The largest part of the output of the Hamburg-born composer and writer Walter Niemann (1876-1953), a student of both Humperdinck and Reinecke, is piano music: an astonishing 1,000 or so pieces, divided into 189 opus numbers. Most of them are lyrical miniatures in a warm and approachable late-Romantic style, some evoking the music of the past - often with a touching degree of dignity and restraint, but also with an occasional flash of good humour. The range of moods here is surprisingly wide, from pieces recalling late Brahms, and a barcarolle evoking Offenbach, via light-hearted character-sketches, and evocative picture-postcards, to a warm-hearted and tender piano sonata.

The Lithuanian pianist and composer Vytautas Bacevic?ius (1905-70) - exiled to the New World by the outbreak of the Second World War - is one of the undiscovered pioneers of the twentieth century. This third volume of his piano music presents works written between 1926 and 1959 and shows the evolution of his musical language from the post-Skryabin style of the early works, via the influence of Debussy, Prokofiev and Stravinsky, to a highly individual modernism that can occasionally nod to the jazz of his adoptive New York. It is a testament to the strength of Bacevic?ius' personality that his musical identity remains consistent even as his manner evolves - his individuality is never in doubt, not least because of his enduring fondness for a playful gesture.

Percy Grainger (1882-1961) and Ronald Stevenson (1928-2015), both composer-pianists of the Golden Age of keyboard virtuosity, shared a passion for folksong, especially the modal Celtic melodies from the fringes of the British Isles. Though the two never met, they corresponded for many years, with Stevenson arranging many of Grainger's transcriptions in a deliberate act of homage to the older man, whose quirky originality brought Stevenson illumination on his own idiosyncratic path. This seventh instalment in Christopher Guild's Toccata Classics survey of Stevenson's piano music uncorks the exultant good humour that he and Grainger found on that common Celtic ground.

The largest part of the output of the Hamburg-born composer and writer Walter Niemann (1876-1973), a student of both Humperdinck and Reinecke, is piano music: an astonishing 1,000 or so pieces, divided into 189 opus numbers. Most of them are lyrical miniatures in a warm and approachable late-Romantic style, some evoking the music of the past - often with a touching degree of dignity and restraint, but also with an occasional flash of good humour.

As pianist, conductor and composer, Jean Louis Nicode (1853-1919) was one of the most highly respected musicians of his day. Born in Posen in Prussia (Poznan in presentday Poland), he became a stalwart of musical life in Dresden in the closing years of the nineteenth century. Today his name is as good as unknown, with his music suffering the same fate as his reputation as a performer - although he was a highly accomplished composer. His piano music has hints of Chopin, Liszt and Schumann, and the spirit of dance is never far from the surface, but his expansive, and only, piano sonata has a visionary quality with it's origins in late Beethoven.

21st Mazurkas

The first Polish recording of the full cycle of Franz Liszt's Transcendental Etudes in their final version from 1851. Radoslaw Sobczak is a pianist equally endowed with virtuoso instinct and great musical sensitivity; his recitals have graced prestigious events on four continents; winner of an honourable mention in the International Chopin Piano Competition. On the album, he faces one of the most demanding piano pieces, the difficulty of which lies not only in the technical layer, but also, and perhaps especially, in the musical one. Behind the extremely dense texture and the cascades of chords and passages, there is the composer's musical idea, and sometimes even programmatic contents - as in the famous Mazeppa etude. Out of the rush of sounds, lyrical motifs emerge, while complex harmonies reflect an entire range of emotions that need to be conveyed to the listeners. The artist copes with this challenge excellently; his pianism perfectly harmonizes with the spirit of Liszt's virtuosity. Metaphysics and contemplation collide in his interpretations with the saturated, deep sound of the piano.

The album contains concise, stylistically diverse works by 20th- and 21st-centuries Polish composers. A double fugue, a rhythm-driven toccata, improvisational echoes of folk melodies, rustic dance motifs, lyrical minimalism - a piano duo is an ensemble with unlimited possibilities concerning the form and mood. The Reverie Piano Duo, prizewinner of the International Competition of Polish Music in Rzeszow, is at ease with it's virtuoso repertoire thanks to it's excellent chamber music partnership.

