keyboard Sonatas, Vol. 1: “The music is dramatic and engaging…this is interesting and satisfying music—both charming and penetrating.” –American Record Guide

Lauded as one of the most original and brilliant of Georgian composers, Sulkhan Tsintsadze synthesized 20th-century classical elements with the rhythmic, melodic, harmonic, and modal characteristics of Georgian folk music. In so doing he developed, across a wide spectrum of the repertoire, his own highly personal and approachable idiom. His 24 Preludes for Piano were composed in 1971 and are unmistakably national in character. He gave new life to traditional Georgian folk songs and dances in a masterfully structured cycle that flows with the seamless eloquence of a film. This virtuosic kaleidoscope of contrasting images reveals music that is both extravagant and vibrant. Inga Fiolia studied at the Central Music School of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow and the Cologne Musikhochschule with Alexey Nasedkin, Rudolf Kehrer and Vassily Lobanov. She has collaborated with orchestras including the Brussels Philharmonic, the Georgian State Chamber Orchestra and National Philharmonic, and the South Westphalia Philharmonic, and has broadcast on all the major German TV and radio stations.