Forgotten Danish Romantic Piano Composer The composer Carl Schwarz (1803-1834) is a puzzling figure in Danish music. There are only a few composers about whom we know less. He is not mentioned in any reference book on the history of Danish music, nor in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. The all-inclusive German Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart also has nothing to say about him. It is, however, certain that he was born in Kiel, the capital of the Danish-owned duchy Holstein, in 1803. There was a considerable and fruitful exchange of knowledge between the universities in Copenhagen and Kiel, so it is hardly surprising that Carl Schwarz arrived in Copenhagen and became a pupil of Kuhlau: he and Weyse were the leading Danish composers at the beginning of the 19th century. Unfortunately, we do not know when Schwarz began to receive tuition, but given that his year of birth was 1803, it is hardly unrealistic to assume that it happened around 1820.

Domenico Scarlatti, one of the most fascinating composers of the Baroque era, was born in Naples on October 26, 1685 - the same year as J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel. He was the sixth of ten children of the famous opera composer Alessandro Scarlatti. Domenico, who showed exceptional talent at an early age, began his musical journey under the guidance of his father. He became one of the most influential composers and harpsichordists of his time. Canadian-born pianist Christyna Kaczynski-Kozel presents ten of Scarlatti's highly innovative, virtuoso and technically demanding sonatas on this album. Sometimes they are characterized by a lively and upbeat character, sometimes by a melancholy mood, sometimes they are profoundly introverted or they convey a serious lyricism and melody. Many sonatas also contain folkloristic elements such as castanets or drums, guitars and hunting horn scenes. The technical difficulties are considerable: rapid key changes, arpeggios, repeated notes, trills, plus large leaps spanning several octaves and hand-crossing.

Gramophone considered Oleg Marshev's first album of Prokofiev on Danacord (DACOCD391) as featuring 'one of the most authoritative and impassioned performances [of the First Sonata] on disc so far'. His interpretation of the 'War' Sonata trilogy was awarded a 'Classic CD Choice' and compared with pillars of the gramophone such as Richter, Berman, and Ashkenazy. Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, Oleg Marshev trained with Valentina Aristova at the Gnessin State Musical College and with Mikhail Voskresensky at the Moscow Conservatoire. He is numbered among the fifth generation of Russian pianism since Liszt, through the lineage of Alexander Siloti, Konstantin Igumnov, and Voskresensky's teacher, Lev Oborin. Resident in Italy since 1991, Marshev received awards in several international piano competitions in Canada, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and the USA, including four first prizes. He is now widely acknowledged as one of the most talented Russian pianists of his generation.

Edward Cowie is considered by many to be the greatest living composer directly inspired by the Natural World. His post-impressionist works, from the gigantic orchestral Leviathan (his first Proms commission) to his cycles of Bird Portraits and other chamber and instrumental pieces are drawing gasps of admiration from critics and audiences alike. Originally recorded for the University of Hertfordshire’s UHR label, this recording has been restored to the catalogue as part of the quickly-growing Cowie collection on Métier Records. The composer feels strongly that the individual works in the Bach ‘48’ and Debussy’s Préludes(for example) were a series of linked parts creating a greater whole. In his own ‘24’ Cowie has taken that principle but expressed it in his unique way – music that is impressionist, pictorial, descriptive and above all evocative… of place, time, flora and fauna” experiences of both natural and man-made phenomena. The Preludes follow the ‘Bach cycle of keys’ but at the same time are grouped into four books representing the ancient ‘Four Elements’.

Philip Mead studied at the Royal Academy of Music and has had a widely successful career, performing and broadcasting internationally. He had his own series on BBC Radio 3 exploring hidden pathways in piano music. A champion of contemporary composers, he founded the British Contemporary Piano Competition in 1988. He has been awarded honorary doctorates at the London College of Music and the Royal Academy and is a visiting professor of the University of Hertfordshire.

