Pianist Oleg Maisenberg, by now 78 years old, looks back on an impressive worldwide career. On the present album he is accompanied by Adam Fisher...

Pianist Oleg Maisenberg, by now 78 years old, looks back on an impressive worldwide career. On the present album he is accompanied by Adam Fisher – not any less successful – and the former SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden and Freiburg. Maisenberg performs Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor, one of the few compositions in which the Norwegian composer approaches large-size works. Though the concerto includes intentional references to Norwegian folk music, the close connection to German Romanticism manifests itself in it as well and the undeniable parallels to Robert Schumann’s piano concerto are quite visible. The demands of Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy, the second monumental work on this album, regarding playing skills and technique are enormous so that this work has always been one of the showpieces of the repertoire for solo piano. “Just let the devil play that stuff”, Schubert himself allegedly once said. The virtuoso quality of the piece was certainly the reason why Franz Liszt was so enthusiastic about it.