The pieces by Polish composers refer to the Hebrew word 'hevel', which can be translated as 'fleeting' and 'transient'. On his debut solo album, Jan Wachowski, a young successful pianist and composer, encourages listeners to take a moment to reflect and surrender to their emotions. The sophisticated concept of the album goes hand in hand with an excellent performance - the artist's playing style is characterised by virtuoso technique and musical maturity.

The reputation of the Anglo-Scottish composer William Wordsworth (1908–88), great-great-grandnephew of the poet, has recently been restored by a series of Toccata Classics albums of his orchestral music. His piano music, too, was poorly known before now, none of it recorded since a handful of pieces appeared on LP 60 years ago – though his epic Piano Sonata is a work of major importance. This first ever complete recording reveals an honest, unfussy approach to the keyboard akin to that of two other major symphonists, Sibelius and Rubbra: like them, Wordsworth’s primary concern seems to have been the expression of deep feeling – which makes the gentle story-telling of his miniatures for children all the more surprising.

For some decades in the middle of the twentieth century, Paul Creston (1906–85) was one of the most frequently performed of American composers, though his music has sunk from prominence in recent years. He was himself a fearsome pianist, and his Three Narratives are Lisztian concert essays that require freewheeling virtuosity. Rhythmicon is a ten-volume collection of 123 brief studies that examine various aspects of rhythm. Their difficulty grows as the series progresses, reaching its zenith in Volumes 7 - 10, where Creston presents 25 studies that range in mood from serious to light-hearted, from hymn-like introspection and calm to jagged, Bartokian energy.

Known in his lifetime as ‘the north German Schubert’, Carl Loewe (1796–1869) is remembered today chiefly as a composer of songs and ballads. Yet there is a considerable body of piano music that is strikingly innovative in content, expression and harmony, containing the germs of ideas later taken up by composers such as Wagner and Liszt. Loewe was unquestionably a brilliantly original talent, a major figure in ushering in the Romantic era – with the remarkable Four Fantasies of 1854 heard here ‘documenting’ in music the contemporary emigration of German families to the United States. This third volume of Linda Nicholson’s survey of his piano music on historical instruments concludes its first-ever complete recording on any kind of piano.

Peter Friis Johansson is one of Sweden's most brilliant pianists right now. He has not least won recognition for his cycles of Franz Schubert's complete piano sonatas for more than a decade. Now that he has finally started recording them under the title 'Beyond Schubert' it is with an unusual approach. Not only does he perform from original manuscripts, and even completes unfinished sonatas - he also combines some of the sonatas with high quality works by Swedish composers that somehow are connected to Schubert's. On this first volume, the charming A Major Sonata, Op. 3, by Sweden's grand old lady, Elfrida Andree (1841-1929), is placed next to Schubert's equally charming sonata in the same key (D 664). This album starts, however, with Schubert's big A Minor Sonata (D 845). 'Beyond Schubert' is both a series of recordings and an artistic research project, centered around Franz Schubert and his piano sonatas. As a body of work, the recordings aim to portray Schubert in new and sometimes experimental ways. The word 'Beyond' is therefore central to the project and carries different meanings across it's various components. The research project primarily focuses on Schubert's piano sonata fragments, completing them using diverse methods and aesthetic approaches. Some of these completions will be released as recordings, while others will be available only as sheet music. An online tool will also be developed, allowing anyone to create their own completions of the unfinished sonata movements. The recordings will eventually encompass all of Schubert's finished and fragmentary piano sonatas. Some, as in this recording, will be juxtaposed with other works that have a clear connection to Schubert's music. In this sense, 'Beyond' refers to how Schubert has influenced other composers, and how his style resonates beyond his own compositions.

This album features three masterpieces by composers deeply connected to Vienna, two of whom-Haydn and Beethoven-earned the timeless title of "Viennese Classics," while Schubert, ever the bold innovator, explored new musical territories in their shadow. Created within less than fifty years, these works reveal the evolution of the piano sonata genre and the eventual rejection of it's conventional form-from Haydn's Sonata in E Major, which straddles the line between the galant style and fully developed classicism, to Schubert's avant-garde and extravagantly Romantic Fantasy in C Major, a work far ahead of it's time. Schubert's innovation would not have been possible without Beethoven's influence. Beethoven's late-period Sonata in E Major, written just two years earlier, serves as a bridge between the two, clearly paving the way toward a pre-Romantic expressive style. Mariusz Ciolko, an internationally performing artist, pedagogue, and competition juror, brings a unique interpretation to this demanding piano repertoire. He masterfully balances classical elegance with Romantic virtuosity, offering a performance that captures both the technical brilliance and emotional depth of these iconic works.