Native from Naples, Italy, pianist Lorenzo Pone lives in Salzburg and is one of the most highly acclaimed young pianists today. Having been a student of Paul Badura-Skoda's for almost a decade, he dedicates his debut album "Tribute to Paul Badura-Skoda" to this great master. Universally praised for the distinctive quality of his sound and his formidable perfectionism, Pone presents among others piano sonatas which he worked on with Badura-Skoda during the last weeks of the latter's life in 2019, among them the Sonata No. 51 by Joseph Haydn, the Grand Sonata No. 26 in A-flat major by Ludwig van Beethoven, the Piano Sonata Op. 1 No. 10 by Lodovico Giustini and the Three Nocturnes Op. 15 by Frederic Chopin. The program, which is derived from a piano recital given at the Teatro di San Carlo of Naples in honor of Badura-Skoda in October, 2019, closes off with three pieces of Claude Debussy's Preludes: Minstrels, La fille aux cheveux de lin and La Puerta del Vino.

Korusa (Sujung Cho and Jacob Clark, piano) perform the Complete Piano Duets by Beethoven. This is great Beethoven literature that is heard far too infrequently, here presented in superb performances.

Pianist Mira Gill is of East-Indian descent. Born in Salt Lake City, she is now based in New York City. The piano works of Samuel Barber are a specialty of hers, and it shows in these superb performances.

Métier presents a landmark 4-disc box set from pianist Ian Pace in commanding performances of music by composer Michael Finnissy (b. 1946). Finnissy is widely regarded as one of Britain's most important living composers. Pace, one of the leading interpreters of Finnissy's work, presents an album focused around Finnissy's epic cycle for piano, The Verdi Transcriptions, alongside the second complete recording (after the composer's own) of the iconic English Country-Tunes, and works inspired by music of the late-18th and 19th centuries. The result is a broad view of Finnissy's extensive output of piano music in relation to Romantic aesthetics. The album is released in anticipation of the Métier label's upcoming celebrations of Michael Finnissy's 80th birthday in 2026. Finnissy's four-book cycle of Verdi Transcriptions reimagines Verdi's operas through a modern lens. As Finnissy states in his liner notes: "Transcribing sound into a written form (notation) involves making significant choices. The choices can color the ongoing exploration of that sound as 'composition.'" The result of those choices is a monumental, late-Romantic epic. Finnissy's English Country-Tunes has long been considered one of his signature and most technically demanding cycles. There is a similar line of composition through transcription as The Verdi Transcriptions, only in these works the source material is English folk music. Written in celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee, the work can also be seen as a commentary on the spirit of British patriotism at the time. Ian Pace's readings reflect decades of study: he first performed English Country-Tunes in the 1990s and has played Finnissy's complete piano oeuvre in cycles (1996 and 2016). The set includes extensive liner notes by both Pace and Finnissy, offering rare insight into the compositional ideas and performance choices behind these demanding works. In Pace's recording of Michael Finnissy's other epic piano cycle, The History of Photography in Sound (MSV 77501), BBC Music raved: "Pace's intimate acquaintance with the totality of History is apparent in his commanding performance... this is a magnificent achievement for both composer and performer," and Gramophone hailed Pace as "Finnissy's David Bailey, each note shaded to perfection, structures translucently and sharply lit, defining sonic images of our time." Incomparable virtuoso, called the Paganini of the harp, Félix Godefroid was also a composer and teacher. This recording, performed by Sophie Hallynck, highlights the composer's studies in high virtuosity. Designed for his own use and that of professionals, they partake of both "absolute music" - as with the deservedly famous Étude in B-Flat Minor, Op. 193 - and the character piece, picturesque or sentimental. These musical miniatures are pieces overflowing with musicality in a refined style, but they express a pedagogical program first and foremost. Godefroid conceived of his études as a true school for harpists. Each technical problem becomes the medium for a musical expression - an approach that gives these études exceptional richness and relevance. Often based on one of those melodies for which Godefroid had such a knack, each one is set apart by a strongly marked expressive character, ranging from laughter to tears, as well as by it's structure, rhythm, novel sonorities, and harmonic surprises not lacking in audacity. Sophie Hallynck has risen to the technical challenges specific to each étude while staying faithful to the spirit of the era, with the aspiration to achieve a subtle balance between virtuosity and expression. Her essential objective has always been to make technique live through music, without ever obscuring that emotion that emanates from it. Shostakovich composed music for film throughout his life, from his teenage years as a pianist accompanying silent films in Leningrad until the early 1970s. New Babylon provoked a political and artistic storm upon it's release in 1929 but remains one of Shostakovich's finest film scores, performed here complete and uncut. Popular favorites The Gadfly and Hamlet are heard in premiere recordings of the complete scores. Also included is the music for Alone, The Girlfriends, Love and Hate, and The Fall of Berlin in premiere recordings that have garnered international critical acclaim. "This composer of the New Complexity movement admires avant-jazz. He also digs 19th-century classics. So, when adapting Verdi, he does it via the spirit of Cecil Taylor. Near the midpoint of Finnissy's "La Traviata" potpourri, you'll find dense fireworks as well as tenderness deriving from a motif Verdi once assigned to Violetta." - Seth Colter Walls, NYT

