The four works in this second of three volumes devoted to Enescu's piano music range over a period of more than 30 years. The earliest is the joyful, ebullient Suite "Des cloches sonores", Op. 10 which covers a wide expressive range including use of the melancholy Romanian song, the doina. The Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 24 is a mercurial, puckish works, both spiritred and contemplative, and the Piece sure le nom de Faure is a charming souvenir from one composer to another.

The Belfast Harp Festival of 1792 was an event of great significance in Irish music history. Edward Bunting, then 19, was engaged to annotate all the music he heard; his three volumes of Ancient Irish Music provide a treasure trove of over 300 bardic tunes and their attributions. Belfast-born composer, teacher, broadcaster and performer Philip Hammond (b. 1951) has taken a selection of these tunes and reworked them with complete freedom of style. Mr. Hammond’s large body of commissioned work has come from the Brodsky Quartet, Tasmin Little, Barry Douglas and Ann Murray, amongst others.

Some contemporaries in Vienna judged the Bohemian Leopold Koželuch an even finer composer than Mozart. He was especially esteemed for his mastery of the keyboard sonata, couched in the "high-classic" style, which are amongst the most important of their time. In this volume, the early Sonata No. 37, full of beautiful simplicity, is contrasted with the Sturm und Drang vehemence of Sonata No. 36. Expansive slow movements in Sonatas No. 34 and 35 reveal endless cantabile beauties. Kemp English is one of New Zealand's leading concert performers. Much in demand as a solo organist, collaborative pianist, and specialist fortepiano exponent, he relishes the opportunity to work in a diverse array of styles and periods. He enjoyed a distinguished studentship at the Royal Academy of Music in London and later completed a Master of Arts degree in Music Performance at the University of York. In 2001 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music - an honor recognizing former students of the Academy who have achieved distinction in the profession.

Wolfgang Jacobi is known to saxophone and accordion players, but he is otherwise largely forgotten and his wider output is still being rediscovered today. He was declared a "degenerate" artist in 1930s Germany but found inspiration in Italy, alluding to Baroque styles in his Sonatas as well as in earlier works that also invoke the spirit of Reger and Grieg. Post-war freedom is reflected in the joyously neo-Classical Sonatine and charming Miniaturen, while the substantial Musik für zwei Klaviere explores the symbolism of one of J.S. Bach's favorite chorale melodies "Durch Adams Fall." Tatjana Blome took first prize in the Steinway Competition at the age of twelve and a year later gave her firs tpiano recital. In 1995 she made her debut with Brahms's Concerto No. 1 at the Berlin Philharmonie. She has appeared throughout Germany in recitals and as a soloist with various orchestras. She has some 70 recordings to her credit, for Deutsche Grammophon, EDA, Naxos and others. Holger Groschopp's solo career has taken him to most European countries, the Middle and Far East and North and Central America. He has performed as soloist at major European festivals and played chamber music with many prominent musicians. He has had a close collaboration with Claudio Abbado, Sir Simon Rattle, the Berlin Philharmonic, the DSO Berlin and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

Composed between 1807 and 1809, the four sonatas in this volume of Leopold Kozeluch’s complete cycle represent his return to the genre after a period of fourteen years. Whilst aware of the influence of the resonant new English piano, the Bohemian composer explored the special effects of the Viennese instrument. The Turkish sounds in the finale of Sonata No. 41 illustrate the timbres available whilst the romantic quality of his slow introductions, not least the Largo of Sonata No. 40, reveal his command of color and texture. Kemp English is one of New Zealand’s leading concert performers. Renowned as an exuberant entertainer, he is much in demand as a solo organist, collaborative pianist and specialist fortepiano exponent, relishing the opportunity to work in a diverse array of styles and periods.

Tanya Ekanayaka's 'Twelve Piano Prisms' extend the concept heard on her album 'Reinventions: Rhapsodies for Piano.' They correspond to the twelve primary notes of the keyboard, and combine Sri Lankan melodies with music from other countries in a deeply personal representation of diverse cultures; their style inspired not only by a rich heritage of Western classical and indigenous world music, but also by pop, rock and film music. Dr. Tanya Ekanayaka is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning Sri Lankan-British concert composer-pianist regarded as one of Sri Lanka's finest artists. Classically trained and with a background in Asian and Popular music, she is also a linguist, musicologist and record producer. Although she trained as a pianist, her compositional skills are the result of a purely intuitive and natural development.