This album features some of the most beloved works from the piano repertoire, all united by a common theme of distant reminiscences of lost happiness-either directly expressed in the titles of the pieces or subtly woven into the music, as in Schubert's Sonata in A Major, written just months before his death. It is both a tribute to Beethoven's style and a quintessential example of Schubert's unique blend of intimate emotions, expressed through lyrical motifs. While the virtuosic pianism is never absent, it takes a back seat to the emotional depth and expressiveness at the heart of the work. The cycles of Leos Janacek were composed during the darkest period of his life. His On an Overgrown Path memorializes his daughter, who tragically passed away, while In the Mists with it's transparent texture and innovative harmonies captures the internal void and confusion of the composer. Schumann's Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood) evokes the perspective of an adult looking back with nostalgia, longing for the simplicity and innocence of childhood. The music, with it's straightforward and sometimes naive language, mirrors the idealized view of the past. Min Jung Lee, a versatile and sensitive artist, delivers a deeply evocative interpretation. In her delicate readings, she perfectly captures the essence of these compositions, painting a misty portrait of the personal experiences of the composers, transposed into musical form on the staff.

The album "Present Reflections" offers an anthology of Amy Beach's piano works, showcasing her remarkable compositional talent and stylistic range-from expressive virtuosity to deep interpretative intimacy. This distinctive quality is due not only to her extraordinary gift but also to several factors: the profound cultural shifts she experienced between the late 19th and early 20th centuries-bridging late Romanticism, the emergence of the avant-garde, and the advent of jazz-and her unmistakable emotional expressiveness. Despite the strict, self-imposed discipline of her compositional process (she was entirely self-taught), her style remains deeply personal and authentic in every work. Looking back in time, beginning with her later compositions, one can observe a radical evolution in her writing. These works are not only a significant contribution to American piano literature but also a testament to the transformation of an era-one that slips away from the present to become almost immediately part of the past. In this way, Present Reflections becomes a mirror of today's world, reflecting the epochal changes of which we are all a part. Mrs. Beach's incredible talent, which enabled her to emerge as one of the greatest composers of her time, tells the story of both women and men-transcending the limitations imposed by society and leaving behind a musical legacy that deserves not only rediscovery but celebration. Katia Spluga

... When I started writing this collection of studies, I did so for a very specific reason: to justify the existence of some individual pieces for piano, written without a precise destination or name, thus being an end in themselves. By grouping them together into a single collection, they would have more reason to exist, and, for this, I decided to give each of them a specific imprint, a leitmotif, a focus for each piece, that is to say: a cell, a something that would ensure that the study was aimed at perfecting the student's specific technical deficiency in his or her piano playing... Antonio Molinini

For some decades in the middle of the twentieth century, Paul Creston (1906–85) was one of the most frequently performed of American composers, though his music has sunk from prominence in recent years. He was himself a fearsome pianist, and his Three Narratives are Lisztian concert essays that require freewheeling virtuosity. Rhythmicon is a ten-volume collection of 123 brief studies that examine various aspects of rhythm. Their difficulty grows as the series progresses, reaching its zenith in Volumes 7 - 10, where Creston presents 25 studies that range in mood from serious to light-hearted, from hymn-like introspection and calm to jagged, Bartokian energy.

Ferenc Farkas and the French Style While the first volume devoted to the piano works of Hungarian composer Ferenc Farkas (1905- 2000), released by Stradivarius in 2023, contained pieces inspired by Italian culture, the second part of the complete work presented here aims to investigate Farkas' relationship with France. At the time, Paris was the centre of reference for all artists who wished to distance themselves from the predominant German culture, although this trend had much more arcane roots. For Farkas, the French language and culture were of extreme importance and it is therefore no coincidence that, more than sixty years after the aforementioned trip, he wrote two series of piano works from his musical diary notes, entitled Journal 1986 and Journal 1987 in French. This is neither programme music nor illustrative compositions. Farkas' works are essentially conceptual, everything else is just the creative play of the creator.