In 2014, the Museum Kleines Klingental in Basel presented the exhibition "Hans Huber and Basel's musical life around 1900". In 2015, the exhibition provided the impetus for the founding of the concert series "Basel composes" at the Museum Kleines Klingental. The idea was to create a platform for chamber music by composers who were born, lived or worked in Basel. Since then, numerous ensembles have performed works by well-known, unknown and forgotten composers from Basel. At the centre of this anniversary recording are compositions by Hans Huber, which were the starting point of the concert series, played by Andrea Wiesli, who has been particularly committed to promoting Basel's musical culture in the Klingental with the Trio Fontane. On the occasion of the exhibition, a concert series was organised as part of the accompanying programme with music by Hans Huber, by composers who influenced his music or were his pupils and friends. To realise this chamber music series, the Museum Kleines Klingental, advised by the pianist Andrea Wiesli, decided to acquire a historical Bluthner grand piano from around 1875. The Museum Kleines Klingental is located in the founding building of the Klingental Dominican convent dating from 1274. In 1929, the Cantonal Monument Preservation Office moved into the former convent. It founded the Museum Kleines Klingental in 1939. The large refectory, the former convent kitchen, the small refectory as well as the "Schaffnei" and the roof truss from the construction period of 1274 are particularly impressive.

Based in the Philadelphia area, James Freeman has a long reputation as a superb pianist and conductor. Here he plays a great program of works by Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, and Debussy.

In May 2026, Metier Records proudly presents American Ethos from acclaimed pianist Carolyn Enger, a stunning collection of works from a range of American composers, including Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, John Corigliano, Ned Rorem, William Grant Still, Florence Price, and many others. Released in time for the celebration of the 250th anniversary of America's Declaration of Independence, Carolyn Enger poses the question of how to characterise American composition over so many years and throughout times of such sharp division. How can a musical 'Ethos' be encompassed in all it's various styles, sentiments, and beliefs? "I wanted to have a broad feeling of Americana," Enger explains. "Voices that have been overlooked over the years then come to light because they influenced voices that we're very familiar with." Enger has long been a champion of the piano music of Ned Rorem, and American Ethos centers his work, The Wind Remains, alongside three selections from Soundpoints, each a brief moment of distilled emotion. Rorem then stands as a starting point for connecting Enger's vision of American composition threads. Contemporary composer Daron Hagen was Rorem's first student, and we hear his Five Nocturnes, telling of a family setting down for the night. Rorem's roots in American music go deep as well, having studied with composer Margaret Bonds, who was herself a student and friend of composer Florence Price. Enger presents the African-American sacred music traditions behind Florence Price's Adoration. Price influenced many American composers beyond Bonds and Rorem, including William Grant Still. Price's influence on Grant Still is easily heard in his evocation of the divine in Seven Traceries: A Suite for Solo Piano, of which Enger plays four. Perhaps one of the most famous of American voices is Leonard Bernstein, who spoke about the healing power of music as a response to violence, and several works in this collection connect to him. His Thirteen Anniversaries, by turn tender and whimsical, celebrates 13 family members, friends, and colleagues. One of these is composer Craig Urquhart, a former assistant, represented here by The Awakening, Urquhart's birthday offering to Bernstein, and Adieu, which followed the global pandemic and 2020 political upheavals. John Corigliano's An Anniversary for Lenny is an affectionate remembrance for a 2016 Bernstein centennial celebration, and Aaron Copland's 'Our Town' Three Piano Excerpts is similarly dedicated to Bernstein. Completing Enger's vision of a comprehensive, inclusive American ethos is 'The Vastland' from Under the Blue Dome by San Francisco-based composer of Native American descent JJ Hollingsworth, conjuring the Colorado plains, and Margaret Ruthven Lang's Twilight, the first woman to have a work performed by a major American orchestra. New York City-based writer and editor Steve Smith says in his excellent booklet notes: "What emerges in this collection of disparate yet interconnected lives and works is a patchwork quilt of individual voices, perspectives, and aspirations, woven together to form a more perfect union stronger than it's parts. The music they made, informed by shared stories and songs, brings to life the sky, stone, sinew, steel, and sentiment that make up this nation - an American ethos, expressed in sound". Internationally celebrated American pianist Carolyn Enger has gained critical acclaim for her exquisite lyrical playing and her deeply felt interpretations, with many performances across the United States and Europe. Her 2013 recording of Ned Rorem: Piano Album I was on The New York Times Best of Classical list that year, and her recent Metier recording Resonating Earth, an artistic response to the contemporary climate crisis, received glowing praise: "a thoughtful programme. Enthralling" (Nigel Simeone, International Piano). Ms Enger studied at the Manhattan School of Music and is a Steinway Performing and Recording Artist.