The most distinguished pianist of his generation, a brilliant pedagogue and a highly gifted composer, José Viana da Mota was a towering personality in the field of Portuguese music. Compositional studies in Berlin were in the German Classical-Romantic tradition but, with an infusion of folk-based material from his homeland, he soon became the leading figure in the emerging Portuguese Nationalist School. This new release, which includes multiple world premiere recordings, comes from Portuguese pianist Joao Costa Ferreira. Ferreira is an AvA Musical Editions artist and has been collaborating with this Portuguese publisher on the publication of Jose Viana da Mota’s piano works.

Christian Gottlob Neefe flourished as the Baroque was giving way to the Classical period. These Twelve Sonatas represent important steps in this transition, each having a uniquely individual character and showing a mixture of styles. Neefe is remembered today as Beethoven's first main teacher in Bonn, the Dressler Variations being young Ludwig's first published composition. Susan Kagan, a pianist, author, and educator, has explored the music of composers associated with Beethoven and his Milieu.

The piano pieces here trace a trajectory from the Edwardian poetry of Leo Livens to the overdubbing of Peter Reynolds by way of a century of evocative, descriptive and exciting miniatures. Reflecting pastoral, light and experimental traditions, these previously unrecorded works offer rich variety from neglected composers. Duncan Honeybourne enjoys a colorful and unique career as solo pianist, chamber musician, educator and artistic director. He has appeared at many major concert halls and at leading festivals, and has been a frequent broadcaster at home and abroad. One of his generation's leading exponents of 20th century English piano music, several celebrated contemporary composers have also dedicated major new works to him. An inspiring teacher and educator, he has devised and written several recital programmes blending words and music and has created and directed several series of piano and chamber concerts. Duncan is also sought-after nationwide as a thought-provoking and entertaining lecturer on his experience of living with autism.

Friedrich Gulda's piano compositions combine notated music with large improvised sections, thus fusing the classical and jazz traditions. He was one of his generation's most significant pianists and though his compositional output is relatively small, it is nevertheless significant. Variations on 'Light My Fire' is his tour de force virtuoso masterpiece, while Play Piano Play beguilingly contrasts traditional classical procedure with many different jazz styles. Pianist Martin David Jones enjoys a multifaceted career as an award-winning classical and jazz pianist, composer, and conductor. As a pianist, he has appeared at major musical centres including Lincoln Center in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Dame Myra Hess Recital Seris in Chicago, Piccolo Spoleto in Charleston, and more. Jones is Professor of Music at Augusta University in Georgia where he teaches piano and composition and was the director of the university orchestra for twelve years.

This is the second volume of a momentous new recording of Erik Satie’s complete solo piano music using Satie scholar Robert Orledge’s new and entirely revised Salabert Edition. Composed as incidental music to the pastoral drama set in Chaldea in 3000 BC by French novelist Josephine Péladan, Le Fils des étoiles is one of Satie’s longest scores and rarely heard in its entirety. Fête donnée par des chevaliers normands en l'honneur d'une jeune demoiselle (XIe siècle) invokes the spirit of medieval plainsong. This landmark edition is played on Cosima Wagner's own 1881 Erard piano, Satie’s instrument maker of choice. Recognized at once as a great interpreter of Liszt’s music, Nicolas Horvath became in recent years one of the most sought after pianists of his generation. Holder of a number of awards, like the 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.

One of the leading composers of the Classical and early Romantic eras, Johann Baptist Vaňhal played a vital role in the development of Viennese music between 1750 and 1780. He composed prolifically in many genres, including a large number of quartets, symphonies, sacred works, vocal and instrumental works, including around 150 piano sonatas and sonatinas. Vaňhal was at his most inspirational and improvisational in his keyboard Capriccios composed in the 1780s, which are some of the most creative examples of the Viennese Classical style, not least in their almost symphonic force.

This penultimate volume juxtaposes three early works dating from the 1770s with two mature sonatas from 1809, revealing how far Koželuch’s style changed over a thirty-year period. The early sonatas, though harmonically modest, fizz with Rococo charm and elegance. The late sonatas, meanwhile, were intended for a fortepiano, which had eclipsed the harpsichord, and are two-movement works featuring bustling rondos and deft janissary devices, one of which is the buzzing effect generated by a knee lever on the original 1815 Johann Fritz instrument used in this recording. Kemp English is one of New Zealand’s leading concert performers. Renowned as an exuberant entertainer, he is much in demand as a solo organist, collaborative pianist and specialist fortepiano exponent, relishing the opportunity to work in a diverse array of styles and periods.

Best known for his influential Klavierschule, Daniel Gottleib Turk's inventive and widely expressive sonatas, 48 in number, grew from the expressive potential of the genre shown by North German composers like C.P.E. Bach. The five instruments played by Michael Tsalka in this recording reflect the diversity of those instruments available in Turk's day, played with the nuances from the composer's own dynamic markings.

Classical Music