This edition marks the first publication of Rontgen's Toccata. This work was discovered while digging through countless manuscripts of solo piano music in the Rontgen Archives at the Netherlands Music Institute in The Hague in 2019 (catalogue No.107/087). The work is undated and has never been published. It is titled Toccata and has no dedication or other information regarding it's creation (date or location). Given the relative neatness of the manuscript, it is presumed that the composer intended it's publication. It's style suggests being composed during Rontgen's mature period, certainly after the first decade of the 20th Century. It is the only known stand-alone Toccata in Rontgen's output. In the present edition, editorial markings are in brackets, and fingering is by the editor. All pedal indications are by the composer unless otherwise indicated. � Mark Anderson

Souvenirs De Chopin

The piano music of Heino Eller (1887–1970), a total of 206 works, is not only the largest part of his output: it is also the largest body of works in Estonian classical music. But most of these pieces are unknown, even though the best of them are original contributions to the twentieth-century piano repertoire, with Eller’s sensitive lyricism underpinned by gentle humour and an occasional epic tone. This ninth and final volume in its first-ever complete recording prefaces his expansive Piano Sonata No. 3 with a series of charming miniatures and ends with the emblematic anthem Homeland Tune, a musical embodiment of Estonian national feeling.

Julius Rontgen's Passacaglia and Fugue dates from 1911 but was not published until 2007 by Friedrich Hofmeisterverlag, Leipzig (FH3247). While studying and preparing the work for recording from the first edition, I discovered significant and numerous errors and decided that a second edition was necessary. The manuscripts for the Passacaglia and Fugue reside in the Rontgen Archives in the Netherlands Music Institute in The Hague. The catalogue numbers associated with this work are 107/027A (MS1), 107/027B (MS2) and 107/027C (MS3), each being a complete version. In preparing this edition, the latter version (107/027C) was used as the primary source as there is a clear progression of reworking and detail evident beginning with version A and ending with C. One obvious difference between the first edition (Hofmeister) and the present edition is the inclusion of four missing measures, m.217-220, that have been restored in this score. These measures are included in multiple versions of the manuscript, namely 107/027B and C. Editorial suggestions, such as metronome indications, are in brackets. Unless otherwise indicated, fingering and hand distribution suggestions are editorial. With some minor exceptions, pedal indications are by the composer. This is a major solo piano work from the early 20th Century that is a significant addition to the piano literature. This work demonstrates Rontgen's great artistry and expressive character and deserves a wider audience. I hope other pianists find this monumental piece important and feel compelled to perform it. � Mark Anderson

This edition marks the first publication of Rontgen's Sonata in C Minor (1911). This work was discovered while visiting the Rontgen Archives at the Netherlands Music Institute in The Hague in 2019. Being previously unpublished and unrecorded, I am grateful to Rik Hendriks at the Netherlands Music Institute for his assistance and unrestricted access to Rontgen's manuscripts. There is a single manuscript source for this work (NMI Catalogue No.107/017). It is neatly penned, and great care has been taken in it's detail. This manuscript contains no corrected notes, scratched-out errors, or pencilled-in changes. Clearly, Rontgen prepared this work for publication, but he never saw that realized. It is a single-movement sonata that should interest both pianists and musicologists. The textures, form and expressive qualities are well defined, and I believe it deserves a wider audience. I hope other pianists find the work intriguing and feel compelled to perform it. Fingering, metronome suggestions and hand re-distribution suggestions are editorial. All pedal indications are by the composer. � Mark Anderson

Over the past century or so, composers have tended to see themselves as either traditionalists or modernists. The music of Joel Feigin (born in New York in 1951) bridges both worlds, combining the resources of tonality and atonality with equal relish, naturally extending the styles of the recent past. It's freewheeling energy is often tempered by an elegant restraint, sometimes revealing the warm, humanist impulse behind his sound-world. This first volume of his piano and chamber music follows a lusty piano trio and a moving tribute to a much-missed teacher with four sets of variations, three by Feigin and one an arrangement of Bach, the composer who Feigin says is the root of all his music.