In the 1950s, American composer Morton Feldman (1926-1987) developed his own unique, meditative style of music, combining open, quasi-functional sounds into a musical flow. His works generally do not follow any formal concept; they are slow, calm, sometimes very extended sound meditations, mostly moving in the finest piano-pianissimo nuances. With these recordings made at the Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne, the participating artists present the first complete recording of all of Feldman's piano works for more than two hands. The piano duo elaeis - Jovita Zähl and Philipp Kronbichler - collaborated with other pianists and singers. The recordings include several first recordings, such as Pianos and Voices, recorded for the first time on five grand pianos with five sopranos, and the recently discovered Trio for Two Pianos and Cello with Rohan de Saram, long-time member of the Arditti Quartet, playing the violoncello. The fame of Feldman's late work temporarily overshadowed our appreciation of his earlier compositions, the importance of which is amply demonstrated in this album. - A magnificent release to mark the composer's 100th birthday!

This album, Throwback to Dance, explores how composers turn to dance forms to carve out new paths: predominantly court dances, folk dances but also the more 'modern' waltz. The album is inspired by the charming meeting between Ravel and Grieg back in 1894, and looks at Grieg's influence on Ravel, seldom documented, as well as that on Pejacevic and Chaminade.

Heinz Holliger, an exceptional oboist, pianist, and composer, did not compose anything for piano for almost 40 years after his 1961 work "Elis - Three Nocturnes". A whole series of musical tributes and birthday greetings composed since the beginning of the 21st century was then published in 2019 under the Schumannesque title "Albumblatter" (Album Leaves) and has now been recorded in it's entirety for the first time by Kirill Zvegintsov. These are typically Holligerian, highly intricate showpieces with many references, which are expertly explained in the album essay. These works are combined with early and late piano works by the Swiss composer and pianist Jurg Wyttenbach, who died in 2021 and had a close musical relationship with Holliger. In the last years of his life, this expert in New Music took on the daring task of completing Beethoven's sketches for an alternative third movement for his Piano Sonata Op. 109 - an undertaking that only such a skilled pianist and composer could attempt. In the last days of his life, Wyttenbach was able to listen to the premiere of this reconstruction by Zvegintsov. The Ukrainian pianist combines and contrasts this experiment with the original modern works in a very stimulating way.

At the same time as (and independently of) Arnold Schönberg, Josef Matthias Hauer developed a very individual system for twelve-tone composition. The works of the two Austrians could not be more different, as Steffen Schleiermacher has impressively documented in several album productions. Now the versatile pianist has addressed Hauer's earliest works, providing an exciting insight into an important chapter of 20th-century music history. Hauer calls his opus 1 "Nomos", which implies a great claim: like a law of nature, this composition already contains everything that makes up music - new works are only further elaborations. Of course, the public at the time could not follow Hauer in this: the premiere of the orchestral version did not even take place until 30 years after Hauer's death. Of the few works by Hauer that make it onto today's program from time to time, the "Nachklangstudien", which in their delicate texture develop a very special aura, are probably the best known. Quite different are the "Five Little Pieces" from the same year, which, with their reminiscences of Max Reger and other late Romantic contrapuntalists, seem almost traditional. The cycle "Music-Film" is downright enigmatic. The 21 character pieces have programmatic titles, as if they were meant to illustrate a silent movie - or are they even a parody of this genre? In any case, Hauer actually wanted to publish the collection under a pseudonym. And indeed, the pieces have nothing in common with Hauer's other tonal language. Steffen Schleiermacher, however, approaches this work with the same seriousness as he does the other pieces, and he succeeds in a fascinating rehabilitation for someone who has been unjustly almost completely forgotten.

John Cage's importance for a comprehensive aesthetic reorientation of New Music after the Second World War can hardly be overestimated. His self-discovery and compositional articulation took place particularly in the field of piano music: in the art-merging experimental laboratory of New York around the dancer Merce Cunningham, the painter Robert Rauschenberg and the congenial performer and pianist David Tudor. It is good fortune that Sabine Liebner, who has already released several internationally acclaimed, award-winning albums with WERGO, has thrown herself into the complex pianistic and artistic demands of interpreting another of Cage's great works. The result is the first recording of the complete "Winter Music" for one pianist: all notated events (aggregates) from each of the 20 unnumbered pages are played consecutively. The additional, fascinating expansion of the sound space through "harmonics" - overtone vibrations - creates a very differentiated sounding, kaleidoscope-like music of surprisingly idiosyncratic beauty. Dedicated to the artists Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, "Winter Music" calls for a new way of listening: listening to sound with crystalline clarity and permanent change both inside and outside the sound. This integral recording, which is set against the tide of a strongly event-driven cultural life, represents a milestone and point of reference for the further impact of "Winter Music"!

The album "Inner Spaces" is the third album of the Istanbul-born pianist Serra Tavsanli. With great certainty one can claim that it is her most personal album. With the works by Johann Sebastian Bach recorded here, she not only presents a masterful interpretation on a modern grand piano, but also connects the music with her own history and origins. In doing so, she reveals her innermost self and provides insight into very personal spaces of thought.

Based on the initials B A C H, Serra Tavsanli has selected the pieces that match the key. Even more, because in the album's booklet she writes: "Pieces that for me stand for different concepts that make up being human and play a role in all traditions and religions. B (Partita in B flat major) symbolizes faith; A (Partita in A minor) stands for hope. C (Toccata in C minor) represents love. B (French Overture in B minor) symbolizes our present. With this selection, the pianist takes her audience directly into her emotional worlds, into her "Inner Spaces".

Serra Tavsanli has ventured deeply into the world of Bach and is completely absorbed in it while playing. In a certain way, she also intentionally makes herself vulnerable. Her playing is narrative, it opens up associative spaces and is at the same time effortless, yet completely uncompromising. In the booklet she writes: "I was suddenly there, where everything succeeds, where it is safe and free. A place that is accessible to everyone, and where origin, religion, skin color or gender no longer play a role. A place where we are not alone." Serra Tavsanli decided to share her insights and experiences, which made her become an exceptional pianist, with her audience. At concerts, she likes to recite texts that she wrote in collaboration with cultural manager and Bach specialist Folkert Uhde to give the works even more context, but also to bring them into our time.

"As an artist, I want to open this place to everyone, to share with anyone and everyone the experience that fear becomes strength, that paralysis becomes strength. A place of hope, of freedom, of doing well. A place where no one is excluded," Serra Tavsanli describes her concern. With this recording, she will certainly succeed in this.

A Symphony of the Earth in Three Movements Discover the arresting new album of piano sonatas by Edward Cowie, one of today's foremost composers inspired by the natural world. Performed by the virtuosic Roderick Chadwick, this album marks the 14th release of Cowie's works on the Metier label, further solidifying his legacy as a composer whose music bridges art, science, and nature. This trilogy of sonatas-Igneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic-draws directly from the geological processes that shape our planet. Each work is both an independent exploration and part of a greater whole, mirroring the classical sonata cycle in an ambitious and deeply evocative form. ·Sonata No. 1: Igneous unleashes fiery, volcanic energy, portraying the birth of rocks through explosive eruptions and flowing magma. It's sonic landscape is alive with tension, turbulence, and ultimately, moments of stillness in the aftermath of volcanic forces. ·Sonata No. 2: Sedimentary explores the layering and transformation of rock through aeons of deposition, folding, and fracturing. Alternating between serenity and upheaval, the work reflects the dynamic balance of nature's processes. ·Sonata No. 3: Metamorphic, the most expansive and virtuosic of the set, culminates the cycle. It's theme and variations evoke the transformative forces of heat and pressure, blending echoes of the previous sonatas into a profound and unified conclusion. Pianist Roderick Chadwick's interpretation captures the elemental power and intricate detail of Cowie's vision, bringing each sonata to life with extraordinary sensitivity and technical mastery. With influences ranging from Beethoven's late sonatas to the intricate patterns of the natural world, Cowie's music transcends genres, offering listeners a unique and transformative experience. This album is not just a collection of sonatas; it is an odyssey through the earth's geological heart, celebrating the interplay of form, motion, and metamorphosis. Rock Music is a testament to Cowie's genius and Chadwick's exceptional artistry. Essential listening for fans of contemporary classical music.

Martines: The Complete Keyboard Works presents the first complete modern recording of the surviving keyboard music of Marianna Martines (1744-1812), a composer, keyboard virtuoso, and cultural force in eighteenth-century Viennese musical life. Admired in her lifetime for her brilliance as both performer and composer, Martines occupied a central position within the city's elite musical circles, yet her instrumental music has remained largely absent from the recorded canon. Led by conductor Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey, with pianist Idith Meshulam Korman and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, this release brings together Martines's four surviving keyboard concertos, three sonatas, and her Sinfonia in C major, recorded from newly prepared critical editions. The works reveal a composer writing ambitiously for public performance, combining lyrical vocal writing with striking technical demands, orchestral imagination, and playful formal subversion. Conceived as a major interpretative and restorative project, this release restores Martines's keyboard music to the Classical canon as a vital and compelling body of work.

This album presents pianist Marilyn Nonken's third exploration of spectral piano music for the Metier label, highlighting her interpretation of the piano works of Hugues Dufourt. Recorded in the distinctive acoustics of the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in New York, the album's setting-a Beaux Arts building with a grand but worn character-perfectly complements Dufourt's music, which is richly rooted in resonance, architecture, and connections across artistic eras. The hall's unique acoustics blend clarity with warmth, creating an almost ethereal depth that enhances spectral music's unique qualities. Hugues Dufourt, a foundational figure of the French spectral school, draws inspiration from art, architecture, and philosophy, delving into sound as a physical and psychological experience. Rather than adhering strictly to the structural dictates of high modernism, Dufourt's spectral approach sculpts sound to create space for gesture, timbre, and nuance. This album brings Dufourt's techniques to life, capturing his philosophy that composing is akin to "sculpting a block of sound," as noted by his colleague Tristan Murail. In works like An Schwager Kronos and Meeresstille, Dufourt conjures an evocative atmosphere through rhythmic precision and arresting sonorities. An Schwager Kronos echoes Goethe's depiction of time as an insistent coachman, with Nonken's dynamic control and deft pedaling driving a haunting, layered progression. Meeresstille captures the stillness of a calm sea with shimmering overtones, restless beneath the surface, nodding toward Goethe's "monstrous breadth." Dufourt's ensemble piece l'Origine du monde reflects his fascination with the piano's resonance alongside other instruments, broadening it's sonic palette with orchestral textures. Through spectral techniques, Dufourt's orchestrations amplify the piano's overtones, blending them with percussion and microtonal elements to achieve a "near-elastic" resonance. Nonken's profound grasp of spectralism, displayed on her earlier Metier albums, elevates her performances here. Her touch and phrasing reveal Dufourt's desire to transcend traditional confines of modern piano music. In Rastlose Liebe, Nonken interprets Schubertian influences with modern intensity, while Tombeau de Debussy serves as a contemplative homage to Debussy's legacy. With this third album, Nonken offers an exciting addition to the spectral repertoire, inviting listeners to experience the piano as both instrument and resonant space, rich with historical echoes and artistic depth.

Deutscher Schallplattenpreis - The jury's statement: "Comprehensive and highly "Comprehensive and interpretatively high-ranking insight into the central creative field of an unjustly forgotten composer of the Schonberg generation, who stood in the Reger tradition and continued it not without a pronounced will to experiment. The edition of a young label enriches the record repertoire in an exemplary way and has a high information value." (Orgelwerke); "Excellent performance." (American Record Guide)

After completing his Goyescas, the pianist and composer Enrique Granados wrote that he had happily succeeded in "writing something significant". And who would want to contradict him? The six scenes, some of them very extensive, are based on drawings by the great Spanish artist Francisco Jose de Goya. They form a cycle that is glowing with inspiration from the first to the last bar, and whose technical difficulties achieve the kind of transcendence that Franz Liszt in particular had achieved in the 19th century. His technical prowess is entirely devoted to picturesque and highly emotional expression, from humorous whimsy to the most grave of tragedies. The young Dina Stojilkovic has recorded Goyescas for cpo on a Steinway B built in 1895, an instrument that Granados might well have had under his virtuoso fingers at the time.

His 17th album with Signum Classics, the Welsh pianist, Llyr Williams, brings a profound musical intelligence to his work as soloist, accompanist and chamber musician. His second album of Robert Schumann works explores a selection of works that span a substantial part of Schumann's life. Llyr Williams' long and successful collaboration with Signum Records includes the 8-disc box-set 'A Schubert Journey' (2020), the 12-volume 'Beethoven Unbound' (2018), a 'Wagner Without Words' double album (2014) and highlights from Liszt's 'Annees de pelerinage' (2012).

A musical journey, James W. Iman's latest album, IMAN II, is a stunning blend of Classical and contemporary piano compositions that will leave you spellbound. Four years in the making, this album is the culmination of Iman's passion for Debussy and Donald Martino, as well as his permiere of work from composer and sound designer, Jenny Beck. Iman's masterful interpretations of Martino's Fantasies and Impromptus are nothing short of awe-inspiring, and his renditions of Debussy's works provide the perfect contrast, bringing together the past and present in a way that is both exciting and unique. But it is Beck's electrifying compositions that truly set this album apart.

Iman says, "I have played Stand Still Here more times than any other work in my repertoire. Each of the five pieces that comprise the work are brief–the longest is four minutes–but Jenny Beck achieves a depth of introspection and emotional sweep that is absolutely magnetic.” What makes Beck's work so remarkable is the way she achieves such depth and complexity with seemingly simple motives and harmonies. The pieces on this album hover and linger, creating a hypnotic and immersive listening experience that is nothing short of miraculous. Iman's passion and dedication to this project are evident in every note he plays. He has crafted a captivating album that showcases his skill as a pianist and his ability to bring together the best of the past and present in a way that is fresh, exciting, and deeply moving.

SOMM Recordings highlights the pianistic mastery of Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963) with a release of extraordinary historic recordings including two of his four major concertante works and selected solo piano pieces. To mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Erik Satie (1866 - 1925), this recording also features Poulenc performing piano gems by Satie, whose distaste for academic routine and Romanticism had a profound influence on Poulenc and the other members of the ad hoc music group, Les Six. These performances, ranging from 1930 to 1950, have been brilliantly remastered by long-time SOMM collaborator, Lani Spahr, about whose work Gramophone has said, "There are historic releases that make the grade because they are just that - 'historic' - and there are releases that make history because they are musically overwhelming." This release opens with Poulenc's Concerto in D minor for two pianos and orchestra, commissioned by American-born heiress Princess Edmond de Polignac specifically to be premiered by the composer and his friend, Jacques Fevrier, at the International Festival of Contemporary Music in Venice in 1932. The vibrant colouration inherent in the piece was inspired by Balinese musicians whom Poulenc had heard at the Paris Colonial Exhibition of 1931. The performance heard here with Georges Pretre conducting the Orchestre National de France was recorded the year before Poulenc's sudden death, and again pairs Poulenc and Fevrier, thirty years after they created the world premiere. While on tour in New York during the winter of 1949 /1950, Poulenc recorded selections of his piano music along with twelve of his favourite compositions by Erik Satie. Poulenc's own music ranges from his earliest works, Trois mouvements perpetuelles, to the C major Nocturne from a set of eight, and the neo-classical Suite francaise of 1935-a homage to his 16th century compatriot, Claude Gervaise. Erik Satie was not as gifted a pianist as Poulenc, and his technical limitations largely confined his output to the shorter forms, particularly for piano, where his singular creative genius shone at it's brightest. Amongst some of Satie's deliberately absurd titles-like "Tyrolean Turk" and "Skinny Dance"-Poulenc also chose to record one each of Satie's exquisitely crafted Gymnopedie and Gnossienne. Aubade (Morning Song), a 1929 concerto for piano and chamber orchestra of eighteen instruments, is the final work on this release. It exists as both a Concerto choreographique, based on the Roman myth of the virgin huntress Diana, and also a concert version, as heard here. The positive response to Aubade led to a commercial recording with the Orchestre Straram conducted by Walther Straram, the 78rpm discs capturing Poulenc's only recording of this work.